Does Seeking Alpha really want to help us?
Seeking Alpha ([url]http://seekingalpha.com[/url]), the self-proclaimed “premier financial website for stock market opinion and analysis”, follows a strict editorial policy.
The editors at Seeking Alpha “handpick articles from the world's top market blogs, money managers, financial experts and investment newsletters”, and they publish contributions from “the nation's most savvy and inquisitive investors”.
Seeking Alpha cares about us.
Moreover, Seeking Alpha refuses to publish articles about penny stocks (share price under $1 according to their definition) “due to concern for manipulation”.
The editors at Seeking Alpha want to protect us. (Apparently, they think we are incapable of discerning manipulation by ourselves.)
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1. On September 3, 2008, the editors at Seeking Alpha approved and published an article entitled “Five Ways to Invest in the Czech Republic” ([url]http://seekingalpha.com/article/93535-five-ways-to-invest-in-the-czech-republic[/url]).
One of the recommended investments is a company named Czech Republic Resources (symbol: CZHC).
Hmmmm. I live in the Czech Republic, and I’ve been investing here since the first day that the Prague Stock Exchange opened its doors. I’ve never heard of this company…Czech Republic Resources.
I looked for filings on the SEC’s EDGAR database. None.
I looked on the most reliable Czech financial websites: Obchodni rejstrik, Obchodni vestnik, and IPoint. Nothing.
Finally, I decided to google “Czech Republic Resource”—singular, not plural. Bingo. Here’s the web address for the company: [url]http://czechrepublicresourcecorp.com/[/url]
Maybe the editors at Seeking Alpha don’t care about us as much as they profess. They didn’t even bother to get the name of the company right.
2. The most reliable information that I could find about Czech Republic Resource Corp. is located on the Pink Sheets website:
[url]http://www.pinksheets.com/pink/quote/quote.jsp?symbol=czhc[/url]
As I write this blog, Pink Sheets indicates that the last trade for CZHC occurred on January 30, 2009. Total volume: ONE SHARE !
Apparently, the editors at Seeking Alpha aren’t concerned about liquidity.
The share price? $0.007. Alright, stop laughing. On Friday, January 30, 2009, one share of CZHC traded for less than a penny.
I thought the editors at Seeking Alpha want to protect us from manipulation….
3. Here’s more information about Czech Republic Resource Corp. from the Pink Sheets website:
• Year Of Incorporation: 2007
• Outstanding Shares 1,799,000 as of Oct 31, 2007
• Current Capital Change: shares decreased by 1 for 7,421,956 split Pay Date: Oct 30, 2007
• Address
Czech Republic Resource Corp. Platnerska 7 Prague 100 00 Czech Republic
(What do you think we would find if we went to that address?)
• Number of Employees 4 as of Oct 10, 2007
• Company Officers Gideon Thomson, Chairman , Dir. Don Grenough, Dir. Dr. Ian B. Woods, Dir. R. Revell Murphy, President, CEO Jara G. Meger, Secretary
(…and not a Czech name among them. Hmmmm.)
• SEC Reporting Status non-SEC Reporting Company
4. According to the website for Czech Republic Resource Corp., their main project concerns oil and gas leases for a field in Louisiana.
Let me see if I’ve got this right…a group of non-Czechs needs a Czech address to do business with oil and gas leases in Louisiana.
Yeh, right.
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A long time ago, a wise old man told me, “Never trust anyone who wants to help you”.
The editors at Seeking Alpha want to help us by refusing to publish information about any penny stock.
However, they have no qualms about recommending CZHC as a viable way to invest in the Czech Republic. |