Agoracom Blog Home

Author Archive

3-Way Junior Mining Consolidation Is Pierre Lassonde’s “Peanut Butter Manifesto”

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:50 PM on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

If you’re an investor in the junior gold mining and exploration sector, then you owe a hat tip to Pierre Lassonde. Lassonde is apparently the man responsible for consolidating 3 juniors into one earlier this week.

If you haven’t heard by now, Metallica Resources Inc., New Gold Inc. and Peak Gold Ltd. combined to create a new, mid-sized gold producer with a market cap of approximately $1.6-billion. I’m not going to bother with the details, GlobeInvestor.com carried the full story here. I’m covering this because it points to both a problem and solution in the junior mining and exploration sector.

LASSONDE HATES PEANUT BUTTER..YOU SHOULD TOO

What the hell does that mean? Listen closely. This is important and will only take a minute.

If you had told me 18 months ago that gold, silver, copper, platinum, etc were trading at today’s prices, I would have danced a jig while celebrating sky-rocketing share prices in the junior sector. So would many of my friends at Sprott, Pinetree and Canaccord, as well as, just about every one of our clients in the space.

Unfortunately, that has not transpired.

Why?

Over supply. Much like an overbuilt condo market, there is far too much supply of junior mining and exploration companies, especially exploration companies. Today, just about anybody with a piece of land in a far away location, whose grandfather once spotted a shiny rock, has become an “explorer”.

This creates a peanut butter effect where investors are thinly spread out over a far too large sector. If you think this sounds cute, don’t be fooled. The Peanut Butter Effect can take down some pretty big whales. It almost took down Yahoo, until a Senior Vice-President wrote the now infamous Peanut Butter Manifesto in which he summarized the company as follows:

“I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.  I hate peanut butter and so should you”

This is exactly what is happening in this industry. A thin layer of investors spread across way too many companies, with no particular focus on the good companies.

CONCLUSION

Lassonde obviously hates peanut butter, so he took action. We should all hate peanut butter and take similar action. Let the fly by nights die, consolidate those with decent assets and let the superstars stand up on their own two feet.

Quality over Quantity folks.  It is that simple.

It worked for AGORACOM in building this community to more than 10,000,000 pages per month. It has started working for Yahoo in re-building its business.  It will work for the junior mining and exploration sector.  The sooner the better.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Hits 10,500,000 Page Views For The Month

Posted by AGORACOM at 7:52 PM on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

It gives me great pleasure to announce that AGORACOM recorded 10,514,612 page views for the period February 25 – March 26. This is our biggest month since we announced the launch of our wiki-powered “Investor Controlled Discussion Forums” on October 11, 2007.

When we made first made the announcement, we set out to destroy the stock discussion forum status quo that we have all come to hate over the past 10 years thanks to unrelenting spam, profanity, stock bashing, stock hyping and assorted noise. Many thought it could not be done because we could neither change habits nor unseat the incumbents. We not only knew we could, we knew that we would. Now, more than lip service, the following numbers speak for themselves:

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

(Figures for February 25 – March 26, 2008. All figures reported by Google Analytics)

  • Page Views 10,514,612
  • Visits 711,385
  • Unique Visitors 133,641
  • Pages Per Visit 14.78
  • Avg Time On Site 10:48
  • Number Of Countries/Territories 161
  • Top 10 (Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Sweden, Mexico, Austria, Switzerland)

The numbers look even better when you consider:

  • The middle of March is pretty much a write-off for financial discussion as parents go on vacation or spend more time with their kids.
  • The numbers stem from pure discussion. No spam, flaming and bickering traffic.

HAPPY TO SEE A HAPPY COMMUNITY

We are very happy to see the data back up our theory that investors deeply desire the ability to amalgamate and discuss individual stock investments in a civilized community.

However, we are even happier to read the reaction of our members. Here are just some of the raving testimonials we’ve been able to pull from the site so far.

