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Will The New Google Finance Canada Follow Yahoo and AOL By Adding A “Small-Cap Centre”?

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:05 PM on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

Great news for Canadian investors as Google has announced the launch of Google Finance Canada, a localized version of the original Google Finance. The Canadian version provides some good information at a glance, including top movers and shakers (and losers) by marketcap, price, dollar volume, etc.

According to Google Finance Engineer, Dion Loy, the move seems to have been predicated by the fact that Canadians – despite their small population – are the second largest users of Google Finance. He goes on to add:

“…a Canadian myself, I’m excited to see Canadian financial information presented in the familiar easy to use Google Finance format.”

THE MISSING ELEMENT

The missing element here is that both the news feeds and video feeds focus overwhelmingly on large/mega-cap news. In order to capture the true nature of Canadian investors, I believe Google Finance Canada needs to follow suit with Yahoo Finance Canada and AOL Finance Canada by providing a small-cap centre (CDN spelling). This is especially true in an environment in which TSX Venture stocks are posting spectacular gains thanks to a bullish metals and minerals resources market.

Dion, as the exclusive provider to small-cap content to both the Yahoo and AOL Small-Cap Centres, as well as, every Blackberry device on the planet, we’d love to speak with you about incorporating a small-cap feed(s) of information.

In the meantime, hats off to Google for recognizing the independence of Canadian investors and equities.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 2 Comments »

Blackrock Fund – We Are In A Natural Resources “Supercycle”

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:46 PM on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

While stock markets around the world tremble in the wake of the fallout from the sub-prime loan market, Europe’s #1 ranked natural resources fund managers says you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Evy Hambro manages BlackRock’s $10 billion World Mining Fund and says – despite the gains in natural resources such as gold, copper, nickel and others over the past couple of years – says sky-high metal prices will defy the sceptics for years to come in an interview with the Telegraph.

Likewise, Graham Birch, who oversees the global resources team in BlackRock’s London office stated “the markets are in a commodity super cycle” in an interview with the Int’l Herald Tribune earlier this month.

As you can imagine, Blackrock points to demand out of China and India as a major contributor to rising prices. However, where they differ from most is the call that we are in the very early stages of this bullish cycle and that prices will climb and stay higher for many years to come.

I strongly agree and have stated on several occasions that minerals and metals are the place to be for the very long term. Unlike the bull run in the mid-90’s that was driven primarily by the possibility of repeating Bre-X’s 30,000,000 oz discovery – and crashed when it turned out to be a scam – this run is being fueled by very real demand.

To add fuel to the fire, the severe depression in minerals and metals from 1995 – 2003 meant that veeeerrrrry little money went into exploration. As such, supply is significantly trailing the freight train demand coming out of Asia and other developing regions.

Want more fuel? Despite the billions that are now flooding into exploration in an effort to play catch-up, boring but necessary components of the exploration process can’t keep up and are putting the brakes on any effort to catch up to demand. Specifically, Evy Hambro points to an acute shortage of tires, trucks and power generators.

“Rio Tinto has warned that it is now forced to wait for up to two years for delivery of essentials like power generators which, until recently, were available in half the time. Tires, which used to be delivered within three months, take two years too. The waiting list for grinding mills can be more than three and a half years.”

Throw in the fact that the US Dollar is in free-fall and the real estate market is facing “home price depreciation at levels not seen since the Great Depression” (Conference Call – Countrywide Financial – the largest U.S. mortgage underwriter. July 25th 2007) and it may be more accurate to say we are in the midst of a perfect bullish storm for metals commodities.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, China, Gold $2,000, US Economy | Comments Off on Blackrock Fund – We Are In A Natural Resources “Supercycle”

IMF Sees Global Growth at 5.2% For 2007 and 2008. Good News For Small-Cap Resource Companies

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:57 AM on Sunday, July 29th, 2007

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its global growth projections for 2007 and 2008 thanks to strong expansion from developing nations – with the bulk coming out of Asia and India, as well as, contributions from Russia.  This is great news for small-cap resource companies that are exploring for and even producing the minerals, metals, oil and other natural resources necessary to sustain their growth.  The complete entry on the IMF site is available here .  Hat tip to Paul Kedrosky for pointing it out.

