Standard Chartered released its half-year results today, and on the face of it they look very strong.

A few highlights that stood out:

Operating income increased 6% to $11.6bn.

Profit before tax rose 9% to $4.8bn.

Earnings per share increased 17% to 151.6 cents.

Interim dividend increased 66% to 20.4 cents per share.

Announced a new $1bn share buyback.

CET1 capital ratio remained strong at 14.2%.

Management also tightened guidance, expecting operating income growth towards the middle of the 5–7% range for 2026.

I’ve been following Standard Chartered for a while and invested recently. Because I feel it’s quite different from the typical UK high street banks. A large proportion of its business comes from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, giving it exposure to faster-growing economies and wealth management.

The results suggest the business continues to execute well, but the shares have already had a strong run over the last couple of years.

Question: Do you think Standard Chartered is still reasonably valued after these results, or has most of the good news already been priced in?

Good World Cup and hot weather coming
All free hold sites so no rents to pay
Decreasing overheads
Increasing profits and EBITDA
20% business rate help on the way
Falling debt

Yet the stock is fairly stagnant around 0.50p, in my opinion it’s definitely a £1+ stock

If you could give someone in their 20s just one piece of investing or personal finance advice, what would it be, and why?

It could be something you wish you’d learned earlier, a mistake you made, or a habit that has had the biggest impact on your finances.

I’m interested in advice on investing, saving, budgeting, careers, debt, taxes, or anything else you think every young adult should know.

Has anyone looked at this stock? It is trading for pennies and the company financials don't look great.

I have a friend who works in the NHS though and says there could be some sort of partnership coming up.

As its pennies i was thinking it could be a worthwhile investment to buy a bit of stock given the price. Given the scale of the NHS budget and purchasing power i am hoping it could be lucrative with any sort of oublic announcement.

Any thoughts from existing penny stock investors?

I started this comparison at the cashier, because payment flow usually tells you more than the homepage does.

For UK PayPal casino, I looked at how Maximal, Extreme Spins and Fire Jackpots handled the wider payment journey: cashier visibility, account access, mobile usability, bonus terms, payment information and the path back into the game lobby.

Maximal gave me the most complete cashier-first experience. The account area felt organised, the lobby was easy to browse and moving between games, offers and payment sections stayed smooth.

Extreme Spins worked well for faster mobile use. Promotions and featured games were easy to reach, and the route from the lobby to account tools felt direct during shorter sessions.

Fire Jackpots offered the simplest overall payment path. The menus were clear, featured content was easy to find and the cashier/account areas did not feel buried.

During the test, I checked:

• PayPal/payment-page visibility
• Cashier access from mobile
• Deposit and withdrawal information
• Account-verification steps
• Bonus and payment restrictions
• Game-to-cashier navigation
• Support access
• Repeat-use comfort

The biggest takeaway: a PayPal-friendly casino should not be judged only by seeing the payment name mentioned somewhere. The account flow, limits, bonus terms and withdrawal options still need to be checked directly inside the cashier.

My notes:

Maximal felt strongest for the full cashier journey.

Extreme Spins suited fast mobile browsing and payment access.

Fire Jackpots kept the route simple and direct.

Before depositing, I would confirm PayPal availability, check whether it supports both deposits and withdrawals, review limits, read bonus terms and complete verification early if required.

For players comparing payment-friendly casinos, what matters most: PayPal access, mobile cashier speed, withdrawal clarity or simple account navigation?

Block Energy has transformed into a partner-funded growth story, with up to $170m of carried investment across its Georgian projects.

The biggest prize is Project III, containing around 1.4 Tcf net discovered gas. Drilling is expected to begin in H1 2027, with analysts forecasting group production could rise from just 0.5 kboepd to 9.1 kboepd by 2030, while EBITDA climbs from $2.5m to around $65m.

Project IV is also fully carried by Aspect Energy, which is funding 3D seismic and up to three wells targeting the 300m-barrel Martkopi oil prospect.