While we’re talking about our members, I want to take this moment to thank each and every one of them for believing in our model, spreading the word and breathing life into it. Without them, this would be one hell of an application with no users. A special thanks goes out to all HUB Leaders that abandoned their former communities at Stockhouse, Raging Bull, Yahoo Finance and others in hopes of a better experience. I’m glad our promises to you have been fulfilled.

STATUS QUO ISN’T SHAKING – YET

Now, I know we haven’t shaken any boots at the big 3 (AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft) just yet but the numbers and testimonials clearly show we have tabled a solution that is far more appealing to investors that are no longer willing to accept the unacceptable.

Until now, the trash has ruled the day, forcing the masses to abandon discussion forums and conduct due diligence either on their own, or in small groups. It is inefficient but it is the best option we’ve had for nearly a decade.

Eventually, the market corrects inefficiencies and AGORACOM has set its sights on correcting this one.

By refusing to sacrifice quality for quantity, AGORACOM is attracting and will continue to attract smart and conscientious investors that understand the wisdom of crowds. Eventually, quality begets quality and a massive community that both generates its own content and moderates itself will replace the status quo.

BLOGS CAN NOT REPLACE DISCUSSION FORUMS

With the advent of financial blogs – and some pretty great ones that include Paul Kedrosky, Roger Ehrenberg, Barry Ritholtz and Mark McQueen to name but a few – some might argue discussion forums are no longer necessary, even outdated. Don’t make that mistake. Blogs are great for insight into the most important economic issues from a wide array of great minds. However, they rarely stay focused on a particular topic for more than a week, if not a day.

Stock discussion forums, on the other hand, provide investors with an ability to exchange ideas and analyze one particular stock 24/7/365. You might read about macro events (i.e. sub-prime) on a blog but figuring out the ongoing impact on your specific stock investments requires an extended micro discussion that blogs can not provide.

CONCLUSION

This is Wiki meets IGC (investor generated content) at its finest. There are bigger communities to be sure – but can you find another vertical in which the need for a drastically more efficient model is more needed? Trillions of dollars are at stake. People’s futures are at stake. We can DIGG for this and Wikipedia that – but what are their implications for inefficient or imperfect information?

Stock discussion forums are vital to the lives of so many people. I believe we are about to witness a paradigm shift that makes them valuable once again. Stay tuned for more.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM CEO ALERT! Canadian Small-Cap Financing Scam Discovered

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:35 PM on Monday, March 31st, 2008

The following is an actual alert generated by AGORACOM for Canadian Small-Cap CEO’s. It is not a prank. Please read the message below and pass it on to colleagues. We have uncovered a financing scam taking place in Toronto, which may very well be taking place in other Canadian cities as well.

It has come to our attention that at least 8 Canadian Small-Cap CEO’s in the resources sector have become actual or potential victims of a scam.  There are probably many more, as response to this alert grows everyday.

THE SCAM

CEO’s are contacted under the auspices of a massive financing from a private high-net worth investor that wished to remain anonymous until meeting with the company in person.

A meeting is arranged at the Exchange Tower (or 20 Bay Street), where each of the CEO’s were taken to an unmarked suite. The “investor” suffers some kind of a mishap at the last second and can not attend the meeting. In the meantime, attendees of the meeting are engaged in a poker game and invite the client to sit down and play a high-stakes poker game.

CEO’s that refuse to participate are faced with high-pressure tactics to coerce their participation. Without being specific, we can verify that over $30,000 has been scammed so far.

We do not believe this is a coincidence and are now warning all of our clients and colleagues to stay away from any such invitation to meet undisclosed investors at the Exchange Tower, 20 Bay Street or any other location. If an investor is serious about financing your company, ask them to meet at your offices.

This is not unique to AGORACOM clients, nor do we believe it is unique to Toronto. As such, please forward this message to all of your colleagues and peers as soon as possible, including media contacts. We need to get this message out as fast as possible.

If you have been a victim of this scam, please advise us as soon as possible, as we are considering the involvement of the RCMP.