Having said that, the IMF does state that “the overall balance of risks to the global growth outlook remains tilted modestly to the downside” due in part to sky-rocketing oil prices that, if not contained, can put the brakes on growth.

Finally, the IMF also has some concerns about market risk due to the deteriorating credit picture.  Though they do believe risks will be largely containted, I strongly suggest reading the story in its entirety.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Small and Micro-Cap Space | Comments Off on IMF Sees Global Growth at 5.2% For 2007 and 2008. Good News For Small-Cap Resource Companies

SEC Proposals To Help Smaller Public Companies

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:21 PM on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

Good evening to you all.  While I was away on vacation in early July, the SEC released several new proposals relating to the easing of disclosure and reporting requirements for smaller public companies.  This is good news for both investors and principals of small-cap companies, though there are a couple of items that may make life a little more difficult when it comes to raising money (see comments below).

The proposals would allow companies with a public float of less than $75 million to qualify for the smaller company requirements, up from $25 million for most companies today.

The complete proposal is 180 pages long and, therefore, primarily suited for review by CEO’s and/or their legal counsel.  Investors are better off reading excellent summaries and overviews of the proposals, such as this one posted by accomplished attorney David Feldman.

We applaud the SEC for recognizing the fact that small-cap companies need relief in these areas in order to spend less time on paper work and more time on getting business done.  If you are a principals of a small-cap company, you need to take the time to read these in detail and submit comments to the SEC, which are due no later than September 17, 2007.

In the meantime, I’d like to take the time to summarize the 5 proposals but David Feldman does such a good job that I’m going to simply borrow his: (more…)

Posted in All Recent Posts, Small and Micro-Cap Space | 2 Comments »

Online Newspaper Audience Skyrocketing

Posted by AGORACOM at 8:18 PM on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

Good evening to you all. If you are a small-cap executive, than you know I use this blog to provide support for my contention that old-school methods of reaching investors are dying a fast and painful death. Those companies that understand this and embrace Web 2.0 are going to win, while those that refuse to change will know what it felt like to be the last buggy whip maker in the dawn of the automobile era.

To this end, I provide you with the following powerful report regarding the skyrocketing growth of online newspaper readership. We live in exciting times.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | Comments Off on Online Newspaper Audience Skyrocketing

$100 Oil In 2007 Is A Real Possibility

Posted by AGORACOM at 7:37 AM on Monday, July 23rd, 2007

The concept of $100 oil used to seem as unreachable as a .400 batting average or $1,000 gold – but the options market and several people smarter than me are now saying it is a real possibility in 2007. In this Bloomberg exclusive, analysts from Goldman Sachs and CIBC World Markets point to both current supply and demand (very low, very high respectively) as the basis for their conclusions.

More than just words, a record number of options have been sold that give the buyer the right to buy crude oil at $100.

I highly recommend reading this article and then taking a closer look at small-cap companies that would benefit from such an event. For our part, EcoMax Energy Services is one such small-cap. They are a client but their financial performance speaks for itself.

Best,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Small and Micro-Cap Space | Comments Off on $100 Oil In 2007 Is A Real Possibility

Whole Foods CEO Gets Busted For Anonymous Posts To Forums

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:30 PM on Monday, July 16th, 2007

Hey, gang. Been on vacation for a couple of weeks but getting back into the swing of things as I prepare for re-entry next week – and this story is a doozy if you haven’t already heard. Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, has apparently been anonymously posting to stock discussion forums for eight years under the alias Rahodeb.

Given the fact AGORACOM runs official message boards for public companies (as opposed to unmonitored & anonymous forums), I believe I can lend some credible thoughts to the discussion when I say that investors should be very concerned about Mackey’s message board fiasco. Why?

1] Ethics. CEO’s already have the broadest possible platform to “talk up” their companies. Going anonymous on unmonitored discussion forums provides an ability/temptation to discuss or hint at material items that have yet to be disclosed in order to steer investors towards a more bullish stance.

