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Paul Kedrosky To Deliver Keynote Presentation At AGORACOM Online Gold and Commodities Conference

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:16 PM on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Kedrosky

I am very proud to announce that one of the world’s top business bloggers, Dr. Paul Kedrosky, will be sharing his views on the global economy, markets and commodities at The AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference.   You’ll read his bio below but I’ll tell you straight up that Paul Kedrosky is one of a hand full of people you have to follow if you truly seek the kind of overall knowledge necessary to make you a better investor.  There are very few people in the world that can provide both information and analysis related to the macro, micro, geo-political, data and charts that affect our financial lives.  It is the very reason I asked him to be a keynote speaker at our inaugural event.

If institutional investors hire him to advise them, you’d be a fool not to follow his blog for free.  If you have any doubt, que the profile most of us can only dream about.

PROFILE

Paul Kedrosky is a sought-after speaker; an analyst for CNBC television; a columnist for TheStreet/RealMoney; and the editor of Infectious Greed, a financial blog that was named one of the Top 3 Business Blogs in the world in 2008.

He is frequently quoted in major publications around the world, including influential columns and articles for the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Harvard Business Review, and others. He has also appeared on many media outlets, including CNN, PBS Newshour, ABC Nightline, and the New York Times.

Dr. Kedrosky is currently a Senior Fellow at the $2 Billion Kauffman Foundation, where he is focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of risk capital. He is also Senior Research Advisor to Ten Asset Management, a southern California institutional money management firm using innovative quantitative techniques in capital markets. He is also a fellow and on the advisory board of the Berkeley Center for Innovative Financial Technology. He is an advisor to various other companies, institutional investors, and venture capital firms.

Paul has also been a professional seed investor, having run an innovative seed capital program based out of the highly-ranked University of California, San Diego. He has also been a venture partner at Ventures West, a large institutional venture capital firm.

He has a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario, an M.B.A. from Queen’s University, and a B. Engineering from Carleton University.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Investors interested in watching his presentation should consult our conference schedule, which will provide a direct link on Friday morning at 11:00 AM EST.  The presentation will be hosted right here on this blog, so feel free to subscribe via RSS, Twitter or …. e-mail …. to receive notification

In addition, Mr. Kedrosky will be in good company amongst our highly acclaimed line up of keynote speakers that will include:

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Online Gold Conference | 4 Comments »

Chinese Small-Cap Company Feature: China Nepstar Chain Drugstore

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

As many of you know, we are very bullish on the long-term future of Chinese small cap and mid cap companies for two reasons:

1] The obvious reason – China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and nothing is going to slow down its ascent over the next 50 years and beyond. Investing in growth companies there just makes too much sense.

2] Great Results and Valuations – Many Small Cap Chinese Companies are listing in the US (OTCBB, NYSE Alternext and NASDAQ) with great financial results. Unlike many dubious US Small Cap Companies, Chinese Companies don’t seem to believe in losing money or failing to execute in a business plan. As such, 7-digit revenues and profits are very common.

From a valuation point of view, many Chinese companies became a victim of their own success in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. Why? When the world needed to start liquidating, one of the first places they looked were China where most investors had significant gains to sell into. This resulted in the proverbial baby being thrown out with the bathwater and some great valuations.

TODAY’S FEATURED COMPANY

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore (NYSE:NPD)

Npd

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. (NYSE: NPD – News) is China’s largest retail drugstore chain based on the number of directly operated stores. As of September 30, 2009, the Company had 2,337 stores across 67 cities, one headquarter distribution center and 12 regional distribution centers in China

On December 1st 2009, the Company reported it’s third quarter financial results.

Check out the full details below:

Read Full Press Release

Chinese Stocks TV Segment

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Revenue increased 8.0% to US$81 million compared to US$75.4 million in the third quarter of 2008 on a pro forma basis
  • Operating income rose 92.1% to US$5 million compared to US$2.6 million in the third quarter of 2008 on a pro forma basis
  • Net income was US$5 million

YOUR RESEARCH STARTING POINTS FOR CHINESE SMALL CAP AND MID CAP COMPANIES

We’ve provided investors with two great starting points to research great Chinese small cap and mid cap companies.