UPDATE: We received numerous phone calls from clients and non-clients within minutes of sending out the message. Here are the highlights:

  • It looks like 20 Bay Street is now another location being used by the scammers.
  • One person remembers a similar scam taking place years ago but can’t believe they have the guts to pull it off in the Exchange Tower today.
  • Another CEO advised the scammers that he was bringing along his IR person to the meeting. The scammers asked him to come alone but the CEO insisted. The scammers canceled the meeting the next day.
  • Another CEO was propositioned but advised he did not require financing at this time.
  • Another CEO accepted the invitation and met with the group. The meeting took place at 20 Bay Street. Walked into the room and a game was taking place with $100 bills in a suitcase on top of the table. While they waited for the investor, the scammer that arranged the meeting joined the table and began playing. Within a couple of minutes he received a phone call and asked the CEO to “play my hand”. CEO said he didn’t want to be responsible for his money. Scammer said “no problem”. Within 10 minutes he was up $1,000. The scammer came back to the room and thanked the CEO. Gave him $500 as a “thank-you” and asked him to play along with them. Within a few hands, CEO was up $1,500. CEO got up to leave as he knew something was up. They asked him to play a couple of more hands. Next hand he was dealt a full-house. Rules of the game required holder of pairs to double the pot. He now knew this was a scam and folded his hand, giving back the entire $1,500. They offered to give him IOU but he left quickly. He had won 80% of the hands until that point.

UPDATE #2: Just received e-mail from a CEO that was contemplating meeting with the scammers on Wednesday. Now that he knows who they are, he cancelled. Have to love the speed of Web 2.0!

UPDATE #3: Just received another call from someone that received a call from the scammers. Looks like they are still going strong.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Mar 31/08)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:57 AM on Monday, March 31st, 2008

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 31st and we’ve found 7 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time! 🙂

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • China North East Petroleum – OTC BB:CNEH $2.35
  • Huifeng Bio – OTC BB:HFGB $0.75
  • FirstFlight – OTC BB:FFLT $0.36
  • ECOtality – OTC BB:ETLY $0.208
  • JEMTEC – TSX-V:JTC $1.19
  • Stellar Pharmaceuticals – TSX-V:SLX, OTC BB:SLXCF $0.40
  • Orko Silver – TSX-V:OK $1.98

AGORACOM Surveys Over 650 Retail Investors At PDAC 2008

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:14 PM on Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Good evening to you all. As most of you know, AGORACOM was once again a proud sponsor of the PDAC International Convention. This is the world’s biggest mining and exploration conference, with over 18,000 delegates from all over the world.

In addition to the PDAC’s greatest hospitality suite event ever (see: Invitation + Video + Photos) , we also found time to conduct great business. One thing we did was once again survey attendees over the entire 4 days in order to better understand their online research habits and favourite metals/minerals. (View 2007 Survey Results Here).

With more than 650 investors surveyed, we were once again able to extract some very valuable information. The results will have different implications for each of you depending on your core commodity and whether or not you have an online IR strategy.

As expected, I’ve added my own commentary following each of the questions but welcome your feedback via posting your comments at the end of the post.

Without further adieu, here are the results:

QUESTION #1 – Which Metal/Mineral Are You Most Bullish On?

  • Gold (54%)
  • Silver (12.5%)
  • Nickel (8.8%)
  • Uranium (7.7%)
  • Diamonds (6.6%)
  • Copper (5.8%)
  • Molybdenum (4.6%)

QUESTION #2 – Do You Prefer Small or Large-Cap Resource Companies?

  • Small-Cap (79%)
  • Large-Cap (21%)

Big change here. Last year, it was ~ 88 / 12. Either investors are looking up the ladder, or more large-cap people are coming by the AGORACOM booth to find small-cap investments.

QUESTION #3 – What Percentage Of Your Research Into New Stocks Is Done Online?

