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African Stock Markets Are In The Green

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:52 AM on Friday, October 24th, 2008

Story courtesy of RGE Montior 

If you are looking for investments that are not just outperforming markets but in the green, go to Africa.

Ghana’s all share index has gained 60% this year as they are affected by local rather than global issues

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is marking record gains as after hard currency, the stock market is the only viable option. The benchmark Industrial Index soared 257%, with share prices of some companies rising by up to 3,500%

Afrol: While the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) has seen fewer losses than comparable bourses in Europe and America, it has declined 48% from the record highs that were registered in May. Gold reached a price of US$ 914 an ounce, and this price jump made a positive impact on the JSE’s gold index.

African stocks increased 210% in the last five years and are among the fastest growing stock markets globally. The strong performance and potential of the African stock markets can be attributed to the steady and fast economic growth of the whole African continent.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts | 1 Comment »

Metals Keep Drying Up As COMEX Pretends Otherwise

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:04 PM on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Great article out of GATA the other day (I was at a funeral so apologies for the lag time). We’ve been reading more and more stories about the suspension/halt of gold coins over the last 60 days. First, the US Mint had to temporarily suspend sales of its American Eagle one-ounce gold coins on Aug. 15 – and then later that month announced sales of the American Eagle coins would resume under an allocation program to designated dealers.

Since then, we have had the following notable headlines:

September 26 – US Mint Suspends Sale of 24-Carat Gold Coins

The U.S. Mint is temporarily halting sales of its popular American Buffalo 24-karat gold coins because it can’t keep up with soaring demand as investors seek the safety of gold amid economic turbulence .. full story

October 8 – Mint Widens Freeze on Gold Coin Sales

Citing extraordinary demand, the U.S. Mint has broadened its freeze on sales of gold bullion coins, as individual investors who are priced out of the futures markets have been piling up their holdings of the … full story

October 8 – Canadian and US Mints Can Not Keep Up With Gold Coin Demand

An array of gold and silver coins from various mints – including the U.S. Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint – have been temporarily removed from the offerings at Kitco Inc., a precious metals dealer … full story

WHY THE DISCONNECT WITH COMEX?

Clearly, both investors and citizens are demanding physical gold to the point of exhausting supply, so why are COMEX prices not reflecting the demand? Our Chief Commentator, Peter Grandich, stated:

“There’s an old saying: ‘Don’t fight City Hall.’ I have a new one: ‘Don’t fight the bandits on the Comex.’

“There’s no rational explanation for the incredible disconnection between gold’s physical demand and the paper trading of it on the Comex. Whatever doubt anyone had about GATA being right in its cause would be gone in my humble opinion if you watched Comex trading every day. A very good friend of mine says he doesn’t mind losing in gold and his mining stocks, but when you can see criminals stealing it from you on the Comex, you just want to die.

The GATA article also goes on to report significant silver shortages in Mexico. Specifically, Hugo Salinas Price, president of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver stated:

“Mexico’s central bank has informed us that as of this morning they will be able to supply us with only 60,000 Libertad silver ounces from here to December….How is it possible that a country that is either No. 1 or No. 2 in silver production (Peru sometimes exceeding Mexico) cannot supply silver coin?”

Is the disconnect manufactured? Nobody can say for sure but when real-life isn’t reflected in the marketplace the real world usually ends up winning … just ask every purchaser of “AAA” sub-prime mortgage packages.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Gold $2,000, US Economy | 2 Comments »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Obama Uses Web To Attract 3.1 Million Investors, Smash Election Records

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:11 PM on Sunday, October 19th, 2008

As a small-cap CEO, one of your most important goals is attracting new investors to your company.  As the founder of the biggest online small-cap IR firm, I’ve tried to go beyond “selling” you by teaching you valuable small-cap CEO lessons.

Today’s lesson is perhaps the most valuable lesson of all because it serves as a clear example of how one CEO beat his corporate competitors by using the web to attract millions of individual investors.

Your personal politics aside, Barack Obama has run a simply masterful online campaign for the hearts, minds, votes and wallets of American voters, with the latter point being most relevant to you.  Specifically, the New York Times reported the Obama Campaign raised $150,000,000 in September, shattering all records in the process, including the following unbelievable data:

  • 632,000 new donors. The number of new donors added in September;
  • 3.1 million. The number of total donors;
  • $86.  The average contribution per donor.

Yes, not every one of these donors came through the web but at an average of $86 per donor, you can bet an overwhelming majority of them came via the web.

How did he do it?  We’ll save the full details for another day.  For now, the following picture is worth a thousand words.

If a newbie Senator from Illinois can use these tactics to rise from long-shot candidate to becoming the first Black President of the United States of America, what is stopping you from using them to build an incredible, winning small-cap company?

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 3 Comments »

Silver Prices – New York & 24-Hour

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:10 PM on Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Welcome to the AGORACOM Silver Prices Page. We created this page to give members a convenient way of viewing price action without having to leave the site.   As you can see, we’ve amalgamated charts from Kitco, as permitted by their site.

We’re also happy to provide:

ONCE YOU ARE DONE REVIEWING PRICES …..

You may want to discover these great junior resource companies with great Silver Projects. Yes, they are clients, or we have invested in them, so assume we are horribly conflicted.  Now go take a look at their projects and partnerships … you won’t regret it.


[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]

[Most Recent Charts from www.kitco.com]

Posted in All Recent Posts, Commodities & Indexes | Comments Off on Silver Prices – New York & 24-Hour

VIX Was Higher Than Oil For Most Of The Day

Posted by AGORACOM at 5:03 PM on Thursday, October 16th, 2008

I couldn’t line up these charts but you will note that from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM, the VIX traded higher than oil.  Who would have ever predicted this, especially over the last 12 months?  The VIX has generally traded between 15 – 45 over the last 12 months, while oil has has generally traded $75 – $140 over the last 12 months.

