SGAL,
one WallSt Digest refuting Stocklemon claims. Too bad they made serious mistakes. Read yourself:
wallstreetdigest.com
A Personal Message to Readers of StockLemon.Com and Investors of Storage Alliance, Inc. (SGAL) from Donald H. Rowe and The Wall Street Digest
On March 24, 2003, StockLemon.com posted an "investigative report" on its Web site and released a statement to the financial media criticizing Storage Alliance, Inc. (SGAL). In this so-called "investigative report," StockLemon.com also criticizes Donald Rowe for recommending the company's stock to subscribers of The Wall Street Digest.
On March 26, 2003, StockLemon.com released Part Two of its "investigative report" to the investment community. Once again, Donald Rowe was highly criticized by the unidentified writer, who stated that he had called Mr. Rowe with questions regarding Storage Alliance, but had been "rushed off the phone" due to the imminent move of The Wall Street Digest's offices. (NOTE: After 14 years of publishing The Wall Street Digest from 2 North Tamiami Trail, Ste. 602, Sarasota, Florida, the publication's headquarters moved to 8830 South Tamiami Trail, Ste. 110, Sarasota, Florida. This move was pre-announced to subscribers of The Wall Street Digest for almost an entire month prior to the physical move on March 28-31, 2003.)
The "journalist," who called Donald Rowe during the move gave his name as "Mr. Rosen," but did not leave a phone number where he could be reached at a more convenient time. Nor did he identify himself or his "publication" when he called The Wall Street Digest's offices. He simply stated that he was a journalist who was "returning Don's call." Clearly, this was a deceptive, untrue statement.
Since posting his vitriolic commentary on his Web site and releasing his "press releases" to the investment community, this is what we have learned about Mr. Rosen, a.k.a. William Harris, a.k.a. William Smith.
#1: In a press release dated March 26, 2003, Stocklemon.com is identified as "an independent website that has been serving the microcap community since 1991." This is a highly suspect statement, since the vast majority of investors and the investment community at-large did not discover the Internet prior to 1994-1995. However, a Bill Harris did create the domain name, "Stocklemon.com" on August 1, 2001, ten years later than the year claimed in Stocklemon.com's press releases. After registering Stocklemon.com, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith then released his first "investigative report" on August 6, 2001, and posted it to his newly created Web site.
#2: The contact information that Bill Harris provided when he created Stocklemon.com on August 1, 2001, consists of two non-published phone numbers, a Hotmail e-mail address, and two conflicting street addresses in California-one of which does not appear to exist on any published map.
#3: In his inflammatory allegations concerning Donald Rowe's qualifications to analyze and recommend stocks, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith directs his readers to a 1999 "Bull and Bear" archival page where, in a reprint of a July 1999 report on Internet stocks and The Wall Street Digest's November 1999 issue featuring those same stocks, Mr. Rowe recommended several securities that were also recommended by the vast majority of momentum investment advisors in 1999. Those stock recommendations were: Qualcomm, MCI WorldCom, Excite At Home, Broadcom, Lucent Technologies, CMGI, Global Crossing, JDS Uniphase, Softbank, and Texas Instruments-all rising, profitable Nasdaq securities at the time.
Since Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith claims to be an "investigative journalist," why did he find it necessary to direct his readers to a four-year-old article by Donald Rowe and his then-stock recommendations that were widely recommended by investment advisors in the years leading up to the Tech Wreck? Did Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith even bother to find out that Donald Rowe released Sell recommendations on ALL of those stocks in accordance with his published Stop-Loss Rules? Quite frankly, we doubt it, since we suspect Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith's reason for his "investigative report's" existence has nothing to do with honest journalism and everything to do with creating a highly profitable short-selling environment for his latest OTC victim, Storage Alliance, Inc.
#4: On his content-challenged Web site, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith has posted a legal disclaimer that all-but states the objective for writing scathing reports about OTC companies is to take short positions in those companies' stocks. The following excerpts are taken directly from Stocklemon.com's disclaimer page:
"By using this website you agree to the terms of this disclaimer. You agree that the use of stocklemon.com is at your own risk. In no event should stocklemon.com be liable for any direct or indirect trading losses caused by any information available on this site. ...Stocklemon.com makes no representations, and specifically disclaims all warranties, express, implied, or statutory, regarding the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any material contained in this site. ...Stocklemon.com does not guarantee in any way that it is providing all of the information that may be available. ..."
We find this final paragraph of Stocklemon.com's disclaimer most revealing (bold-face type is Stocklemon.com's):
"At any times [sic] the principles of Stocklemon.com might hold a position in any of the securities profiled on the site. Stocklemon.com will not report when a position is initiated or [sic] covered. Each investor must make that decision based on his/her judgment of the market."
