In this week’s article, we review five key trading updates made in November so far, and analyse how brokers and tipsters have interpreted the most recent figures.

Having warned repeatedly on this website that AIM-listed Haydale (HAYD) was in trouble and that the shares were a sell all the way down from 78p only in June of this year (and steered a wide berth at 120p in October last year), yesterday the shares crashed to just 14p last seen – a fall of 40% on the day. This follows a Financing Update which is a calamity in every way.

Hello Share Trustees. The Footsie was around 7,800 in the summer. It’s now between 7,100 and 7,200. On paper, most of us have lost big money. Though if you are using this wondrous website you will, like me, have a few penny shares in your bag. And if your choice was anything like mine then you may have had some big successes in this shaky period for the Footsie giants.

An announcement from AO World (AO.) that it is “to acquire Mobile Phones Direct”, with AO CEO Steve Caunce arguing “this deal represents a significant step forward in our strategy of developing our growing range of online electricals and adding new complementary categories that customers want and expect from AO”. The shares have responded… currently more than 7% lower, to around 125p. Hmmm…

In June of last year I noted on Flowgroup (FLOW) from “actively pursuing” sale to that business being the “primary focus” of the company in just a few months. That business was Flow Energy (residential gas and electricity supply)… and at the start of May this year it was “Completion of the sale of Flow Energy”!...

It gets worse and worse for MySquar (MYSQ) a company that I have been openly accusing of fraud for more than a year. On Monday it partially ‘fessed up. Today it got worse.

The board of mobile content licenser and distributor Mobile Streams (MOS) “is pleased to present its audited accounts for the financial year ended 30 June 2018”. The shares have responded..., er, currently approaching 25% lower, to 0.70p!...

I don't normally take broker research seriously but a) Galantas (GAL) operates in Ulster so I am biased in its favour and b) analyst Roger Bade at Whitman Howard is no fool. He reckons Galantas at 6p is worth 17.3p per share. The market cap today is £12 million but Bade explains why by 2020 the company could be generating £8 million of cashflow and by 2023 that could be £13 million and that is on uber-cautious gold price assumptions. The note (below) is very much worth a read.

In today's podcast I look again at yellow journalism re Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) as covered HERE and the MySquar (MYSQ) fraud. The corrupt deadwood press is part of the problem not the solution. I cover the latest news from MySquar in case I don't have time for a dedicated article. Today is a Joshua day but I hope to write as he takes a nap. I  also look at Mirriad (MIRI), Mosman Oil & Gas (MSMN) anmd Haydale Graphene (HAYD) whose news today means that Nigel Somerville will have enjoyed ouzo on his breakflast cornflakes.

The PR machine of Neil Woodford got its pliant servants at the Daily Mail and elsewhere in the corrupt deadwood press to make great play about how the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) was about to go into the FTSE 250 Index so meaning that Index funds would have to buy the shares so the share price would go up. Uh Oh! Late last night came an announcement from the LSE:

The trading statement from Purplebricks (PURP), as I rather suspected, was a little short on detail and the word “profit” did not appear once...

Having been slumping at the time of my previous update at the end of last month, shares in Ascent Resources (AST) have recently nudged higher, with the company having made “Posting of Circular and Notice of General Meeting” and “Corporate Update” announcements…

Hello Share Bashers. Though still holding shares in Tesco (TSCO) and Morrison (MRW), I’d rather I didn’t. Only inertia is keeping these unexciting shares in my bag. Yes, the share prices are generally on the upward march, but progress is oh, so slow.

I hinted at the short case for Accesso Technology (ACSO) a few weeks ago HERE. What follows is a far, far more detailed proposition as to why this stock is grotesquely overvalued. At 1,880p, the market cap is £512 million...

Reading the interims of First Derivatives (FDP), purveyors of smoke and mirrors to the gullible analyst community, the questions continue to stack up. 

Westminster Group (WSG) “is pleased to announce the acquisition of security and risk management company Keyguard UK Ltd”. But wait a minute; isn’t Westminster itself short of cash?...

As BBC license fee payers, you will be truly delighted to see how the vast pay cheque given to Gary Lineker is being spent. You may remember that the crisp salesman was appointed as brand ambassador to Ingenie, part of the Quindell (QPP) fraud, now under SFO investigation as the UK’s largest stockmarket swindle for 30 years. Lineker was given millions of pounds of free shares in Quindell which he sold onto poor investors who lost almost everything - having said he'd be a buyer. Well it worked before…

I address issues raised by poltroons about yesterday';s bearcast and our new investment. I look at some awful yellow journalism at the Evening Standard regarding oily Piers Pottinger and the MySquar (MYSQ) fraud which demonstrates again why the dying deadwood press are part of the problem not the solution. I look at Amur Minerals (AMC) which is in VERY big trouble, I suggest. And also at Avanti Communications (AVN), Totally (TLY) and Venn Life (VENN). The big short dossier articler is on the runway and I should publish it very soon.

On the face of it I can see why some investors have been drawn to Cradle Arc (CRA), as it is actually producing copper and has a market cap of just £2.5 million, but there could well be good reason for its shares appearing to be cheap.

We have news this morning of Q3 numbers from Norwegian biometrics play Idex (OSE:IDEX). No doubt Neil Woodford’s team will extoll the virtues of the progress being made here, but I can’t help myself: look at the cash position!