1. ChinaSecurities.com – ChinaSecurities.com tracks 250 of the best small cap and mid cap companies trading on North American exchanges. It provides you with the best of the best in two ways. First, the front page lists the best news of the day coming out of the space. It does so by giving you a text view of the best press releases by industry and via Chinese Stocks TV, a 5-minute broadcast every morning just after the open. Chinese Stocks TV is archived, so you can catch up on shows you missed.

Second, if you want to research each of the 250 companies to find candidates for your portfolio, it has a very intuitive directory that lets you quickly review each company on the master list, or parse it out by industry and exchange if you have a particular sector of interest. Cool stuff.

2. Right here on AGORACOM, you can refer to our China category for other featured Chinese Small-Cap Companies. As always, we will disclose any IR relationship with any public company. Given the sheer number of great Chinese Small-Cap Companies out there, you can expect us NOT to have an IR relationship with most of these companies.

Regards,
George

Posted in China | Comments Off on Chinese Small-Cap Company Feature: China Nepstar Chain Drugstore

Jean-Francois Tardif To Deliver Keynote Presentation At AGORACOM Online Gold and Commodities Conference

Posted by AGORACOM at 8:27 AM on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

JF

I am very proud to announce that (retired) superstar Hedge Fund Manager, Jean-Francois Tardif, will be taking a break from retirement for 30 minutes to share his views on the global economy, markets and commodities at The AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference.  “JF”, as he is often referred to by the street, is a sought after market commentator due to his incomparable track record of success.   Specifically, prior to his retirement in June 2009, Jean-François Tardif was the Lead Portfolio Manager for the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP, Sprott Opportunities RSP Fund and Sprott Opportunities Offshore Fund with combined assets over US$450 million.

In 2007, Mr. Tardif was recognized at the HFM Week’s US Performance Awards Ceremony as the Best Canada-Based Hedge Fund Manager and was nominated for the Best Long/Short Hedge Fund Manager award. In addition, Barron’s ranked his Sprott Opportunities Fund as the #18 Hedge Fund on the planet.

In 2007 and 2008, he won Globe Investor’s My One and Only stock-picking contest in both 2007 and 2008.  For the five year ended April 30, 2009, his Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund posted a blistering average annual return of 21 per cent.

Mr. Tardif has been frequently interviewed and quoted on the AGORACOM Blog where many investors benefited from heeding his advice concerning the effects of global deleveraging.  We are very pleased to have him back for our conference and kicking off our Friday session.

Investors interested in watching his presentation should consult our conference schedule, which will provide a direct link on Friday morning at 8:30 AM EST.  The presentation will be hosted right here on this blog, so feel free to subscribe via RSS, Twitter or …. e-mail …. to receive notification

In addition, Mr. Tardif will be in good company amongst our highly acclaimed line up of keynote speakers that will include:

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, Online Gold Conference | 1 Comment »

      AGORACOM Generates 8.5 Million Page Views From 142,000 Investors This Month

      Posted by AGORACOM at 7:27 AM on Monday, November 30th, 2009

      As we head into our first ever Online Gold & Commodities Conference, I’m happy to announce that AGORACOM traffic is gaining significant strength with some huge traffic numbers for the month (October 25 – November 25, 2009).  These numbers are significantly stronger than the last 30 day report I put out, in which we generated 7.9 million pages from 131,500 visitors.  Awesome numbers at the time – but dwarfed by today’s numbers:

      • 141,943 investors visited AGORACOM.  This is the equivalent of selling out 7 NHL/NBA stadiums in 30 days
      • They visited 818,172 times
      • They read 8.56 million pages of information
      • Here is a snapshot of our Google Analytics summary

      AGORACOM - Traffic Nov 25

      BUILT-IN AUDIENCE FOR COMPANIES PRESENTING AT OUR ONLINE CONFERENCES

      Remember, what is especially impressive about these numbers is that fact that we clean 98% of the garbage posts found on other discussion forums.  As such, this is pure investor traffic and a great example of quality over quantity.

