All small companies need cash and ideally that will be spent on adding value to the business rather than just to cover its running costs.

AIM-listed Eddie Stobart Logistics  (ESL) was spun out of Stobart Group (STOB) is, of course, a Woodford Dog – Neil holds about 23% of the stock. When the shares were suspended last month in the wake of an accounting scandal because the interims would be delayed, we were told that the numbers would appear in early September. Well, they haven’t appeared and the next opportunity for release falls on Monday – the sixteenth of the month. According to my maths, that will therefore be the second half of September. Where are the numbers?

Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles. 

I have commented on I3Energy (I3E) over the last few days concluding this company is uninvestable and noting the company Nomad seems to agree with me. After market close on Friday the company PR man issued an e-mail update to some shareholders. It confirms my thinking. This company is utterly uninvestable at best.

This has nothing to do with shares or investing or anything. It's the end of the weekend and we've organised a quick pub quiz. Grab your own beer, there are no prizes, and for Pete's sake, no Googleing! Only I get to do that.

Tom Winnifrith has already covered Neil Woodford’s crown jewel turned liability Oxford Nanaopore and its latest set of results in today’s Bearcast. But I have a few points to add of my own, and it seems that Oxford has a few problems in the US Courts to deal with next March. Oh dear…..

Right now, we're number seven by GDP in the world economy leaderboard. By 2030, we'll be far down the list and number seven will be taken by Egypt. This is a prevocative prediction for only 11 years.

On the surface, Neil Woodford has had quite a good week. Well, apart from the after-hours shock of another write-down in an un-named asset held by WPCT (and presumably his Equity Income Fund, WEIF). Not to mention grim results from Oxford Nanopore snuck out yesterday and the continued suspension of Eddie Stobart (ESL). And not forgetting the additional £12.5 million he has had to find from WEIF for the totally illiquid, unprofitable, non-dividend-paying Rutherford Health (RUTH, formerly Proton Partners) when he is supposed to be repositioning WEIF towards FTSE100 stocks. And we are yet to hear from Verseon (VERS) and Xeros (XSG) in relation to how funding rounds are going. No, apart from all that, he’s had a good week – relatively speaking.

Since they were launched by the John Major government in 1995, Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), which are closed end investment trusts that provide finance for small and growing unquoted UK companies, and which are listed on the main market, have given investors a bumpy ride. The tax breaks remain generous, albeit not as generous as they were initially, and some of the now-established generalist ones have provided and continue to provide investors with a steady income from tax-free dividends with relatively low risk, whilst most of the worst ones have fallen by the wayside, taking a large chunk of investors’ money with them. I remain, broadly, a fan but there are still some appalling examples of around.

Oxford Nanopore is the flagship unquoted in the Neil Woodford portfolio both at EIF and WPCT. Yesterdaty it snuck out red flag strewn results and on a number of counts this looks utterly grim for Nomates.

I despair at the stupidity of some investors. I detailed earlier a series of threatening and frankly idiotic tweets from Iconic (ICON) shareholders to me encouraging me to stop doing my job, with threats and abuse. But one moron stands out for his stupidity.

I like Jordan Roy-Byrne’s analysis – even though he’s a technical analyst. Part of that is because he doesn’t draw magic squiggly lines and predict what the CEO of a company will have for breakfast next Tuesday. Part of it, however, is that he’s not just a technical analyst – he learns from history too (something I wish the great and the good at Westminster would follow), and looks at fundamentals too. So with all the gold so-called experts seemingly in mega-bull mode (and we’ve featured a good many on ShareProphets), for balance I thought I would share some of his thinking, because he’s no bull right now – although be in no doubt, he is in the longer term.

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2018 and thus far in 2019 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2019) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

Anyone who owns shares in a company that tells demonstrable porkies, via RNS, is by definition a moron. And, after events this week, that clearly includes shareholders in Iconic Labs (ICON). But they do not like the demonstrable falings of Iconic being pointed out to them and a small band of lunatics have taken to twitter to attack me.

Previously writing on Tex Holdings (TXH), in April I noted from two weeks ago bank covenants breach partially caused by accounting change… to now, no it isn’t!. Now a Friday 2:23pm “Prop Related Party Transaction Transfer of Listing” announcement. Hmmm…

I’ve already waved bye-bye to Haydale (HAYD) when it collapsed earlier this year on a massively discounted rescue refinancing – as long predicted by yours truly – saw me call it a win. Now it seems that Walcom (WALG) is finally heading for the corporate knackers’ yard next month, unless some miracle happens and the shares are down to just 0.25p. That will be two out of five if/when (with emphasis on the when) it happens. All hail the ShareProphets AIM-China Filthy Forty, from where it made this year’s sell list.

Hello, Share Smackers. Keeping a careful watch on your shares is a complete waste of time. Yes, I know a lot of folks will throw their hands up in horror at this view. Most serious analysts stress that we should keep all our companies under constant review.

Writing on self-styled “pioneer in solid-state battery technology” Ilika (IKA) earlier this week I noted more ramptastic stuff from long-time loss-making Purdy & the bonus people. Now a “Bonus Share Options, Exercise of Options & TVR” announcement. Who are these ‘bonus share options’ for then?...

So much for the #BoycottWetherspoon campaign. Its value pricing and support for British products and democracy are serving it well. Full Year numbers out today impressed (despite the Boycott campaign sales went up by 7.4%). And chairman Tim Martin again stepped up to the plate and is our hero of the day for sticking it to the elitists who wish to block Brexit because they know better than we dirty 17.4 million plebs. The great man, Tim, opines:  

As it is a Friday, a short quiz. How many of the following do you recognise: 'Teksta, Chill Factor, The Zelfs, Doctor Who, Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam, Postman Pat'? If you got more than four...then clearly you have a young child in the house as these are some of the key brands for toys company Character Group (CCT)…