The 2026 Vibe
Another year of Zaks Traders Café and another year, no doubt, of the constant online bashing and bullying that has not only been received in recent years, but has been intensifying. This includes the name calling, shaming, mocking, threats and actions, all of which are presumably designed to make both myself and my website go away. What is interesting about all of this is the way that late last year there was all the controversy regarding alleged bullying and racist comments made by Nigel Farage when he was at school in the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, I received very little bullying at school, and I also question those who complain about historic slights. I think it is better to complain at the time, and in this case now.
Of course, these days few are directly racist, they use rather more subtle attacks like class, behaviour, appearance. What I do know is that if I were called Zak Smith or Fred Walker, and was ethnically British, I would not be on the receiving end of the onslaught which is ongoing and getting worse. The reason for the attacks is not greed, incompetence, or wrongdoing on my part, it is purely personal and deeply ingrained. Maybe I am “not one of them” or “have not played the game,” or there is a desire to ensure failure? What is perhaps most sad is that people / observers in general are happy just to look the other way, or say “ignore it.” If this advice is not correct for historic matters, I do not believe it is correct for what is happening now.
Record Highs
Surprisingly, Sir Keir Starmer noticing the record highs on the FTSE 100 in November was not the kiss of death for the rally. Perhaps even this week, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves taking credit for the stock market performance will not damage the market’s prospects. Indeed, if the UK economy can swallow two massive tax raising budgets and still be alive, it really must be strong. While we now have the Venezuela situation in the mix, the rally in the FTSE 100 has been one that has been notable in climbing a wall of worry. It is also to be hoped that with businesses tanking off the back of all Reeves’s fundraising for shirkers, more interest rate cuts should be supportive for UK shares.
Of course, when I say UK shares, there remains the contrast between the blue chips and the rest. Of particular concern is the AIM market, still blighted by cost, over-regulation, as well as unfettered defamation, leaks of placings, threats to be reported to the regulators, and associated market abuse. Perhaps against the odds the FTSE AIM All Share index looks to be in a rising trend heading for 820 in the first part of 2026.
This Week’s Stocks On The Rise
This week was understandably quiet on the London market, as given the lay of the land, it was and is a good time to fully enjoy taking time off work in order to improve one’s income to tax ratio. But as is usually the case, there were the odd golden nuggets to focus on, literally in the case of Galantas Gold (GAL). Here the company hit the market with a heavy New Year’s Eve RNS: the completion of the RDL Mining acquisition, and funding for $15.5M, and an updated MRE. The result was a 73% share price rise on the week. MobilityOne (MBO) soared nearly 4x on Islamic digital bank confirmation, while keeping with the gold theme, Wishbone (WSBN) was back in vogue after an autumn dip for the shares were the aforementioned bad actors temporarily managed to get the shares down towards 40p on the usual slurs and scare tactics. One wonders why market makers give such actions credibility, or maybe they are short and need the price lower? We shall see if the trashing starts again next week, as the shares were up 59% on the week. Cue a negative article or two.
It has been one of the best years in recent years for mining veteran Colin Bird, someone who has arguably taken even more stick than me. One of his best performers in 2025 was Bezant (BZT), the copper-gold exploration and development company. This week we were notified that Sylvia Vrska the wife of its Executive Chairman Colin Bird and thus a person closely associated with him (PCA) on 24 December 2025 purchased 5,000,000 shares at a price of 0.075 pence, and on 29 December 2025 purchased 15,200,000 Shares at a price of 0.0885 pence per Share. As a result of the share purchases Colin Bird and his PCA now have an aggregate interest in 1,083,200,654 Shares representing 6.22% of the Company’s Shares. There is nothing more romantic than your PCA buying shares, and celebrating the 4x rise in the shares over the past year. This was and is hardly surprising given the way that arguably for 2026, copper will become even hotter than gold.
Indeed, it was a good week for Mr Bird, with another of his vehicles up 48%. African Pioneer (AFP) a company engaging in development of natural resources exploration projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been “off grid” since interim results in September were announced. At the time the company said its Ongombo, Namibia has the benefit of mining and exploration permits and representing a viable near production mining potential for a 8,000 tonne of copper year project. Completing one of the best week’s ever for Colin Bird stocks was the revelation that he has acquired 3m shares in Xtract Resources (XTR) where he is Executive Chairman at a price of 0.575p. In November XTR raised £2m at 0.6p to continue to develop its mine project in Morocco and invest in its joint venture with partners in Silverking in Zambia.
Rising 59% this week on no near term news was Cykel AI (CYK). Back in October the recruitment platform narrowed losses and promised to start commercialising its AI agents. It would be good if in addition to all of this the company explains to us old timers, what all this tech is about. The shares may rise even more.
Last month the directors of Directa Plus (DCTA), the producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, awarded themselves options. This would appear to have been timely given the way that the shares were up 55% on no new news. Last month Nativo Resources plc (NTVO), a gold-focused mining company with interests in Peru, provided an update on ongoing field activities at the Bonanza Gold Mine on the fully owned Tesoro Gold Concession, as well as the potential re-opening of Bonanza. Clearly, the 50% rise in the shares this week was part of the market looking forward to this happening.
Eurasia Mining
There has been no greater focus of trolling of me over recent years than Eurasia Mining (EUA). That said, it was highly enjoyable that this company whose crackpot detractors who have in the past thrown everything they could to make this stock a zero – leaking placings, leaking non- placings, alleging every crime in history in order to get the share price down, and have still failed. Indeed, their analysis is off by over £100m, given the current market cap of £116m. If the company is so bad, why is it still there? The West Kytlim sale for $9m should be regarded as a real coup given the lay of the land, especially Russia / Ukraine. But of course, the venom against the company is so great that even if the war ends, and the shares rocket, the irrational / personal hate will continue. Perhaps some therapy is in order? Or just move onto another company.
Westminster Group / Falconedge
Westminster Group (WSG) has certainly been under the cosh over the years from the shorting conspiracy’s personal comments, and general fear creation, which is often no more logical or fair than saying “I don’t like Mondays.” It is just the luck of the draw. Therefore, it was not great that the results for WSG being delayed have led to a temporary share suspension. But actually ahead of that the picture here was looking better. That is said on the basis that the company said during the week that it was in the final stages of negotiating a significant offshore banking facility for project financing. Clearly, the bears, or those they pay, have been keen to discredit the company as much as possible, to protect their short positions. BTW the way, the next on the hit list seems to be from the mafiosos appears Falconedge (AQSE:EDGE), with the old personal attacks, placing leaks / threats, sleaze allegations. What a great welcome for the company to being listed.
Hot Rocks
Issuing your interim results after the market close on New Year’s Eve is perhaps not ideal. However, one can forgive investment company Hot Rocks (AQSE:HRIP), if only on the basis that I would say that it is for me the listed company I would love to be. As well as holding warrants in nearly 30 small cap companies, HRIP has shares in Mendell Helium (AQSE:MDH) and WeShop (WSHP). The latter should be a 10x this year, when the lock-in ends in November. We should see the share price of HRIP continue to ratchet up as that time approaches.
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest:
The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