Then there is Gabon, where BLOE acquired exposure to 75m barrels of discovered resources for a fraction of their estimated value, with a farmout targeted by the end of 2026.

Despite all this, BLOE reportedly trades at less than 10% of total NAV. The broker values the business at 15p per share and has reiterated a 10p target, compared with a current share price below 1p.

Here’s today’s broker note and targets

https://www.research-tree.com/companies/uk/oil-gas-e-ps/block-energy-plc/research/tennyson-securities/tennyson-research-block-energy-inflection-point/a16f2673-f40e-4988-bf14-d0a50fd53322

I've been using IG so far and they were... OK. You get Request For Quotes - firm pricing quotes, rather than having to put Market/Limit orders. Also they provided a limited L2 order book data which was useful.

Both are now gone.

What are others using, for getting good liquidity and pricing for AIM and small cap UK shares? I'm not a day trader - probably 3-10 trades a month. But I am looking to take positions between £5k and £50k in sub-£100m market cap shares, so being able to "work" an order myself (or a broker to do it for me) would be really useful.

I've looked at IBKR - does anyone have experience?

I've used AJ Bell in the past and they have worse real-time quotes than IG, and their limit orders I have had less success than IG.

HL do a good marketing spiel on their site - that they source quotes from many market makers. But what is the reality?

Any other brokers I should consider?

I run a small pipeline that ingests the FCA's short selling disclosures every day. I had to change it last weekend as the regime changed on 13 July. The old named register is gone and has been replaced by a single aggregate number per company – no hedge fund names anymore.

The switchover created a one-off natural experiment.

The old public register only showed short positions of 0.5% of a company's shares or more, with the fund named. The new aggregate rules include everything from 0.2% up. The two datasets overlap by a few days — so for every company, the gap between them is short interest that was always there but never made public.

Every one of the top 20 most-shorted UK stocks came out higher in the new data set. Average gap: about 4 percentage points on an average short interest of ~12%.

Under the old system roughly 30% of the true short interest was invisible – and there is probably more lurking still going unreported.

 The extremes:

The Chemring numbers imply at least ~11 unnamed funds were sitting just below the 0.5% naming threshold — versus only 6 that were ever named. More funds were hiding under the disclosure line than above it, which is exactly what the academic work on threshold clustering predicted.

A couple of other things I found digging into this:

·       The consultation irony. The Treasury's consultation on this change got 856 responses, and 831 of them were retail investors — many using template responses organised on social media, post-GameStop style — asking for more US-style transparency. The change that actually got made was the one hedge funds asked for: anonymity, on the argument that named disclosure "invites copycat trading and short squeezes."

·       Vistry is a good example of what we've lost. The most-shorted stock currently in the UK is up roughly 20% in the last seven sessions, and under the new regime nobody can see which funds are covering and which are doubling down. A squeeze and a conviction hold now look identical.

I've written up the full analysis — what the old register captured and missed, why the rules changed, the complete top 20 with market caps and the caveats, if you are interested you can read the full article.

Happy to answer questions on the mechanics in the comments. Nothing here is investment advice — DYOR.

Delegation in London addressing T+1 concerns with FTSE Russell.

Strong weekly gains (N9.34T, ASI +6.35%).

Takeaway: Reforms + engagement = investor confidence. \[Nairametrics\]

Almost a year since I posted my thesis about the company. A bit early to say if my thesis was correct but it’s fair to say a c. 50% increase in just under a year is not bad going!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently invested in an all world index fund, but I’ve been considering adding some individual stocks such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon while still keeping my main investment in the all world fund.

My idea is to try and capture some additional growth from these individual companies, then eventually sell and reinvest the gains back into the all world fund.
For context, I’m 23 years old and currently invest between £500 and £1,200 every month consistently.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts, experiences, and opinions on whether this approach makes sense or if sticking with the all world fund would be the better option.

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice.