TACO And The Brace Position
It is fair to say that with the FTSE 100 down over 10% from last month’s peak and set to going into negative territory for 2026, we are not looking at a great time for UK stocks. As far as the small caps are concerned, we are not only well below where we were in January, we are actually back at where we were last summer. This is all obviously quite painful, and leaves the key indices at or near oversold levels. It also means that we are probably very close to the moment when President Trump says he has had enough, largely on the basis of pressure from the oil price.
It closed just shy of the $100 on WTI, well over $105 on Brent. At the end of the day, this is as much of a deciding factor on Iran as anything else. True, the state sponsored insider trading in the run up to February 28 on the war happening and “buy oil” would have won a lot of supporters who made money, and are still making money on oil stocks. However, the stock market’s recent falls have push the levels and sentiment to the brace position. Even from this weekend things are getting moved along from the conflict being relatively contained to established conflict zone, to a wider disaster. One would imagine those looking for the TACO trade – Trump chickening out, are getting ready to deploy. As things stand, Trump losing his nerve or being pressured into a retreat are assuming we are only days away from the brink. He has already stalled matters to April 6 on the Iranian power grid / opening the Strait of Hormuz. However, so far this has ramped up oil and lowered stocks. Nevertheless, as things stand April 6 seems too short a deadline for a resolution to occur, and too long a time for markets to continue as they are in what is effectively the brace position.
Helium
While the obvious winners in the recent past have been Bitcoin Treasury (a few weeks), then gold and exploration stocks, followed by oil and gas, for once we have seen the stock market being clever on who could be the biggest beneficiary of the current turmoil is and may continue to be helium plays. This is rather ironic as the current crop of helium companies especially Helix (HEX), Pulsar (PLSR) and Mendell (MDH) essentially came to market when they had to put in a lot of energy explaining to the market exactly what helium is (and what it is not) and what it is used for. Essentially, it is the backbone to much of modern technology, and therefore an essential commodity. While all three of the companies mentioned above have seen their share prices rise well in recent weeks, one can say quite fairly that valuations are yet to catch up with events.
This Week’s Risers
There was a one week delay but Jade Road Investments Limited (JADE), the London quoted investment company that looks to provide investors exposure to private mid / late-stage technology companies was up 64% on after announcing last week the appointment of new directors to, and resignation of current directors from, the board of the Company. We already had Quadrise (QED) in our sights from a charting perspective, as a possible recovery situation. On Monday the technology company focused on the decarbonisation of shipping and heavy industry through deployment of low emission fuels and biofuels, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2025 and updated on developments during the first quarter of 2026. This made for a 56% share price rise. If we can stay above the 50 day moving average at 2p, we could see a return to post January resistance at 3p by the end of next month.
One would guess that there was short covering in play given the way that SkinBioTherapeutics plc, (SBTX), the life science business focused on skin health, updated shareholders on the timing for the interim results for the 6 months ended 31 December 2025 and the ongoing Board investigation. The key here is that the shares are expected to be suspended from 1 April until HY26 results are published. The squeeze higher resulted in a rise for the shares of 52%.
Shares of MobilityOne (MBO) rocketed at the turn of the year, and have not really looked back. The latest driver for the e-commerce infrastructure payment solutions and platform provider, was the way it noted that a definitive proxy statement and prospectus has been filed by Technology & Telecommunication Acquisition Corporation and Tete Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TETE, on 23 March 2026. The proposed JV with Super Apps look as though it has caught the imagination of the market. MBO rose 46% this week.
There was a massive spike in Goldstone (GRL) in January, after which the shares tumbled. However, it could be that we are looking at GRL rally 2.0, in the wake of the latest news from the company. On March 17 GRL said it had entered into a binding MOU with Mincorp (SL) Limited, a Sierra Leone incorporated gold exploration company. Mincorp holds interests in a small-scale artisanal gold operation together with highly prospective exploration ground in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The Project is adjacent to the Boamahun Gold Mine, a known gold deposit estimated to contain approximately 5.8 million ounces. Obviously, one hopes that the scale of the GRL / Mincorp project matches the Boamahun one.
And Finally…
This week I was perhaps rather more diligent than I needed to be in terms of conducting CEO interviews. They included BMV (BMV) which for some reason seem to get a negative reaction from the usual suspects, even though the sole purpose was to give CEO Sath Ganesarajah a fair hearing.
I also caught up with Scott Ellam, CEO, Connecting Excellence Group Plc (AQSE: XCE), the international executive recruitment group with a long term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy, reported its interim results for the period from incorporation on 14 May 2025 to 31 December 2025.
There was also a chat with Alexander Selegenev, Executive Director, TMT Investments (TMT), in the wake of the venture capital company investing in high-growth technology companies, announcing its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2025.
I am always delighted to interview small cap companies and no doubt will do so even after I retire, just for the fun of it.
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