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Tom Winnifrith is a bit of a marmite individual. Read some Bulletin Board posts and he is the spawn of Satan. Read others (I try to as much as I can to improve my grammar) and it occurs to some people that he makes some extremely good points. At a financial level some of his pieces, such as this little gem on Falklands Oil & Gas and notably this little gem on US Oil & Gas not only real insight but are also extremely funny. Indeed, for us Old Harrovians a sense of humour is everything, the only thing that differentiates us from the savages, or as they taught us in public school – socialists. I can think of no other financial tipster who would write a piece about a company whose shares were heading South and manage to include a video of Adele singing Skyfall ( or Sharefall as Tom termed it) to show that the Fat lady is about to sing. But that was Tom’s piece de resistance yesterday for shareholders in Vialogy.
Clearly this gets up a lot of people’s noses. If i was a shareholder in US Oil & Gas or Vialogy or one of the Falklands stocks (which I am not) I would not be sending Tom a Christmas card for Christmas. But even his critics admit his wit. I wonder if you have seen his version of Downfall for AIM listed Sefton Resources a company that he has terrorised and exposed for months? If not watch it HERE
Letters from the Chestnut Tree Cafe (Thought Crime in Britain and Greece, 1984 is here at last) is simply a collection of Tom’s best articles of the summer and autumn of 2012. The odd one is financial but most are personal, political or philosophical. Tom also covers cooking (his great love in life), television, the Olympics, music and celebrities.
You can guess his world view from the Orwellian title of the book. He fears greatly a big state which spends too much on vanity and waste and which imposes its views and mores on the rest of us. Display wit and a gentle touch with the occasional iron fist, Tom takes apart those who think they know better than we mere “plebs” and who seek to order our lives in the way that the POTB deem to be appropriate. The press, self-important celebs, the political elite (across the spectrum), the EU (or Evil Empire as Tom terms it) are all considered fair game as are the England football team. Frankly all are fair game. The role of the press should be to criticise and watch the establishment. But these days the press is part of the establishment. It is good that there are eccentric writers, who spend their spare time inventing chocolate pizzas or crazy T-shorts, who will hap a pop at anybody.
This book makes valid points. Serious ones. But it is also very funny. Some of the Tony Blair jokes are worth the purchase price on their own.
Letters from the Chestnut Tree cafe can be ordered on online bookstores such as Amazon or direct from its publisher Harriman House for just £5 HERE
Tom also tells whoppers like the winners outnumbered losers by more than 2.5 to one claim for his t1ps. The real data was 1.3 to one when the open t1ps were also included, and not just those closed – Jeez!! Now the claim has been dropped. I guess 1.3 to one isn’t much of a claim and that’s before dealing costs.
Seems his critics also see Tom’s a shady character as well named a TW@
Tom’s false claim of 2.5 to one winners V losers – caught lying. TW@
Nifty Fifty – will it be better than Tom’s T1ps. Will it be honest unlike Tom’s performance data?