  • 100% of Research – (17.6%)
  • 90% of Research – (23.4%)
  • 75% of Research – (21.7%)
  • 50% of Research – (19.6%)
  • < 50% of Research – (17%)

After a little further tabulation, we can conclude that the web accounts for 69% of all research into all new investments. Still think online investor relations and marketing isn’t important? If you want to take a look at more supporting data that I’ve reported on, please review the following headlines.

QUESTION #4 – Would You Like To Participate In Private Placements Of TSX-V Resource Companies?

  • Yes – 56.5%
  • No – 43.5%

Retail investors obviously have an appetite for participating in private placements. AGORACOM is now taking this a step further by building a database via our very own private placement opportunities initiative. If you would like access to our database for a future financing, please let us know.

QUESTION #5 – Do You Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research?

  • Yes – 54.4%
  • No – 45.6%

Two comments here:

First, small-cap CEO’s and IRO’s need to pay close attention to this number. Though most of you ignore them by saying “I don’t read forums”, the fact of the matter is that 55% of your current and prospective investors use them for information and research. Thus, either you take control of your message, or somebody else will.

Second – and more importantly – 80% of investors that don’t currently use discussion forums would use them if quality control measures were implemented. As such, the true percentage of investors that participate or want to use discussion forums is actually closer to 90%.

Conclusion – If 90% of your current or prospective investors want a community that they can use for information, collaboration and research – give it to them! Just look at how it has helped Noront Resources communicate with their investor base.

Question #6 – If You Have Used Stockhouse, Do You Click On Their Ads?

  • Never – 53.8%
  • Rarely – 26.1%
  • Sometimes – 16.7%
  • Often – 3.4%

Assume we are extremely conflicted here, so I won’t provide any commentary on these figures. If you are a Stockhouse advertiser, you probably want to pay close attention to them.

CONCLUSION

The importance of the web in achieving your IR goals simply can’t be overstated. If you think a website alone is sufficient, you are wrong and need to read this report in order to avoid wasting more valuable time.

Investors are using the web to research and discuss their current or prospective investments. They are dissecting your fundamentals, collaborating about your future, watching videos, sharing photos and making decisions about whether to buy, sell or hold your stock.

You have an incredible, cost-efficient opportunity to be a part of that process and significantly impact the future of your company for years to come. Feed your audience with the best information possible, ask them questions, listen to their feedback and create a connection with an ever increasing number of investors that will pay you perpetual dividends.

If you are not a significant part of that ecosystem, you are doing your company a great disservice and will inevitably be left behind the unstoppable growth and habits of online investors.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Mar 28/08)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:54 AM on Friday, March 28th, 2008

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 28th and we’ve found 5 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time! 🙂

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • China Ritar Power – OTC BB:CRTP $2.70
  • China Agritech – OTC BB:CAGC $2.55
  • Direct Insite Corp – OTC BB:DIRI $1.60
  • Merrex Gold – TSX-V:MXI $0.52
  • Geoinformatics – TSX-V:GXL $0.225

AGORACOM Client – Avalon Ventures – Rings Opening Bell On TSX

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:44 PM on Thursday, March 27th, 2008

I’m very proud to announce that one of our longest and best supporting clients, Avalon Ventures, rang the bell and opened the TSX markets today. Avalon traded on the TSX Venture (VSE in the old days) for 13 years but officially graduated to the TSX on February 28.

They are up on the front page of the TSX.com but probably only for the day, so I took the liberty of posting the picture here for everybody. We also have video of the event that will be coming in over the next couple of days. I’ll post it at that time.

Congratulations to Don Bubar, Avalon’s President & CEO, as well as, his entire team. Don is the star of the show for piloting the company through rough market conditions a few years back – and now ending up on the big board.

During his speech, Don was also gracious enough to thank his management team and supporters of the Company during the resource bear market years. A class act.

Congratulations to everybody that attended at the invitation of Don for their support over the years. We look forward to more great things out of Avalon in the years to come.

