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AGORACOM Surveys Online Research Habits of Investors at 2009 Toronto PDAC Conference

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:16 AM on Thursday, March 26th, 2009

AGORACOM is pleased to announce the results of the Small Cap Resource Investor Survey from the Toronto PDAC Conference held on March 1-4, 2009.

The results of this survey could be invaluable to small-cap metals and mining companies across North America.  Given the global economic situation, as well as, the speed at which the Internet impacts investor relations, we continue to survey investors at conferences in order to better understand their online habits and preferences.

One trend that stands out, when comparing the results to the survey we did one year ago at the 2008 PDAC, is that online stock research, collaboration, and discussions continues to increase.

The results clearly point to an overwhelming need for a “pro-active” and “integrated” online IR strategy that goes well beyond your basic “text” website.

2009 Toronto PDAC Conference Survey Results

With approximately 100+ small cap resource investors surveyed at the 2009 Toronto PDAC Conference, we were able to extract some extremely valuable information that will be of great importance to all of us.

The information will have different implications for each one of you, depending on your primary metal/mineral, market capitalization and online strategy. As such, though I’ve provided some tertiary comments following each of the results below, the final analysis will be your own.

To this end, we’re happy to provide you with the following results:

AGORACOM Survey Highlights

  • 50% of investors were most Bullish on Gold compared to other minerals and metals.
  • 75% of investors prefer Small-Cap Resource Companies over Large-Cap.
  • 75% of investors conduct 75%+ of their stock research online.
  • 55% of investors conduct 90%+ of their stock research online.
  • 54% of investors use discussion forums for information and/or research.

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

Gold (50%)

Silver (15%)

Uranium (12%)

Nickel (9%)

Copper (5%)

Diamonds (5%)

Chromite (1%)

Moly (1%)

March ’08 Results – 54% were bullish on Gold.

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

Small (75%)

Large (18%)

March ’08 Results – 79 over 21

(more…)

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Surveys | 1 Comment »

North American Gem Joins AGORACOM 100 With 2 Coal Projects And 6 Million Tonnes of .25% Copper Equivalent

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:04 PM on Monday, March 16th, 2009

On Friday March 13, 2009 North American Gem Inc. was added to the AGORACOM 100. The Company’s primary goal is to explore for Coal in North America, currently the focus is in Saskatchewan and West Virginia. In addition to Coal exploration, the Company also has interest in Uranium, Copper, Gold, Molybdenum and other base metals in Canada.

Highlights include:

  • 2 coal projects (West Virginia and Saskatchewan)
  • Acquired Appalachia Coal Corp. and the control of approx. 20,000 acres if coal leases
  • Over 1.4 million acres of coal permit applications in Saskatchewan
  • A NI43-101 Resource Estimate of 6.0 Million tonnes indicated and 141 Million tonnes inferred at a minimum of 0.25% Copper equivalent at its Louise Lake Property in BC

Recent News

NORTH AMERICAN GEM INC. ANNOUNCES THE MOBILIZATION OF DRILL RIGS TO THE SAFFLE AND DALTON TRACTS IN WEST VIRGINIA

14:27 EST Thursday, March 12, 2009

NORTH AMERICAN GEM INC. RECEIVES PROSPECTING PERMIT FOR THE SAFFLE PROPERTY, WEST VIRGINIA

16:51 EST Wednesday, March 4, 2009

NORTH AMERICAN GEM Full Profile

NORTH AMERICAN GEM HUB

NORTH AMERICAN GEM Shareholder Forum

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on North American Gem Joins AGORACOM 100 With 2 Coal Projects And 6 Million Tonnes of .25% Copper Equivalent

Seabridge Gold On Yahoo Finance Show Discussing 30M Ozs Gold, 6B Lbs Copper

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:51 PM on Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Good afternoon to you all.  Lots of Seabridge Gold news out today, so we put President and CEO Rudi Fronk on the Yahoo Finance Small Cap Show to put the company’s recent press release into perspective.

Highlights from the show:

  • Completed an updated independent National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Mitchell zone at its 100% owned KSM project
  • Measured and indicated gold resources at Mitchell have increased by 89% over the previous estimate to more than 30 million ounces.
  • Measured and indicated copper resources increased by 105% to nearly 6.0 billion pounds

Click on image below

(if image doesn’t appear press F5 to refresh)

Posted in 43-101's, AGORACOM Clients (New), All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Seabridge Gold On Yahoo Finance Show Discussing 30M Ozs Gold, 6B Lbs Copper

Seabridge Gold – Measured and Indicated Gold Resources Increase 89% To More Than 30M Oz; Copper Increases 105% To 6 Billion Pounds

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:08 PM on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Great news out of our client, Seabridge Gold, today.  The highlights, as well as, a quote from CEO Rudi Fronk  are below:

Seabridge Gold President and CEO Rudi Fronk noted that “the Mitchell zone has now become one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold/copper deposits.”

