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For all your 'truthing' this is a misleading post. The turnaround hasn't been in progress for 10 years, as you imply. The historic chart is very similar to many other shares in various sectors. In fact, the IPO was nothing like as ramped as many others. For instance, look at IQE's history. The detractor's cry of 'could have sold at' was close to £8 back in the day.
As with all new technology, expectation often outstrips reality. It's easy to retrospectively paint a business as a sham, or anyone who backs it as idiots. The path to a technologically advanced, capitalist society is paved with companies with great ideas that failed to find the right opportunity/timing in the market. But, a nice over-simplification to achieve your shorting goals (because if you don't believe in the future of a company, you can just leave - no need to keep shining the lighthouse to warn others).
AIM companies going to the wall is hardly a rarity - and the post pandemic economic fundamentals mean that an above average volume have. Then there's the geopolitical shift of UK plc being in-bed/out of bed with China. Not exactly helpful when 65% of the world's graphite is mined there. Plenty of contributing factors to consider. Don't worry, because the 'sheriff' is on the case though, eh?!
The Guardian ran a piece on Paragraf at the end of last year, too. What stood out were revenues (£230k), losses (11m) and level of funding (70m). Yet the detractors would likely tell you this is a sign of a failing/sham business, with some 'shares as toilet paper' spin. Call the 'sheriff'!
Is that blossom in the April gusts? No. It's the spread-betters with their tales of woe. For some balance, we could examine the 'could have sold at' story of... let's pick FTSE 100, Carillion (remember them?). Imagine the 'could have sold at' price of £4.31. Never mind. Ouch (not to mention the devestation for associated businesses).
Or Lloyds, and almost a fiver decades ago - and today it languishes at fractions. Deary me, it's like the stockmarket isn't littered with examples of people losing money. But they said the paths were paved with gold, guv!
Certainly, VRS's woes are less than ideal. What can you learn? If a CEO constantly trumpets the owner of a large, well known company, buy that. If a CEO hires someone who appears to be marginally deranged (Mr Crush), it could be the canary in the coalmine.
If you're sweating over the idea of selling (because 1000%'s gain is possibly on the cards and you want to 'buy the rumour, sell the news' now don't you?) enjoy the sweat, sell and rebalance your portfolio so you're not in the grip of greed. Wait for the news, kick yourself for missing out on all those 1000%'s you missed out on - and then chill because you can still buy the news and haven't lost your shirt. (You'll always miss the gains you never had and will never appreciate the loss that never was).
The company was hyped. Now it's panned - and panned every day by the same people over on the other board. Over confidence, lack of confidence. There's nothing tangible to any of it until the money's in the bank - and even then, a large part of the share price will be on forward expectations. So polish that crystal ball and remember physics shows us that almost everything is comprised of nothing. This is especially true of volatile markets.
Also a reminder that while there's a lot of attention on graphene, the other 'nenes' are potentially more interesting/useful. One day the paths might be paved with goldene. (just for fun: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01118-0
Or. Just rant 'rubbish!' and keep on your agenda. There's a great way to show your lack of confidence in a share. It's not to buy it. But why do that when you can bet on your lack of confidence and try to make a destructive dream come true.
Loving the energy over on the other board. The ‘realists’ (spread betters) getting a proper froth on because someone’s had the audacity to match their posting frequency with a more positive take.
The scare tactics are rife: ‘my contact in the Civil Service’, or ‘passing it to my good pals’ in market governance.
Just a friendly reminder that if someone needs to post multiple times a day - not once, not a few times a week, but every day since at least 2017 they are the ones putting serious time and energy into their subscription based model.
Also remember that Tom Winnifrith is a self confessed climate change denier and Brexiteer. Whatever your views on the latter (and you’d be hard pressed to argue for a positive impact on UK science), innovative science and denying science don’t make for happy bedfellows.
Throw in the ‘jilted lovers’, former fanboys who’ll not waste a minute of their time in rubbishing any hope of salvaging the company (might they have hedged their prior misfortunes with spread bets? Who knows).
Remember - AIM performance is about confidence. Much more so than the main market. Stand back and consider hype cycles. The ‘realists’ were duped and there’s no coming back from it. It doesn’t suit their narrative (or over ebullience) that there will ever be anything to recover.
All of this is psychological bias. Any of us could have sold out. But selling is hard - especially with the seductive lure (and disclaimers) of forward looking statements. Over exposing yourself is easy. Now they want the confirmation of total destruction - because being duped is an easier pill to swallow than the one about ‘couldn’t press sell’ and ‘couldn’t risk manage my % portfolio exposure’.
So, if you're new: Subscription based ‘sheriff’, people constantly out to rubbish a company and science denial are never going to mix with disruptive technologies. Ask someone’s mate in government!
look at the other board. time after time, day after day, hour after hour - there are the same names. if you really have to show up to do your civic duty of warning people off the investment rocks almost every 30 minutes, are you really concerned about how other people invest their money - or have you got vested interests? surely, it’s a no-brainer.
some even imply that you can’t go short. wow, suddenly no spread-betting on aim stocks? just because institutional short interest above a certain level doesn’t show doesn’t mean you can’t heavily bet against the company.
but, for good measure, how about a review of the criticisms.
complaints that the board/mgt don’t buy. if they did ahead of material news, well, there are rules aren’t there. which critics allege the company haven’t followed. a time of trying to sell off assets and (hopefully) announce new contracts may just present difficulties with insider buying windows. so damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
tw (and his fans or aliases) - frequently trumpeting his wins about aim fraudsters. most sme’s fail. you could pick any basket of aim shares and be sure that the vast majority of them will get over excited and fall to near zero. look at similarities in hype post and disillusionment. that’s human behaviour.
also tw - why is he so selective with where he dumps his rusty ‘sherrif’s’ badge? was he sniffing around 4d pharma? that’s been catastrophic. where’s the outrage and investigation? how many times does he initiate shareholder action groups and get successful outcomes?
also tw - the self confessed climate sceptic. you might want to take advice on innovation from someone who respects science. (remember, his sensationalist headlines aren’t just looking out for ‘mug punters’ - it’s subscription hunting).
climate scepticism and innovation don’t sit happily together. you’ll be a lot happier with a basket of oil and gas majors. you might be forgiven for concluding that tw is on the books of the oil and gas lobby.
it’s also worth keeping in mind that our exit from the eu goes deeper than trade barriers. back in sept the uk rejoined the eu’s horizon programme. that’s 2 years of missed opportunity for uk science from the world’s largest science fund (approx €85 billion).
then there’s china, and our hockey ****ey relationship with who uk plc wants to get into bed with. but let’s ignore that, too because - we’ve all been conned!!!!
and so the list goes on. should you invest? probably not. you’ll tell yourself, ‘don’t put in more than you can afford to lose’. but you won’t. stay away from aim.
look at the misery caused. people complaining about marriages ruined, homes sold. doesn’t matter whether you’re a ‘mug’, or a ceo. it’s greed. we all think we’re immune, and very few of us are. (whether or not it would have to be this specific stock that’s responsible for your ruin is irrelevant).