3646 days ago
Hmmmm. Lots of low grade Aim stocks are flying, the FTSE 100 is nearly at all-time highs, there is a lot of rubbish being spouted about a Santa Rally coming early and I am stuck in Greece preparing to start the olive harvest tomorrow when I should be punting rubbish on AIM making a killing. Right? Wrong.
Clearly sentiment among investors has changed. Fear has been booted out of the building and greed has waddled back in. But is the world really a different place to where it was six weeks ago when Fear was ruling the roost? For me all the Black Swan potential events floated by market commentators as shares tumbled in October were peripheral issues. Sure Ebola could have caused problems if it broke out in Balham or Brooklyn. But that was not my real gripe with the bulls. I still think that one wild card – an ISIL atrocity in NY or London - could spook investors badly.
But my fundamental concern
3675 days ago
Before last night's four presentations at the ShareProphets Seminar - videos of which will appear later - I made a few comments about the Westminster Group (WSG) ebola appeal. All this week - Hop-tu-naa week - at Real Man Pizza in Clerkenwell we will be donating 20p per pizza sold to the appeal and I hope that others will chip in. Details of the appeal can be found HERE
3675 days ago
Real Man is not unaware of the Ebola crisis occurring in West Africa. I see that some pompous arses object to my use of the phrase “I’d rather drink a pint of warm Ebola” than (buy Quindell shares etc.) but that is because the English language is a joyful tool allowing such illusions to make a point not the preserve of pompous self-righteous prats (see my tweet hate mail at the weekend).
As it happens we have a long relationship at the restaurant with our friends at Medicins Sans Frontieres. And as such we are delighted to support an emergency Ebola appeal launched today by Westminster Group (WSG) an AIM listed company operating in the Ebola heartlands.
Real Man Pizza Company in Clerkenwell will donate 20p per pizza sold all week ( ending 1 Nov) at the restaurant to the Westminster appeal.
We hope that you too will donate, and it does not need to be cash.
Full details can be found here.
3683 days ago
The first presentation on Monday in Clerkenwell at the ShareProphets seminar was by Ian Selby of security group Westminster (WSG). This is not just a story about the temporary impact of ebola. Ian put the case well enough but there is clearly a sentiment issue right now.
To ensure that you get priority booking for future seminars (the next one is on 27 October ) and features myself, Amanda van Dyke of Bluebird Mining, Rob Proctor of Audioboo and Cathal Friel of Fastnet Oil & Gas register HERE.
3704 days ago
I have made it clear that I believe that even without an escalation of Ebola, the balance sheet weakness of African Minerals (AMI), the debt laden POS AIM Casino listed miner founded by convicted heroin dealer Frank Timis, will be its undoing. Today the company tried to put the best possible spin on pretty dismal interim results.
3710 days ago
Eric Sprott is the best known name in resource investing. His latest comments are on the subject of Ebola and are utterly terrifying. They are a terrifying at a human level. If however you own shares in certain mining companies you should be double terrified. Yes, I hark back to African Minerals (AMI).
If Ebola continues to spread, it was put to me the other day that the Sierra Leone Government will order a total lockdown of the mining industry in that country. How long could African afford a lockdown before it becomes unable to service the interest on its ballooning debts? The answer is about three weeks.
I explained HERE why even without Ebola African Minerals is screwed
3731 days ago
The Mrs is back in Bristol already sending me photos of our cats Oakley (three legs) and Tara (four) who she is no doubt hugging to death and spoiling quite outrageously. I am sure that I shall do the same when I head back in a few weeks’ time.
I was delighted when the Mrs was here but it had two drawbacks. Without her I have slipped once again into my no alcohol and one or two Greek salads a day diet. With her I was drinking and eating rather more. And so my weight loss was arrested, in fact reversed a bit. Now I am in overdrive as I have just over three weeks to finish the frigana cutting and so am upping my manual labour rate accordingly.
The other drawback is that whilst my commercial writings (shares) continued almost every day, with the Mrs here I have no time for my personal writings. I enjoy my musings on life at The Greek Hovel far more than financial writing but know that those articles don’t pay the bills. And so I have an awful lot to catch up including two murders in our village of Kambos and my own detention at Kardimili police station. And
3731 days ago
I am a nervous traveller at the best of times. But right now the thought of flying into London really scares me. The Mrs left today. I had to drive her half way across the Peloponnese so that she could catch a ferry to Zakynthos to get a direct flight to Bristol. But it was cheaper than a flight from Kalamata, my local airport here in the Mani, and her plane did not land at Gatwick.
Bristol gets mostly domestic, Western European and holiday flights. The Mrs can pick me up from the airport and the passport line is not three hours long.
Gatwick is a schlepp of a bus/train trek away from Bristol and I am convinced that my flight will land just between one directly in from Sierra Leone and another from Turkey packed with British born men with beards who have just spent a few months in Syria and Northern Iraq. I thus face being stuck in the passport queue with a mixture of returning Jihadists - just looking for a chap with an Israeli army T-shirt on to behead - and highly contagious Ebola virus carriers.
It is s 35 minute cab ride from The Greek Hovel to Kalamata. It is an additional five hour bus, taxi, ferry, taxi ride to Zakynthos. But the idea is growing on me.
PS The Mrs suggests that just in case there are any Quindell Moron type jihadists reading this I should not publicise my final travel plans until I have landed. As ever she is a wise woman.
3753 days ago
Gosh I wish I was a pal of Rob Terry’s. Then Quindell (QPP) could offer millions of quid for my business irrespective of its true value. Heck it’s only shareholders cash. Actually that' a joke, I'd rather drink Ebola than work for Rob Terry. Earlier I reported Quindell to its auditors over a series of sweetheart deals with Terry’s pal Mark Ford. Now I turn to Business Advisory Service Limited.
This outfit was bought for £8.1 million in shares and £100,000 in cash on June 21 2011. Who were the vendors? They were old pals of Rob Terry’s. We do not know who but Quindell itself stated in the RNS:
3757 days ago
All the players in the Quindell (QPP) tale are in there: Rob Terry, Laurence Moose, Mark Ford, PR girl Foxy Bex, Steamy from the ridiculous QPPSAG, Cenkos, Kevin Ashton, Daniel Stewart, Gotham City, ebola, the UKLA and Canaccord. I hope you enjoy watching as much as I enjoyed producing this video.
3757 days ago
Investors are jittery enough and now this. Mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan has just admitted a patient just back from West Africa displaying symptoms which could be Ebola. Let us hope that tests prove negative.
3768 days ago
Over the weekend I revealed HERE the string of business trainwecks that are the real career of Dragons Den new boy Piers Linney. I also flagged that his AIM listed Outsourcery (OUT) was in dire straits and its shares have slumped from 34p on Friday to 25.5p ( and falling) today as the possibility that it could go tits up looms ever larger – as I flag HERE.
Outsourcery is burning cash, has missed all its sales targets and cash and trade receivables minus debt and trade payables is already almost certainly negative. Piers promises us a statement by the end of the month. Tick Tock. You can read full details HERE but I’d rather drink a pint of Ebola virus than buy the shares. They are a sell – target price 1p.
But a City contact has now pointed me towards another venture of Piers which ended in the usual Linney outcome.
