These fabled names of misty far gone places! Timbuctoo! New Cinch, Windfall! What mysty mystery and excitement of intrigue in ill-lit corners dingy smoke-filled Casbahs they recall. You just don't get polyphonous and creative naming of ill-gotten gain today like they did back then. What sleazy con artists and greasy grifters mumbling the tunes of heart stopping promises of phony glory!(All the while looking over their shoulder lest anyone overhear.) Ahhh! they knew how to make new lifelong friends believe they were their only confidant. They knew how to do it. To make people think, nay, even fervently believe the baby's education money, the new drape fund, the car repair money, even the kids piggy bank should be smashed to buy stock.. on a rumour ... nobody knows for sure .. they are hiding the big find .. the driller has the news "The bastards are trying to get it all for themselves again. But they won't run past me. I know a broker who has some inside dope. We will get some paper at fire sale prices ..and just wait. Ha ha ha.. and they thought they could hide it. The big one. No way. We know too many insiders."
When they find the next New Cinch, everybody's dog is an insider. Youcannot walk a block that someone doesn't have news from the drill they did not want you to know.
The trick is knowing when its true.
And when it matters and how.
Bernard Baruch knew Ken Darke and Walter Holyk. George Bush senior was on the board. Texas Gulf had just drilled a hole of 597 feet of 10 per cent copper in Timmins Ontario. It had not been assayed but eyeballed by Darke who was almost functionally blind. Was it true? Worth poking 30 million at? (All of Baruch's money)
It was.
You have to know your people. When Inco says they got nothing, you know they are lying sometimes. When Pezim said he had it, he had it, sometimes. Pezim used to say to his geologists, don't tell me the good news, I don't need to know. When the guys show up digging for the info, don't give them the usual stuff you give the public, just give them the secret information you want to hide, the latest core. I will get the message on the board.
Why use one expert's opinion you have to pay when you have 20 free of charge?
The rest of them may think it. Think they actually have it. They don't. Well that's incompetence. It loses money all the time.
The best promoters use the Chinese wall syndrome. They hire a geologist who is a complete crook, trusting him to salt the claims. Put pressure on him to produce at all costs. suggest he better find the big one or be fired. Then wait for him to react badly and try to make ill gotten loot. It matters not that he may salt the claims. All that matters is you know to sell the options in a reasonable time. If the market is rising you sell. If it falling you buy. Cannot lose. If its a real find, then you write your own options at the timeyou absolutely know. You cannot lose money selling stock if you don't. Give employees and prospectors options? don't be daft. It's your cow, you milk it.
EC<:-} |