Oil trading around $75 wasn’t that far of a stretch as the likes of Boon Pickens predicted that price a while ago.

However, what really blows the mind is that:

A]  The VIX shot over 50, 60, 70, 80!

AND

B]  The VIX did this while oil was falling from 120, 100, 90, 80, 70!

One would have thought (pre-crisis) that falling oil prices would have been bullish for the markets, thereby driving the VIX lower.

We are truly investing in uncharted territory.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy | 1 Comment »

Critical Market Data Links Added To Make You A Better Investor

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:46 PM on Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Markets have been so crazy lately that I found myself constantly hopping between critical market data points (several times per day) to try and make sense of things.

It then dawned on me that many of you are probably going through the same experience, while others probably don’t know where to start looking.

As such, I’ve now added the following critical market data links to this blog.  You can find them in the right hand margin.

Take a minute to go through them and let me know if there are any others I may have missed.  Remember, we’re talking about market data and not niche data for every industry on the planet.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Small-Cap Helpful Links | 2 Comments »

Barry Ritholtz Goes Long And Calls Bottom Phase Of The Markets

Posted by AGORACOM at 5:45 PM on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Good evening to you all. As many of you know, we highly respect Barry Ritholtz for his firm’s ability to call this market correctly for well over a year now. It doesn’t mean he is infallible but it does mean we listen when he has something to say .. and think you should too.

This is especially true in this completely whacked out, neck-snapping, whipsawing market in which even the most seasoned Wall Street managers are at a loss for advice.

If you feel just as dazed and confused (though you shouldn’t if you’ve been reading this blog for the past year), please invest 4 minutes of your life and watch the following:

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy | 2 Comments »

Small-Cap CEO Lesson; 28-Year Old Males Are Most Bullish Investors Right Now

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:38 PM on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

If you are a small-cap CEO, then you are going to be very interested in a profound statistic that came out of CNBC just a few minutes ago. Specifically, CNBC ran a poll and determined the profile of the most bullish investor today is a 28-year old male. The most bearish are 57-year old females.

POLL SERVES AS FURTHER EVIDENCE OF POWER OF ONLINE INVESTOR RELATIONS

CNBC’s conclusion that 28-year old males are most bullish on the stock market today supports our position that online investor relations provides small-cap companies with the greatest ROI.

Why? Though internet use is broad amongst both genders and all age groups, there are still meaningful differences in the actual figures by age groups.

INTERNET USAGE GREATEST AMONGST YOUNGER INVESTORS, DISSIPATES WITH AGE

Take a look at the following internet usage statistics by age: According to the study (conducted in Canada but reflects US habist as well) internet use by age group breaks down as follows:

18- to 29-year-olds >>> 90%
30- to 44-year-olds >>> 88%
45- to 59-year-olds >>> 78%
60-year-olds and + >>> 50%

If the age profile of the most bullish investor in this environment is 28, then it follows that the sweet spot is targeting investors between 25 – 32 years old. With 90% of them on the internet, an online investor relations program is the fastest way to attract new investors to your company.

ONLINE INVESTOR RELATIONS PROVIDES COMPANIES WITH BEST ROI

Further to my post about Best Investor Relations Practices During Market Turmoil It should come as no surprise that your best Return On Investor Relations Investment because only the web can provide you with two critical functions:

1] The ability to precision target investors. If you are a widget company, you want to target investors interested in widgets and your competitors. You don’t want to waste IR dollars conducting general marketing. The web can do this. Traditional IR can’t do this.

2] The ability to measure the success of a campaign. From search engines to behavioral ads to creating an online community, you know exactly how successful each component of your online campaign is performing. If people are responding to your campaign and the result is a growing community of investors reading more and more information, the inevitable result is going to be a larger shareholder base and higher share price.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons | 3 Comments »

Small Cap CEO Intelligence: 2008 Nobel Prize Winner For Economics Is Sharing His Thoughts

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:30 PM on Monday, October 13th, 2008

The Nobel Prize For Economics was first awarded in 1969.  They didn’t have blogs and RSS feeds back then but you’ll be happy to know the 2008 Nobel Prize For Economics went to Paul Krugman, who just happens to write a blog for the New York Times.

If you want be inside the head of a Nobel Prize winning economist, make yourself a better CEO and give your company an edge, all you have to do is subscribe to his RSS feed.

Regards,
George

p.s.  Photo is courtesy of Princeton University.
Princeton, NJ, USA.

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons, Small-Cap Helpful Links | Comments Off on Small Cap CEO Intelligence: 2008 Nobel Prize Winner For Economics Is Sharing His Thoughts

Dow Jones Oct 10th – The Whipsaw Volatility Final Count = 3,374 Points

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:34 AM on Monday, October 13th, 2008

On Friday afternoon at 3:42 PM EST, I wrote “I have never seen this kind of whipsaw trading in my life.” With Canada enjoying Thanksgiving today, I took a few minutes to tally up just how much of a whipsaw, roller coaster, break neck day it actually was … 3,374 Points.

Here is the graphical version, followed by the actual math.  Keep in mind, these are only tracking moves greater than 400 points, there are plenty more 200 – 300 point moves.

MOVE #1 (9:38 AM) 8,579 DOWN TO 7,882 =  697 Points

MOVE #2 (10:08 AM) 7,882 UP TO 8,646 = 764 Points

MOVE #3 (1:50 PM) 8,646 DOWN TO 7,996 = 650 Points

MOVE #4 (3:36 PM) 7,996 UP TO 8,855 = 859 Points

MOVE #5 (CLOSE) 8,855 DOWN TO 8,451 = 404 Points

Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy | 1 Comment »

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