In today's podcast I look at Westminster Group (WSG) cursed by its association with ex Tory MP Tony Baldry of 3DM infamy, One Media (OMIP) a worse investment than a Nationwide BS savings account and now cursed with a tie up with the investment abomination that is Nicola Horlick. I also cover Andalas (ADL), shortly to be renamed PumpandDumpPLC

An update this morning from AIM-listed Minoan (MIN) regarding the sale of its travel and leisure division and reduced boardroom fees offers investors good hope that the sale is now, at long last, progressing. This is good news which I suspect will unlock the development of Minoan’s main asset – the Cavo Sidero project in Crete – and I am looking forward to the coming weeks with anticipation.

One Media iP (OMIP) “is pleased to announce a proposed placing and subscription to raise a minimum of £1.9 million of new equity capital at an issue price of 6 pence per new ordinary share, and the proposed issue of up to £6 million of (7% per annum interest from date of issue) loan notes”, including emphasising the placing price “represents a premium of 240 per cent. to the price of 2.5 pence per ordinary share at which Lord Michael Grade and Ivan Dunleavy first invested in the company in December 2017”. Sounds positive then…

When a good company meets the salary expectations of “porker Baldry” of 3DM infamy as its chairman it will inevitably become a cash guzzler. When a bad company finds the loathsome lard bucket at its helm the outcome is not going to be a happy one for shareholders. And that brings us to Westminster Group (WSG) which has raised a paltry £500,000 (gross) today via seedy low grade bucket shop SVS just to keep the lights on until Christmas.

Previously writing on Kin Group (KIN) I noted AIM rules requiring a transaction here by the end of February to avoid shares suspension (within six months of becoming recognised as a cash shell), with there then a further six months to avoid listing cancellation. That takes us to today… and there’s now announced “Proposed Acquisition of Bidstack Limited & Placing”…

Back in the day, the last business day of the month was always a rather important moment for me because it would determine whether I was a hero or a zero in the institutional investor world I used to belong to. Believe me, in the emails and related that followed, the whole investment firm would know whether your Fund had done well or badly. Of course the way to build performance was one month at a time, so a 'good close' to the month was immensely useful. If I was still in that world - and invested akin to my thoughts today - then I would have a big beaming smile on my face, thanks to the news update from my old mucker Whitbread (WTB) whose shares I have been continuously loving up on this website (most recently HERE)…

Hello, Share Sifters. One of my all-time Footsie favourites, Legal & General (LGEN) is growing even bigger. And so I rather fancy will the share price. Ok, in the first six months of this year, underlying operating profit did not improve by much - 5% to £909 million - but that was partly due to pumping more dosh into digital technology which will serve the company well in the future.

The former Quindell of Rob Terry infamy, Watchstone Group (WTG) has announced results for the first half of 2018, including on outlook “we are making good progress in developing the underlying quality of our businesses and their long term value whilst simultaneously resolving the group's legacy matters as efficiently as possible. We remain confident of a satisfactory ultimate outcome for our shareholders”. Hmmm…

I start with a rant about Barclays (BARC) banksters and how much I despise and loathe them. I then discuss Anglo African Agriculture (AAAP) a Big Dave Lenigas lobster pot from which I escaped today. I move onto Andalas (ADL) and have a challenge for a sad geek with time on his hands, I nominate Drunken Sailor. I look at Xaar (XAR), Crawshaw (CRAW) and finally at Optibiotix (OPTI). I owe cynical bear a glass of ouzo but drank it myself on his behalf. Warning, this podcast contains bad language throughout.

In June I questioned on Xaar (XAR) as its shares slid below 250p, below expectations sales & little visibility… but still “expect full year profit to remain in line with our expectations”?!. Today a trading update…

Shore Capital is the recently appointed house broker (and Nomad) to AIM-listed online ladies wear outfit Sosandar (SOS) and is thus hardly going to publish a sell note. Last night it released a broker note which has dropped into my inbox, and it has slapped a “present fair value” price of 50p on the shares. Normally one might treat such notes with a bit of caution for over-egging the pudding – after all, this broker note tells us that it is a marketing communication and as such I would expect the best case scenario to be put. But in this case I wonder about that. Here is why...

In June, previously writing on self-described “the UK's leading value butcher”, Crawshaw Group (CRAW) it was ‘AGM Trading and Strategic Update’, you were warned… - and I again concluding sell / avoid. Today a trading update including “continued challenging trading”. Uh oh…

It’s that time of the month again and with two of the seven mythical creatures proving their existence so far, I was hoping for some more progress this month from the remaining five. Alas no, just more prevarication, distraction and fund raising – how disappointing.

I know somebody who regularly trots out the line 'all that matters is how much money you make'. I am a big supporter of capitalism and laissez-faire thought but this is such a naive statement to make. Economists would talk about the need to factor in externalities and additionally I would cite that life is a trade-off problem...and a single minded pursuit of money, to the detriment of absolutely everything else, tends to bite you where it hurts at some point. Now before I convince myself that Jezza is the red saviour of our proud country...time to talk about Amigo (AMGO).

Andalas Energy (ADL) has undergone a change of management and has also switched its asset focus in an attempt to turn things around from the disaster it has been ever since it changed its name from CEB Resources back in late 2015.

A wise reader recently suggested to me that perhaps I could pause occasionally with the incessant cynical kicking of the dross at the bottom of AIM and/or Mr Woodford and spend a bit more time trying to highlight quality small cap stocks that people could put on their watch-lists. Well, I’ll take up the challenge and start with a decent looking stock that announced its full-year results last week, namely Arcontech (ARC).

Hello, Share Takers. Try as I might, I can think of not many more peculiar names for a company than today’s choice for your further researches. 1pm (OPM) is the name of the firm and though it might look snappy on a letterhead, it’s surely hard to say it in normal business conversation. Also where can we find it in directories and business lists, at the beginning or the end? Does it start with ‘One’ or ‘1’?

Grossly overvalued AIM listed piece of crap Frontera Resources (FRR) is running on vapours. It has less cash than your average Venezuelan and is burning it at an alarming rate. Despite the best efforts of disgraced PR man Tim Thompson of scumbags Yellow Jersey PR and the whore blogger, Malcom “Fat Bastard” Graham Wood to ramp the stock, it has more than halved since May 1 and is now just 0.22p to sell. So what price is the looming bailout placing going to be at. You guess in our reader poll, the deadline to enter is midnight tonight:

Jaywing (JWNG), the self-described “data driven, insight and creative agency”, is “delighted to see the fruits of our labour across so many diverse clients and industries” with “a number of key client wins and service expansions”. How key though?...

In today's podcast I look at the worthless crap that is Andalas (ADL), the trainwreck in waiting - placing ahoy - that is Frontera (FRR) and finally, in detail, at slam dunk sell red flag infested IQE (IQE).