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

#1 Sure we’re not that popular with baby boomers, but just wait ’til they try us, say fintechs

Boomers struggling with technology. We see it all the time.

But they do have a lot of money which is why fintechs –currently catering to a younger,  but cash-strapped userbase — are trying to get the older gens on board. Just make the buttons bigger.

 

#2 Dr Boreham’s Crucible: the story of Clinuvel, an Australian triumph

A few weeks ago Clinuvel become one of the very few Australian biotechs to obtain fully-fledged FDA approval in the US. Shares spiked above $45, before settling down around $32. That gives it a market cap of around $1.56 billion.

Which makes the failed $2.17 a share, $95 million takeover offer from Retrophin in 2014 look like daylight robbery.

It shows that dreams do come true for small caps. Keep the faith, punters, and read about it here.

 

#3  A poor track record dogs US plays on the ASX

Investors could be forgiven for thinking that putting cash into ASX listed US entities means they’re getting in on the ground floor of the next big thing — but experience suggests otherwise.

From semiconductor plays Revasum and Pivotal Systems, to biotech focussed GI Dynamics (ASX:GID) and deflated breast implant maker AirXpanders, the track record of US companies listing on the ASX is surprisingly poor.

 

#4 High Voltage: That ‘15% EV penetration by 2024’ prediction is impossible

Last week LG Chem — one of the world’s main manufacturers of electric vehicle batteries — predicted that global EV sales would grow more than five-fold from 2018 levels to account for about 15 per cent of global vehicle sales in 2024.

There’s a problem though. Right now, we don’t have enough battery metals projects – lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite etc — in the pipeline to hit that target.

Where are the raw materials coming from?

 

#5 Hot Money Monday: These are the most in-demand stocks on the ASX right now

Each Monday, Stockhead recaps which stocks are most heavily in demand by investors.

A Relative Strength Index (RSI) reading of +70 is seen as the level at which a company may have been overbought, while a reading of 30 or below means it could be undervalued.

Who was flaming and frigid last week?

 

#6 Money Talks: 80-20 Investments’ Angie Ellis shares her hot retail stock tips

Money Talks is our regular drill down into what stocks investors are looking at right now. We’ll tap our extensive list of experts to see what’s hot, their top picks and what they’re looking out for.

This week, we heard from Angie Ellis, investment manager at 80-20 Investments, who has currently got her eye on the consumer discretionary sector. Here’s Angie’s top picks.

 

#7 Tim Treadgold: Rare earths could be another ‘buy the sector’ situation, just like nickel

As a sector, rare earths have a lot in their favour. Strong and growing demand. A dominant producer (China) with a bad habit of restricting supply. And a political push to see new projects developed.

But which stocks are worth a punt? All of them, says Treadgold.

“Spread your bets and buy the sector, because once the governments start talking about direct investment all rare earth stocks will react positively.”

 

#8 WiseTech’s CEO wants regulators to look at short sellers as JCap strikes again

Short selling is a dangerous game. Just ask the unlucky mugs who are a collective $US1.5 billion lighter when Tesla reported a surprise profit on Thursday.

But then there’s WiseTech (ASX:WTC) CEO Richard White, who is urging the government to address short-seller attacks after JCap wiped more than $2.3 billion from his company’s share price last week.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

#9. Barry FitzGerald: Lithium play Ardiden leaps on a golden opportunity in Canada

Exploring in and around historic Australian gold fields has been a winning formula for ASX-listed juniors of late.

Now the hunt is being expanded to other parts of the world, preferably in matching Tier 1 jurisdictions like Canada.

Microcap Ardiden (ASX:ADV)  has recently snuggled up close to some historic high-grade gold mines in the Pickle Lake gold mining camp in Ontario in Canada where some 3 million ounces of gold have been produced over time from now-closed mines.

It represents plenty of upside for this ~$6 million market cap explorer.

 

#10. Dear Secret Broker, my portfolio’s been violated

In-house veteran Secret Broker is regaling Stockhead readers with his colourful war stories — from the trading floor to the dealer’s desk.

This week he rummaged through the fan mail to bring us three of the less saucy communiques. Believe it or not.