      In addition, AGORACOM is highly focused on the small-cap space, making this is a powerful targeted community of investors with substantial appeal to small-cap companies.  This bodes well for our upcoming AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference, as well as, future conferences we are planning for 2010.

      If you are a public company deciding on your conference strategy for 2010, AGORACOM brings a combination of a huge built-in, targeted audience and proven technology that has not been duplicated by other online conference providers.

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, AGORACOM Traffic, Online Gold Conference, Online Investor Relations | Comments Off on AGORACOM Generates 8.5 Million Page Views From 142,000 Investors This Month

      Gregor Macdonald To Provide Keynote Presentation At AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference This Week

      Posted by AGORACOM at 6:51 PM on Sunday, November 29th, 2009

      I am very proud to announce that Gregor Macdonald, an oil analyst and energy sector investor who also focuses on the coming transition to alternatives, is a keynote speaker at this week’s AGORACOM Online Gold and Commodities Conference, this December 3rd and 4th We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet but we can tell you that Gregor is working hard and “feeling quite good about my presentation, which will concentrate on Coal, and Energy Transition (with some internal nods to failed monetary policy and scarce resources)”.

      Gregor’s thoughts on the energy sector and alternatives are sought after by investors around the world, as evidenced by the fact he has written for the Financial Times of London and  cited in the New York Times, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, WIRED, and the Oil And Gas Journal.  In addition, he recently appeared on MSNBC in the United States and BNN in Canada.

      Gregor has also made a major impact on the real-time financial discussion stream via the StockTwits Financial Network, where more than 3,000 investors follow his commentary and watch is weekly 1-hour show every Sunday night. As such, his keynote will provide tremendous value to investors that are seeing direction in the energy markets during this volatile time.  Please check our schedule to tune into Gregor’s presentation.  The conference is free for investors and does not even require registration unless you plan to interact with companies, presenters and fellow investors.

      In addition, Gregor will be in good company amongst our highly acclaimed line up of keynote speakers that will include:

      Gregor produces two newsletters:  Gregor.us Monthly – a big picture take on global energy and economics and Gregor Weekly – a new global macro and model portfolio service via the StockTwits financial network,

      You can follow his free public commentary via his blog, Twitter or StockTwits TV.

      See you at the conference!

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Commodities, Online Gold Conference, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Gregor Macdonald To Provide Keynote Presentation At AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference This Week

      Blog Maintenance At 3AM EST

      Posted by AGORACOM at 4:50 PM on Sunday, November 29th, 2009

      Good evening everyone. Just a quick note that our blogs (Peter’s and George’s) will be down for about an hour around 3AM EST. We are upgrading server power for both blogs, which run on separate servers from the actual web site.

      Thanks and have a great evening.

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Blog Maintenance At 3AM EST

      Why Gold Will Hit $2,000 In 2010 and Possibly $4,000 Thereafter As China / USA Engage In Game Of Currency Chicken

      Posted by AGORACOM at 10:52 AM on Sunday, November 29th, 2009

      Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for McLean, Virginia-based consulting firm Omnis, was on CNBC recently repeating his very compelling case for gold.   I stress “repeating” because gold “extremists” are typically not welcome on CNBC, yet in an appearance back in September - GATA reported the following –

      Rickards was asked to analyze an essay published in the Wall Street Journal by Fed Governor Kevin M. Warsh – the Fed governor who acknowledged to GATA that the Fed is concealing records of its gold swap arrangements with foreign banks.  Rickards construed Warsh’s essay to mean that the Fed will be seeking to regulate the gold price closely even as the Fed needs to devalue the dollar by about half over the next 14 years to restore solvency to the United States.

      …… Central bankers, he added, now plan to turn the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights into the new world reserve currency replacing the dollar, a new round of money printing to create some stability in the world financial system during the dollar’s steady but gradual and controlled devaluation.

      On his latest CNBC appearance, Rickards states that gold should easily reach $2,000 per ounce next year just as a matter of supply and demand.  However, given the fact the United States and China are devaluing their currencies against each other in a game of chicken, gold could start being considered money again, leading to a price between $4,000 and $11,000 to support the big increase in the world’s money supply.

