First things first - we have almost raised the £2,500 needed for the Woodlarks Christmas grotto. I am sure you can spare a fiver to get us over the line HERE. Secondly, I am in London tomorrow and on the warpath and hope to see many of you HERE.  I was distracted today doing a radio interview with my friend and hero the great Kelvin McKenzie of "gotcha!" fame. That covered Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) and fraud and I continue with that theme. I also look at Superdry (SDRY), First Derivatives (FDP), Frontera (FRR) and Purplebricks (PURP). 

I doubt that there was the slightest sense of embarrassment at last week’s AIM awards (a ghastly sounding knees up for the world’s seediest stock market) when First Derivatives (FDP) picked up two gongs: Best Technology award for the company itself and Entrepreneur of the Year Award for its founder and CEO Brian Conlon. Presumably these awards were decided well before First’s price tanked amid some serious concerns being raised and the organisers, in true AIM style, were too gormless to think on their feet and give them out to a less dodgy enterprise.

Marketing services group System1 (SYS1) has updated including “underlying H1 pre-tax profits, pre-Ad Ratings and share based payments, are expected to be around £1.9m, some 73% above the £1.1m achieved in H1 2017/18”. Having decreased steadily to around 200p, why are the shares not now though responding positively?...

The fools who own shares in this company and post on the LSE & ADVFN Asylums just do not realise what a mess Frontera Resources (FRR) is in. I explained earlier how this could be a zero HERE. Now we have the take of the City's No 1 oil analyst Zac "the knife" Phillips of SP Angel. Over to the great man...

Bear analysts Boatman Capital made the schoolboy error of leaking part of its report to the Sunday Times. The deadwood press is part of the problem not the solution. Thus the Sunset Times scuttled off to Babcock (BAB) allowing the company to spin its side and the paper to run a piece slating the bear commentary.  Such is the sordid state of financial journalism in Britain today. Anyhow for what it is worth the full report is now out and Babcock shares are starting to slide despite the company’s spinning c/o the deadwood press…

Charlie Wood the interim CEO at Mayan Energy (MYN) managed to cling onto his role at last Thursday's GM despite the very serious evidence of a massive COI over the Deloro deal which saw his wife get almost free shares in Deloro while Mayan provided most of its funding. So how on earth did Wood win the vote. Richard Jennings of Align, Wood's bete noire, makes some observations:

I cannot really call it the luck of the Irish but sandwich supremo Greencore (GNC) seems to have got itself out of a potential hole with the announcement today that it is selling its entire US business to a US buyer for just under $1.1 billion. It calls it 'an immediate realisation of value' but given it spent £750 million two years ago to beef up an existing but undeveloped prior US position, this does not represent some hugely remunerative return...more a way to cut down its debt problem…

Frontera Resources (FRR) has been forced to issue a clarification statement about the Cayman Islands legal case that could see it lose all its assets and go to zero. I suspect AIM is forcing its hand here, concerned that the stupidest shareholder list on this planet are just not getting the message.

Hello, Share People. It’s always pleasant to find a company which is enjoying higher profits. It’s even better when we find that the rising profits far outclass any improvement in revenue. One such company I bring to your notice now is Xpediator (XPD).

Bathroom and kitchen products company Norcros (NXR) has updated that “underlying operating profit for the first half is expected to be in line with the board's expectations reflecting a robust performance and continuing to demonstrate the financial resilience of the group” and that it “remains confident… will continue to drive market outperformance and will enable the group to make further progress in line with its expectations for the year to 31 March 2019”…

Palisade Capital continues its uranium themed videos and in part three of the series  Daniel Major discusses the latest market conditions and why he sees it on an upward trend. He argues that steady growth continues in nuclear energy production and reactor builds. Uranium producers have been holding back production, and there is a reduction in supply in the secondary market. Many utilities still have inventory, but they are declining as contracts unwind. He says, “There is a lot of factors that will squeeze the price higher.”

A few days ago I mused upon occurrences at Patisserie Holdings (CAKE)  which I did not own shares in but intrinsically I liked...especially as a customer.  It seems to me that my gut feel back then that the combination of a skilful fraudster, poor internal controls and a professional lack of duty from the auditor all contributed.  As Luke Johnson - Chairman and biggest shareholder - noted in an article in lieu of his Sunday Times column this week: 

Tom Winnifrith writes: For the second time Premaitha (NIPT) has served up a trading update for the six months to 30 September and thus having heard the news before it is hardly shocking. FFS do its PR folks think we are stupid or what? Answering my own question, the self important, over-paid, halfwitted knobheads probably do.

First of all please read abut the Christmas Woodlarks Santa's Grotto £2500 appeal and donate a tenner. If you like bearcast you know you can afford it. Details are HERE. This podcast covers the shameful and ignorant treatment of Luke Johnson over Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) and I stand in defence of Luke. This country needs more folks like him not fewer and much, if not all, of today's coverage is shockingly bad in every respect.. 

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.  

Well what a last week with fear - for once in recent years - in ascendancy and lots of 'worst week since February' statistics being quoted.  As Tom Winnifrith noted in a recent bearcast the big honking issue is debt around the world, although tactically you can throw in a supporting cast of world trade angst, a bit of inflation bubbling up and a firm US dollar.  

When I was a child in the 70s, my family had a Vauxhall Envoy (You could buy British cars in Canada, then.) The distinguishing feature was that the back doors had a tendency to fling open when it rounded a corner. My dad told my brother and I to make sure we sat in the middle of the back seat.

The Global Group UK Investor Show is the country’s largest – and certainly most exciting – one day event for those who want to make more money from shares. It is still nearly six months away but already more than two thirds of the 135 exhibitor PLC stands have been reserved. We have an almost complete all-star speaker line-up, headed by Luke Johnson, Vin Murria, Mark Slater & Nigel Wray, so it is an event not to be missed.

Well that was a depressing week. Markets were crashing all around the world and the FTSE100 dipped below 7,000 for the first time since March, having lost around 500 points this month. Suddenly interest rates are going up, the Euro seems a tad wobbly in the face of Italian budget challenges and we’re all going to hell in a handcart.