  • Completed an updated independent National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Mitchell zone at its 100% owned KSM project
  • Measured and indicated gold resources at Mitchell have increased by 89% over the previous estimate to more than 30 million ounces.
  • Measured and indicated copper resources increased by 105% to nearly 6.0 billion pounds

Click here to view full press release

Seabridge Gold IR hub

Seabridge Gold Profile

Posted in 43-101's, AGORACOM Clients (New), All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Seabridge Gold – Measured and Indicated Gold Resources Increase 89% To More Than 30M Oz; Copper Increases 105% To 6 Billion Pounds

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Take Advantage Of Broken Trust In Wall Street

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:35 PM on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

For months I’ve talked about the loss of trust being the greatest risk to markets.  Specifically, investors can flow with market cycles and always come back.  However, if they lose trust, it will take a long time for Wall Street to gain them back.

Thanks to information provided by Dominic Jones over at IR Web Report, that trust is officially broken.  He cites a number of reports here, here and here – but here are some of the highlights, starting with this telling graphic:

  • Nearly two-thirds of investors (62%) trust corporations less than they did a year ago.
  • Only 38% said they trust business to do what is right, a 20% plunge since last year.
  • Only 17% said they trust information from a company’s CEO.
  • In China, the “trust in business” score actually rose from 54% to 71% among 35-to-64-year-olds.
  • Specialists remain the most trusted purveyors of information about a company, with 62% globally saying an academic or expert on a company’s industry or issues would be extremely or very credible.
  • Employees and peers are also considered credible sources of information about a company, with 47% trusting what they hear from “a person like yourself” and 40% trusting conversations they have with employees.

In short, investors don’t trust Wall St CEO’s – but they do still trust people like themselves.  This tells me quite clearly that there is no better time for a grassroots investor relations campaign by small-cap companies.

Need another sign of the people times?  Obama went grassroots and it resulted in the election of the first ever Black President of the United States despite daunting odds from both within his party and amongst voters in general.  Your personal politics aside, the man proved the power of connecting at the ground level when the ground level had little trust in the upper echelon.

Wall Street is out of favor … waaayyy out of favor.  Take advantage of the environment, get out there and show investors why you and your hard working small-cap company can be trusted.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 2 Comments »

Bank Stocks Could Skyrocket “100% Within Hours” On March 12th

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:39 PM on Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Traders take note.  According to John Najarian from CNBC Fast Money, financial stocks could skyrocket 100% “within hours” if mark-to-market accounting rules are relaxed at a House financial services subcommittee hearing.  Najarian is not one to make such statements likely, so it is worth reading the exact quote:

“if the government relaxes mark-to-market for 12 to 18 months you could
see financials move 100% in a matter of hours.”  And he went on to say, “In
fact, I hope you’ll replay the soundbite because if the government relaxes
mark-to-market accounting a number of banks stocks will be unbelievable
values at these levels.”

Here is the CNBC Fast Money clip on the subject, including a call on which financial stock would most benefit.  For his money, Najarian suggests a higher risk play – long the Financial Bull 3x ETF FAS (take a look at the 6-month chart).

Hat-tip to Howard Lindzon of Stock Twits

UPDATE:  Citigroup Up 30% Since Blog Alert, Bank Of America Up 50%

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 11 Comments »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Bill Joy Uses Search Engines To Find His Next Investment

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:39 AM on Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt recently sat down for an interview with Charlie Rose to discuss a wide range of topics related to technology, the future, etc.   In the flurry of information, it was a great interview, the most relevant to the small-cap industry is that Bill Joy uses search engines to find new investment opportunities. An excerpt from the transcript can be found below.

What does this mean for you? If someone like Bill Joy, with every resource and ear to the ground sources accessible to him, uses search engines to find new investment opportunities, you’re simply a damn fool for not believing or understanding that small-cap investors use search engines to find their next great small-cap investment.

==============

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Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 1 Comment »

Peter Grandich Sheds Permabear Skin And Begins Building Long Portfolio

Posted by AGORACOM at 7:39 AM on Sunday, March 8th, 2009

AGORACOM Chief Commentator, Peter Grandich, has offcially shed his permabear skin according to his latest blog post.  This is a pretty important declaration because Grandich has an uncanny ability to call market tops and bottoms in commodities and equity indexes.  In fact, it’s the primary reason I brought him on to AGORACOM and I would easily state that he ranks up there with Peter Schiff.

GRANDICH HAS BEEN JUST AS RIGHT AS PETER SCHIFF

I’m going to work on compiling a chronology over the past couple of years but go ahead and google “Grandich + robbing Peter to pay Paul and Peter is tapped out” (OK, I did it for you).   It’s the phrase he’s been using for 3-4 years now to help illustrate the state of the US economy to his audience and a quick scan of the Google results finds at least one quote in Kitco from the summer of 2005.