2] Identity Crisis. Now that the cat is out of the bag, what prevents any savvy investor from now pretending to be a CFO/CIO or other key member of the company and posting false information to any number of discussion forums around the web?

3] Trust. Why would any CEO need to anonymously post information to stock discussion forums about his company? What is he able to accomplish indirectly that he can’t accomplish directly? Is the company’s message so weak on its merits that a CEO has to resort to such tactics?

If you aren’t concerned because you believe investors don’t take message boards seriously, here is a link to 3 recent responses of more than 750 investors that clearly demonstrates reliance upon them for information:

At the end of the day, we can all agree on one thing – CEO’s posting anonymously to stock discussion forums provides neither the company, nor investors with anything positive.

On the other hand, CEO’s using blogs or official discussion forums for the purposes of broader communications with investors should be applauded and encouraged.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations | 4 Comments »

AGORACOM 4.0 Goes Live

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:21 AM on Sunday, July 1st, 2007

After weeks of planning and coding, as well as, a ridiculous amount of work into the dawn’s early light I’m proud to announce that AGORACOM has now released its 4th version in 3 years and the feedback has been outstanding.  Huge kudos to the entire team for toughing it out this week (Paul, Jim, Carrie, Elvis, Bart, Cam, Rody, Al, Jeff, Dom, Cameron and Jack) to make it happen.  Great job.

The site is cleaner, faster, easier to navigate and features two new Web 2.0 tools that will serve all of our members and clients.  

First, we’ve officially launched this blog to our members.  It has largely been available to industry participants (CEO’s, Investment Bankers, etc.) via newsletter, as well as, individual investors that have found us through the blogosphere.  Now, members have access to it on a daily basis from our front page.  I’m excited about it because AGORACOM started with me posting to discussion forums on a daily basis and building up a great relationship with investors around the world.  As we’ve grown, I’ve had to assume more traditional business responsibilities but always missed the action of speaking with investors.  Glad to be back!

Second, we’ve launched AGORACOM TV right on our front page.  A daily, fast-paced show that will last no more than 3 minutes but provide investors with profitable news and information out of the small-cap world every morning.  In keeping with our partnerships at Yahoo Finance, AOL Finance and Blackberry, information will not be limited to our clients.  If we’ve got a great story for the benefit of everyone, we’ll run with it.  It’s the only way to make sure the investment community loves it enough to keep watching everyday – giving our clients a great long-term benefit when they do make an appearance on the show.

Finally, it sets up AGORACOM 5.0, which we’ve planned to release in mid-September and is our most ambitious effort to date.  It is the culmination of what we’ve learned and listened to in our attempt to create a small-cap community that actually services small-cap companies and their shareholders.

We can’t wait to show it to you.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | Comments Off on AGORACOM 4.0 Goes Live

AGORACOM Surveys 150 Investors At Vancouver Cambridge Conference 2007 (Summer)

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:43 AM on Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Good evening to you all and welcome to all our new “C” level executives and IRO’s that have joined our resource company newsletter. I would like to extend a special greeting to all of you who stopped by our booth at the Conference. This was our second show exhibiting with Cambridge Conferences and you can expect to see us there for many years to come.

One of the most important things we continue to accomplish at the conference is surveying investors in order to better understand their habits and preferences. As most of you know, we surveyed investors at the PDAC and Cambridge Calgary Conference in March and posted all the important results on our blog for you to review here. Response to the surveys has been overwhelmingly positive from executives that have found the information incredibly helpful.

With more than 150 investors surveyed at the Vancouver conference, we were again 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: (more…)

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Surveys | Comments Off on AGORACOM Surveys 150 Investors At Vancouver Cambridge Conference 2007 (Summer)

Intel Small Business Case Study Focuses On AGORACOM Technology

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:50 AM on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

I’m proud to announce that AGORACOM use of technology is the focus of a case study by tech giant Intel.  Intel released the study in PDF format on its website, so here is a link to the study.

Thanks Intel!

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Intel Small Business Case Study Focuses On AGORACOM Technology

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