Kick Back: The 10 biggest stories you might have missed on Stockhead this week

A fish/snake hybrid with big teeth that walks on land. Ominous.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced that a northern snakehead, one species of the fish, was found for the first time in the state https://t.co/aR7AKzyWmR

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 11, 2019

“Kill it immediately”, they say.

It’s called a snakehead fish (because of course it is) and this whole thing was foretold by a gimcrack TV movie called ‘Snakehead Terror’ back in 2004 —

“Capable of moving and eating on land, they are forced to leave the now barren lake in a desperate search for food – animal, vegetable or human.”

Here’s what you might have missed on Stockhead this week, but everyone else didn’t, and liked the most.

#1 When it rains it pours: water treatment stocks surge 260 per cent

The world is running low on clean water, which is a big problem. But it can also be highly lucrative problem — if you have a solution.

Case in point: the five ASX small caps are involved in water treatment have made an average gain of 260 per cent in the last 12 months.

Code	Name	Price (I)	1Y Tot Ret	6M Tot Ret	Market Cap
PO3	PURIFLOH LTD	4.51	718	-1	$141.2M
PET	PHOSLOCK ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES	1.215	192	226	$703.2M
FLC	FLUENCE CORP LTD	0.525	31	-4	$282.2M
SDV	SCIDEV LTD	0.405	352	600	$48.2M
DEM	DE.MEM LTD	0.21	6	37	$33.3M

The water is fine, folks. Dip your toes in here.

#2 Who made the gains? Here are September’s top 50 small cap miners and explorers

Big discoveries dominated September’s winner’s column.

#1 mover Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) made a huge copper discovery at its namesake Victorian project late in the month.

The explorer leapt ~330 per cent to $1 per share, while neighbouring explorer Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) also benefitted from the find with a 36 per cent uplift. ‘Nearology’ strikes again.

Earlier in the month, Alkane (ASX:ALK) discovered something very, very big at its Northern Molong porphyry project (NMPP) in NSW. The stock went for a run and finished the month up about 78 per cent.

Once again, the neighbours benefited.

Read all about it here.

#3 REVIEW: We test-drove Stake, the app that gives Aussie investors access to US stocks and ETFs

Sydney-based fintech Stake (stake.com.au)is a the share trading platform that gives investors exposure to thousands of US stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Sam took Stake for a week-long test drive to write this pretty comprehensive review. To get him started, CEO Matt Leibowitz and the Stake team even deposited $US350 into his account.

Did he lose the lot? Click here to find out.

#4 10 ASX small caps that doubled (and tripled!) in a single day in 2019

Headline kinda speaks for itself.

#5 Australian investors are falling in love with these gas stocks

Headline is right on the money because this article got hefty traffic.

Strike Energy (ASX:STX) and Warrego Energy (ASX:WGO) have arguably made the most waves with their ground-breaking West Erregulla-2 exploration well in WA’s Perth Basin.

But what other gas-focused small cap companies set investor pulses racing?

#6 Bargain Barrel: These are some of the ASX’s most intriguing small cap stocks

It’s at the bottom of the ASX barrel that punters can find gems amongst the turds that, with a little polishing, could truly shine.

In this column, we put the microscope on some microscopic, sub $10m market cap companies.

Dig in, you cheapskates.

#7 Hot Money Monday: The most in-demand stocks on the ASX right now

Each Monday, Stockhead recaps which stocks are heavily demanded by investors — or running hot.

Stockhead uses the Relative Strength Index (RSI), which measures how trading momentum is affecting the price action.

A reading of 70 and above means a company may have been overbought. If a stock has a reading of 30 or below, it could be undervalued.

Topping the list this week was Opticomm (ASX:OPC), which climbed steadily throughout September after joining the ASX boards on August 21. At last Friday’s close of $3.75, the stock had almost doubled from its $2 listing price.

(Don’t) get ‘em while they’re hot. That’s the rule.

#8 High Voltage: Is it almost time to get excited about cobalt again?

It’s been a long time, but cobalt bulls are finally waking up.

Cobalt hydroxide, sulphate and metal prices rose 20.9 per cent, 23.2 per cent and 17.3 per cent respectively in September, according to price reporting agency Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. This follows some big gains in August.

We bet there’s a bunch of cobalt-exposed small caps (and their investors) watching this pricing action very closely. Read about it here.

#9 Short & Caught: The ASX stocks investors are shorting right now

Short & Caught is Stockhead’s fortnightly recap of which ASX small cap stocks are heavily shorted (stocks that are shorted have investors betting that they fall).

Leading the pack is Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) and Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY). Both are producers in commodity markets, graphite and lithium, which have been struggling in 2019.