At the beginning of 2008, Grandich banged the table on going short the US market once the Dow crossed 13,000.  In short, he’s just been dead on.

GRANDICH NOW BULLISH?

To be clear, he is not advocating running out and filling your boots today.  Grandich believes Dow 5,000 vs. 8,000 is an even money bet right now.  Given the fact his readers have been able to avoid the fall from 14,500 to 6,600, he’s willing to take small losses in order to be a year early, rather than a day late.

Like a freight train that takes miles to come to a full stop once the brakes have been applied, Grandich believes the markets are now in the same process and investors need to start reserving some choice seats for the turn around.

In the short-term however, he does state the following:

“At the minimum, we’re overdue for a sharp bear market rally. Never have my technical indicators suggested so in almost 25 years. Several market indexes are dramatically below key moving averages. Several have never seen this far of a spread between price and moving average while others only once or twice. Knowing in technical analysis you must look only at the charts, I do believe anyone experienced in this type of analogy would suspect as I do that a significant correction of an almost straight-down decline is overdue.”

He’s even put his money where his mouth is and provided specific equities and ETF’s that he would be buying, with a lot of emphasis on oil companies.  Sound choices if you expect the global economy to begin turning around in the next 12-15 months and the stock market to anticipate it sooner.

He also believes gold and precious metals continue to be attractive investments that will run as inflation – due to extreme US deficits – hits the US economy over the next couple of years.

Read his full post.  It is worth the read.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Canadian Economy, Gold $2,000, US Economy | 1 Comment »

John Stewart Rips CNBC To Shreads

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:49 PM on Friday, March 6th, 2009

CNBC has taken a relentless beating for its irresponsible business journalism that has primarily consisted of:

  • Cheerleading the markets vs. reporting on them
  • Cheerleading their Wall Street pals vs. holding their feet to the fire

Well, their beating just went mainstream after cancelling an appearance by Rick Santelli on Wednesday.  John Stewart of the Daily Show used the vacant time to rip CNBC to shreads with their bullish clips over the last 2 years. Comedy Central (US) and Comedy Network (Canada) can block you from watching online video depending on where you are located, so I’ve provided the Canadian and US links below.

Watch and enjoy:

CANADIAN VERSION:

US VERSION


Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy | Comments Off on John Stewart Rips CNBC To Shreads

AGORACOM Hits 1.31 Million Unique Visitors For Full Year 2008

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:10 AM on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Back on October 10th, we announced AGORACOM traffic results for the first full-year since the launch of our small-cap, wiki-powered “Investor Controlled Discussion Forums” on October 5, 2007.

Today, I am very pleased to announce our traffic results for the full year 2008.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, this snapshot from our Google analytics is worth several million

[PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGE, CLEAR GRAPH]

AGORACOM Traffic FY 2008

Suffice it to say, we are once again ecstatic with the results.  This is especially true given the state of the markets in Q4 2008.  We attribute much of this success to practicing what we preach. Specifically, when times are tough and your competitors are running for cover, crank up the marketing.  AGORACOM did just that with the launch of TV ads on Bloomberg, CNBC and BNN , as well as, the addition of Peter Grandich.

ELECTRONIC SHAREHOLDER FORUMS WILL REPLACE TRADITIONAL IR DEPARTMENTS AND IRO’S

To this end, we will continue to re-invest back into the success of our community, clients and members.  Look for significant news from AGORACOM on the mobile and international fronts shortly.  We’re building for the long-term here folks.  There is no stopping the web/mobile trend as the sole source of investor relations, investor collaboration and market information.  Investors are demanding it, loving it and we are going to continue delivering.  Electronic shareholder forums are going to replace traditional investor relations departments and IRO’s.  We’ve got a foothold and we’re not letting go.

CLIENTS AND MEMBERS THAT BELIEVED

I want to thank all of our great clients and members that believed in our model and breathed unbelievable life into this paradigm shifting platform. 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.  Thank-You!

REPUTATION AND RANKING SYSTEM

When we created our community by combining UGC, Wiki and reputation based tools, 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 the unacceptable. 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 investors wanted us to.  All they needed was a solution that focused on quality over quantity.

Now, more than lip service, the following numbers speak for themselves:

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

(Figures for January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008. All figures reported by Google Analytics)

  • Unique Visitors 1,311,797
  • Visits 7,936,725 (so close to 8 million…)
  • Page Views 95,958,206
  • Pages Per Visit 12.09
  • Avg Time On Site 9:19
  • Number Of Countries/Territories 207
  • Top 10 (Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Mexico, Switzerland)

The numbers look even better when you consider

  • We built our model on quality vs quantity. As such, this is pure discussion. No spam, flaming and bickering traffic.
  • We are only focusing on small-cap and micro-cap stocks …for now.

THE STATUS QUO IS CRUMBLING

(more…)

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, AGORACOM Traffic, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 12 Comments »

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