In life, you generally get what you pay for. So we don't pay much attention to free-to-read research reports distributed through advertising funded by the company they're about.

But a "special report" on Hill End Gold published this week by small-cap website Stockhead had an unusually hefty endorsement. Retweeting the link to the research, which predicted a 500 per cent return over 12 months for investors, was Julian Babarczy, who oversees the emerging companies strategy at top hedge fund Regal Funds Management, the stock's largest single investor.