      Whether you agree with him or not, his latest CNBC interview is a must watch.  He is articulate and, as you can see from the response of fellow panelists, very well respected.  You can watch Rickards’ comments at the CNBC archive below.

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in All Recent Posts, Gold $2,000 | Comments Off on Why Gold Will Hit $2,000 In 2010 and Possibly $4,000 Thereafter As China / USA Engage In Game Of Currency Chicken

      Over 3,850 Investors From 54 Countries Visit AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference, Which Begins December 3rd, 2009

      Posted by AGORACOM at 6:18 PM on Friday, November 27th, 2009

      With 1 week remaining before the start of The AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference, investor interest in the conference continues to ramp up.

      TRAFFIC HIGHLIGHTS

      • Analytics (tracked by Google) are for the period November 5 – 26
      • 3,853 investors visited the conference site
      • They spent an average of 4:53 on the conference site
      • These stats do not include investor engagement once they clicked through to company HUB.
      • They came from 54 different countries
      • Top 10 countries in order of top to bottom …. Canada, United States, India, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland (replaces Colombia from last week), Switzerland, Malta (replaces Argentina from last week)
      • Visitors from the top 10 countries represent the continents of North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and South America

      MARKETING PHASE SET TO BEGIN

      The encouraging part about our progress to date is the fact that we are launching the intense segment of our marketing on Monday.  This will include 8 TV ads per day on BNN, 25 -30 press releases issued by participating companies, announcements by our keynote and workshop speakers, our own press release, blog posts and tweets.  Here is one YouTube version of the television ad we’ll be running on BNN from Monday – Thursday.  The other version, which lists our speakers in a different order (Grandich and Coffin first) will be up on Monday.

      Feel free to grab the embed code and post it to your site, or simply forward the link to fellow investors.

      A BRAND NEW AUDIENCE OF INVESTORS

      I am especially pleased with the depth of international visits, which I cited as a primary reason for taking conferences online. For the first time ever, investors from anywhere in the world will be able to fully participate in a conference that is not reserved for investors that live close to a “conference city” or can afford to travel to one (New York, San Fran, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Vancouver, New Orleans, Las Vegas).

      Specifically, for the first time ever, international investors can now watch company presentations and listen to valuable insights from keynote speakers at the same time as everybody else. International investors will no longer feel alienated and out of the loop. By opening our doors to them and welcoming them on an equal footing, we open up the lines of communication that will flow for as long as we have the web.

      As I say this, I also don’t want to forget the massive audience of North American investors that simply don’t have the time to fly to conferences due to work and family obligations. Think about it, how many people have the luxury of taking 3 days off to fly to different conferences?

      Ultimately, this level of engagement with a brand new audience – both local and international – will lead to tremendous benefits for the entire industry. The important thing to remember is that we will need to continue these efforts from here on out. Companies that embrace the concept of a borderless online investor community will be the biggest winners in the next decade.

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, AGORACOM Traffic, All Recent Posts, Online Gold Conference | Comments Off on Over 3,850 Investors From 54 Countries Visit AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference, Which Begins December 3rd, 2009

      Chinese Small-Cap Company Feature: ChinaEdu

      Posted by AGORACOM at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

      As many of you know, we are very bullish on the long-term future of Chinese small cap and mid cap companies for two reasons:

      1] The obvious reason – China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and nothing is going to slow down its ascent over the next 50 years and beyond. Investing in growth companies there just makes too much sense.

      2] Great Results and Valuations – Many Small Cap Chinese Companies are listing in the US (OTCBB, NYSE Alternext and NASDAQ) with great financial results. Unlike many dubious US Small Cap Companies, Chinese Companies don’t seem to believe in losing money or failing to execute in a business plan. As such, 7-digit revenues and profits are very common.

      From a valuation point of view, many Chinese companies became a victim of their own success in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. Why? When the world needed to start liquidating, one of the first places they looked were China where most investors had significant gains to sell into. This resulted in the proverbial baby being thrown out with the bathwater and some great valuations.

