Walter,
I certainly did not intend to offend anyone with my statement;
<Shame on you panic sellers>
But I do not agree with you totally. Yes I can understand the sentiments that lead people to sell at times like this. And usually we end up calling on the powers that be to 'make everything better again', (ie. David Walsh, Kilborn, Freeport) and yes I agree there should be clarifying statements by those individuals.
But for god sakes what about our responsibility. Do we not have some, you know to behave with reason, intelligence, logic, (that is what most investors need to realize that logic plays a small role in all this). If you look at this story it certainly is challenging even for the seasoned investor, more so than many I have seen. But then again they all have somewhat similiar patterns.
Remember AQP, when it first started to fall off a cliff. Everyone was brilliant for selling in that first gut-wrenching pull-back to the $23-24 range because sure enough it then fell to the $20. range, and boy they sure were brilliant when they sold then because (as most of us will remember) then it hit an intra-day low of $13.50 approx. a week latter. Now the sellers in the $23-24 range were not panic sellers, any hint of a problem and they took their profits off the table. Now the ones that sold at anywhere from $13.50-16.50 and $17. well they IMO were panic sellers, because the stock went from approx. $17. to an intra-day low of $13.50 all in one day. They sure looked brilliant 2 wks. latter when Barrick offered $27/share and then an accepted $30. There was a classic shake-out of the small investor!
I knew the story of AQP, I had spoken with Catherine Mcleod many times right from the start. And when you speak to someone often enough you get a sense of their reliability, you can eventually decide if they are a person of their word. I trusted here implicitly. So when I would call and ask about the price swing and doubts in the market, I knew the sellers were all wrong. Just like I feel the sellers in Bre-x yest. are all wrong. I spoke with David Walsh, Steve McNulty, Sam Greer on many occasions when the stock was at $5.-6 (without tooting my horn, yes I was one of the original investors). They were genuinely enthused about what they thought they had, they were like children at Christmas. They were not scamming anyone!!! And when the prices would retreat because of some silly article, I would call them and they would tell me "in our opinion it is a great buying oppurtunity".
Without getting long winded (I think I already did) what I am trying to say is you have to know the people you are dealing with. Most people do not even call the company, do not get to know the principal players, and they end up being eaten alive by the market. When AQP was falling like a rock, I felt very confident buying more shares because I felt very confident in the information I had.
It was this type of investor I was flaming and IMO with merit. I realize we all have different trading/investing strategies and styles, but if you are confortable with slightly longer time frame than most people these days (say a couple of weeks) you will do fine with Bre-x especially at these levels.
One final point, Freeport has been conducting their DD for approx. 3 weeks, do you all think this is enough time to come out with the type of statement that was attributed to them. Find out how long it takes to drill down 100/150/200 meters and then get the assays back from the lab. Come on people you are embarrassing yourselves.
P.S. I am not trying to encourage anyone to buy/sell etcetera, you all need to comfortable with your trading/investing. But I do believe that panic selling is usually a bad idea if you know your company's and the people involved. |