For those of you that are new to the Avalon Ventures story, do yourself a favour and take a closer look by visiting their HUB or website.

Avalon Ventures Ltd. is a Canadian junior mineral exploration and development company with a primary focus on the rare metals and minerals that are in increasing demand for environmentally-beneficial high technology applications. These include lithium, tantalum, cesium, beryllium, indium, gallium, rare earth elements (“REE”) such as neodymium and terbium and rare minerals such as calcium feldspar.

UPDATE: We now have 2 videos from the ceremony. One video contains the opening remarks from both Don Bubar and TSX representatives. The second video is a quick interview with me and Don in front of the TSX stock board with the Avalon logo behind us. Both of the videos can be found here.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Mar 27/08)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:51 AM on Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 27th and we’ve found 4 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time! 🙂

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • Golden Arrow – TSX-V:GRG, FSE:GAC $0.57
  • TurboSonic – OTC BB:TSTA $0.65
  • Brazilian Diamonds – TSX:BDY Halted
  • St Genevieve Resources – CNQ:SGVL Halted

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Mar 26/08)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:48 AM on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s March 26th and we’ve found 6 great press releases and stock halts from both sides of the border to report on at the open.  Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed and download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time! 🙂

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • Serengeti Resources – TSX-V:SIR $0.58
  • Eloro Resources – TSX-V:ELO $0.26
  • Diversified Industries – TSX-V:DVS $0.26
  • Andina Minerals – TSX-V:ADM $3.64
  • Emergent Group – OTC BB:EMGP $3.25
  • Red Hill Energy – TSX-V:RH $0.63

SEC Suspends 3 More Companies For Stock Spam and Video Promotions

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:13 AM on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

A loud round of applause please to the SEC for suspending trading in 3 more companies that haven’t adequately disclosed information to investors and have been the subject of both spam e-mail campaigns and promotional videos on YouTube.

The action warrants even further commendation when you consider the SEC probably has its hands full with major Wall Street problems related to the sub-prime debacle.

This isn’t the first time we’ve applauded the SEC for taking action on this very important issue that we are very passionate about ourselves. We consider stock/fax/mail spam a scourge on the industry because it inundates investors with unwanted solicitations, while also hurting the reputation of the small and micro-cap markets.

HIGHLIGHTS OF SEC PRESS RELEASE

The SEC issued a press release with the full details but here are the highlights:

1] The SEC identified the three companies as:

  • NeoTactix Corp. (NTCX – OTCBB)
  • Graystone Park Enterprises Inc. (GPKE – Pink Sheets) and
  • Younger America Inc. (YNGR – Pink Sheets)

2] Trading in the three companies’ shares has been suspended for 10 business days and won’t resume until April 4.

3] “The videos often repeat information in the companies’ press releases and are posted to coincide with traditional spam e-mail campaigns.

4] Each of the companies “inadequately disclosed its assets, business operations and financial condition.

SEC ANTI-SPAM INITIATIVE HAS NETTED 50 COMPANIES, PROMOTERS, SPAMMERS AND INSIDERS

The SEC used the press release to also bring the public up to speed on the effectiveness of its Anti-Spam Initiative. You’ll be happy to know that more than 50 companies have had trading in their securities suspended and the SEC has brought several enforcement actions against the perpetrators behind these companies.

The Result? Spam complaints are down 68% in just one year, from 167,000 to 54,000. Like me, I’m sure you’ve also seen a drastic reduction in the amount of stock spam in your daily inbox (thank god).

CONCLUSION

It’s nice to know that complaints aren’t going into some black hole and collecting cobwebs. The SEC is obviously taking this matter very seriously, so you should do all you can to assist them and eliminate this scourge on our markets once and for all. If you have a complaint, make sure to send it to: [email protected]

Regards,
George

UPDATE: Footnoted.Org (a great blog that reports on the fine print footnotes in SEC filings) has some more details about the video hostess and company behind this latest SEC press release. Interesting stuff.