Indeed, we believe this last paragraph reveals far more about the reason for Stocklemon.com's existence than the mere fact that it is a "free site" for disgruntled OTC investors. We believe the principle(s) of Stocklemon.com created the site for the sole purpose of finding OTC stocks that could be manipulated into short-position bonanzas for Stocklemon.com's owner(s). In fact, the site's "Your Lemon" page includes this suspected short-seller's invitation to "join our investigative team" and provide Stocklemon.com with additional stock manipulation leads.
#5: In a press release dated November 15, 2001, Stocklemon.com describes itself as "a free site that profiles companies on the OTC BB marketplace. The principles of Stocklemon.com often do have positions that are consistent with the report that is being presented. No employee of Stocklemon.com is a chartered financial analyst or [sic] a licensed investment advisor."
Even more so than in Stocklemon.com's posted legal disclaimer, we believe the above statement is an admission that the owner(s) of Stocklemon.com are shorting the stocks they are blasting in their so-called "investigative reports" on Stocklemon.com.
Most importantly, the owner(s) of Stocklemon.com (Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith, et. al.) freely admit that they are neither chartered financial analysts nor licensed investment advisors. So who are they? They offer no clue on their Web site other than the most obvious: professional short-sellers who are looking for OTC companies to manipulate for their own profit.
#6: A careful review of the trading history of Stocklemon.com's targeted stocks between August 6, 2001, and March 28, 2003, indicates that in every situation except one, a short-position taken just prior to the release of a Stocklemon.com "investigative report," would have produced good-to-phenomenal profits for short-sellers of those OTC stocks. Coincidence? Perhaps, but why hasn't Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith posted his true identity or qualifications for investment commentary on Stocklemon.com? Does he fear exposure as an active short-seller of OTC securities?
As revealed in #5 above, Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith has freely admitted the following:
"The principles of Stocklemon.com often do have positions that are consistent with the report that is being presented."
We continue to believe that the principle(s) of Stocklemon.com, whoever they are, deliberately trash good companies for the purpose of generating short-term, short-selling trading profits.
The following are possible short-selling profits, based upon the timing of Stocklemon.com's articles targeted against other OTC stocks:
TARGET
STOCK ARTICLE
DATE BEST DATES
FOR SHORTING SHORT
PROFIT HIGH TO
LOW PRICE
IJON 08/06/01 08/02/01 - 08/09/01 65% $9.20 - 3.21
XAIB 08/30/01 08/28/01 - 10/22/01 83% $5.90 - 1.00
MAAX 09/17/01 09/06/01 - 11/30/01 48% $3.55 - 1.83
ECTY 12/5&12/01 12/13/01 - 02/05/02 95% $5.80 - 0.31
HUMT 12/28/01 12/28/01 - 01/25/02 37% $1.33 - 0.84
TLON 01/17/02 01/11/02 - 02/06/02 93% $3.39 - 0.25
EUNI 03/26/02 03/19/02 - 04/04/02 38% $6.45 - 4.02
DUVT 04/24/02 04/23/02 - 06/04/02 75% $3.40 - 0.86
AVDI 05/02/02 04/30/02 - 06/27/02 73% $2.12 - 0.58
CTRX (#1) 07/29/02 07/23/02 - 07/30/02 50% $1.75 - 0.87
SBSF 08/02/02 07/30/02 - 08/22/02 31% $2.15 - 1.48
GMXX 08/23/02 08/23/02 - 08/26/02 21% $6.00 - 4.75
MXES 09/13/02 09/11/02 - 10/28/02 91% $2.80 - 0.25
LFSI 09/23/02 09/20/02 - 10/09/02 23% $4.03 - 3.10
HEB** 10/23/02 10/22/02 - 11/27/02 30% $2.86 - 1.99
CTRX (#2) 11/14/02 11/13/02 - 12/09/02 82% $2.28 - 0.40
RTNH 02/11/03 02/07/03 - 02/25/03 38% $2.87 - 1.78
ISTO 02/14/03 02/12/03 - 02/14/03 40% $1.81 - 1.08
EPXR 03/14/03 03/11/03 - 03/14/03 51% $3.50 - 1.70
MRPT 02/25/03 02/18/03 - 03/31/03 30% $4.00 - 2.80
SGAL 3/24&26/03 03/21/03 - 04/21/03 53% $1.91 - 0.90
AOGI 04/28/03 04/16/03 - 05/06/03 44% $1.58 - 0.88
Some short sales could have resulted in more profit if the shorted stock were held longer, e.g., AVDI's low in Sept. '02 was $0.17; ECTY's low in April '02 was $0.10; IJON's low in Oct. '02 was $0.51.