      TODAY’S FEATURED COMPANY

      ChinaEdu Corporation (NASDAQ:CEDU)

      Cedu

      ChinaEdu Corporation is an educational services provider in China, incorporated as an exempted limited liability company in the Cayman Islands. Established in 1999, the Company’s primary business is to provide comprehensive services to the online degree programs of leading Chinese universities. These services include academic program development, technology services, enrollment marketing, student support services and finance operations. The Company’s other lines of businesses include the operation of private primary and secondary schools, online interactive tutoring services and providing marketing and support for international curriculum programs.

      On November 24th 2009, the Company reported it’s third quarter financial results.

      Check out the full details below:

      Read Full Press Release

      Chinese Stocks TV Segment

      HIGHLIGHTS

      • Total net revenue for the third quarter of 2009 was $13.1 million, representing a 9.4% increase from the corresponding period in 2008.
      • Gross profit for the third quarter of 2009 was $8.0 million, representing a 7.8% increase from $7.4 million for the corresponding period of 2008. Total gross margin for the third quarter of 2009 was 61.0% as compared to 62.0% for the corresponding period of 2008.
      • Income from operations for the third quarter of 2009 was $2.9 million, as compared to a loss of $0.2 million for the corresponding period of 2008.

      YOUR RESEARCH STARTING POINTS FOR CHINESE SMALL CAP AND MID CAP COMPANIES

      We’ve provided investors with two great starting points to research great Chinese small cap and mid cap companies.

      1. ChinaSecurities.com – ChinaSecurities.com tracks 250 of the best small cap and mid cap companies trading on North American exchanges. It provides you with the best of the best in two ways. First, the front page lists the best news of the day coming out of the space. It does so by giving you a text view of the best press releases by industry and via Chinese Stocks TV, a 5-minute broadcast every morning just after the open. Chinese Stocks TV is archived, so you can catch up on shows you missed.

      Second, if you want to research each of the 250 companies to find candidates for your portfolio, it has a very intuitive directory that lets you quickly review each company on the master list, or parse it out by industry and exchange if you have a particular sector of interest. Cool stuff.

      2. Right here on AGORACOM, you can refer to our China category for other featured Chinese Small-Cap Companies. As always, we will disclose any IR relationship with any public company. Given the sheer number of great Chinese Small-Cap Companies out there, you can expect us NOT to have an IR relationship with most of these companies.

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in China | Comments Off on Chinese Small-Cap Company Feature: ChinaEdu

      AGORACOM Chief Commentator, Peter Grandich, Talks $1,200 Gold With The Street.com – But Fears $5,000 Gold

      Posted by AGORACOM at 1:48 AM on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

      If you don’t follow Peter Grandich’s blog, then you are missing out on what is arguably the best gold analyst we have seen over the last several years.  He is quoted in the media so often that I can no longer keep up.  Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch, BNN – you name it, they are calling him.

      To this end, please find enclosed a video of his latest commentary on TheStreet.com. Though Grandich is not betting on $5,000 gold and frankly wouldn’t want to live in a world that will have gone terribly wrong for gold to be at those prices, he is sticking with his $1,200 target by the end of the year.

      He find support for his bullish stance on gold in the fact that it is no longer the domain of so called “extremists” that were laughed at when they predicted $1,000 gold a few hundred dollars ago. Specifically, he cites long-respected Wall Street stalwarts turned gold bulls such as:

      • Paul Tudor Jones
      • John Paulson
      • David Einhorn

      Each of these men spoke about their recent conversion to bullish gold in this great article over at CBS Marketwatch.  This is a must read because these are some pretty great investors – just don’t forget the fact that Peter Grandich has been long on gold for several hundred dollars longer.

      Way to go Petey!

      Regards,
      George

      Posted in AGORACOM In The Press, All Recent Posts, Gold $2,000, Online Gold Conference | Comments Off on AGORACOM Chief Commentator, Peter Grandich, Talks $1,200 Gold With The Street.com – But Fears $5,000 Gold

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