Unlike the majority of Stocklemon.com's targeted microcap stocks, which are listed on the Nasdaq's Bulletin Board, HEB is listed on the American Stock Exchange.
NOTE: Between August 6, 2001, and April 28, 2003, Stocklemon.com released 31 articles on 25 stocks. Of those 25 stocks, only one stock short would not have produced a profit: WRPT (10/14/02 article). Three stocks, JUNM (10/01/01 article), EYPSF (11/13/01, 11/15/01, 01/30/02 and 03/09/02 articles) and BTGS (11/19/01 article) are no longer listed, so results could not be confirmed.
#7: Stocklemon.com has no visible means of income. Many of the site's co-branded links are dead and the working links are, most likely, posted on the site to lend it a certain amount of credibility. However, those links are available for free to almost any investment, financial, or consumer-targeted site that is willing to post them. So, how does Stocklemon.com make money for its principle(s)? We suspect that we have already answered that question in #3, #4, #5 and, most certainly, in #6 above.
Allowing Mr. Harris/Rosen/Smith the benefit of doubt, perhaps Stocklemon.com makes a small profit by selling and/or renting its database of contacts. There is no "Privacy Statement" posted on the site and complete name, street address, and e-mail address is required when registering at Stocklemon.com. Apparently, Stocklemon.com conceals the identity of its owner(s), yet guarantees its registered visitors no privacy whatsoever. And, as most members of the online community are aware, a corporate privacy policy has been standard procedure on legitimate Web sites since well before August 1, 2001.
As for The Wall Street Digest's current position on Storage Alliance, Inc. (SGAL), we issued the following Special Investment Alert to our subscribers on Friday, March 28, 2003 (in its entirety):
"This is a Wall Street Digest Special Investment Alert for Friday, March 28, 2003, at 6:00 p.m. EST.
War worries continue to plague the market. At the close of today's session, the Dow was down 55 points and the Nasdaq was down 14 points.
One hour into Monday's session, SELL the following two stocks:
OmniVision Technologies (OVTI). The stock tripped our stop-loss today, dropping 8.9% on approximately 2.65 times its average daily volume. Subscribers who purchased the stock when we first recommended it will realize an approximate 23% gain.
Storage Alliance (SGAL). The stock is now 35.9% below its $1.95 high on March 24, 2003. We believe that Storage Alliance has been victimized by irresponsible statements from a professional short-seller who uses his Web site to create a highly profitable short-selling environment. Protect your profits for now and we will advise you when to repurchase the stock.
The offices of The Wall Street Digest are relocating from One Sarasota Tower, Suite 602, Sarasota, FL 34236 to 8830 South Tamiami Trail, Suite 110, Sarasota, FL 34238-3130. Our telephone numbers will remain the same: 941-954-5500 and 800-785-5050. Our offices will be closed on Monday, March 31 and we will reopen for business on Tuesday, April 1, 2003.
The next Hotline Update will be on Tuesday, April 1, 2003, at 6:00 p.m. EST."
In the past, we also have issued the following statement in regards to any alleged association with Storage Alliance:
"...Mr. and Mrs. Rowe do not own shares of Storage Alliance (SGAL)-nor will they-until all of The Wall Street Digest's subscribers have had an opportunity to purchase the stock. Further, employees of The Wall Street Digest and/or its affiliated companies are not permitted to 'front run' any stocks recommended in The Wall Street Digest. Employees of our third-party vendors and associates, such as printers, mailing firms, Internet vendors, marketing associates, etc., are also prohibited from purchasing stocks before our own Wall Street Digest subscribers have been made aware of Mr. Rowe's recommendations. Mr. Rowe has enforced these ethical principles since he founded The Wall Street Digest 26 years ago in 1977."
Furthermore, Storage Alliance has not issued shares of stock, warrants, nor options for shares to Donald H. Rowe. In accordance with SEC regulations, Mr. and/or Mrs. Rowe, The Wall Street Digest, and/or its associates have not received any compensation whatsoever from Storage Alliance, Inc.
For further investment research and/or investor education information, The Wall Street Digest maintains an Investment Research page on its Web site at wallstreetdigest.com We encourage all investors to obtain current SEC Filings from the EDGAR database that is available from our site.
For additional information regarding Storage Alliance, Inc., please contact the company directly at its corporate headquarters: 725, 435 – 4th Avenue, S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P3A8; (403) 264-2500; www.storagealliance.com |
