drdoom. I'll respond to one or two of your points. time is too short to handle all of them:
"Now you have softened the argument, suggesting that the seller is merely an informed
insider. Can you give me some specific examples of a BOARD MEMBER shorting
shares against a floorless position. Such insider transactions would, of course, be
disclosed in SEC filings."
The bandit does not have to be an "insider" to know better than you and I what is happening. He has million in the deals and assign a person to monitor the situation better than you and I, he might even have a person on site in Columbia watching a gusher develop. Nothin illegal about a person monitoring his investment. As to the last point, yes, I'll give you an example, the President of CAFE (and another family member) owned a big chunk of their floorless. Look at their chart, if the company is still around. Look at AIPN, they (the Hunts) apparently used "third parties" to achieve their goal and now when the stock is down from 7 to 1 they are finally converting (HEC has some ways to go).
As for the European debenture, I was writing about the May 26, 1998, issue with a ceiling of 6.5/share and floorless features starting in May 2002.
As for the presence or lack thereof of the ceiling, go and ask Hayes stock holders what help was the fact that no formal ceiling was in place. The bandits do not need the ceiling (and often use the lack of a ceiling as an "inducement" to management to go ahead, since after all, "the price will go up and we will convert at much higher prices than current prices". That was the story sold to Hayes' management as per Forbes' article.
I have done as much as I can in trying to open your eyes to the dangers of the floorless. You can take my advice or leave it. Further arguments are futile and a waste of my time.
You should know that in the last two years I have posted floorless warnings on the following stocks, all of which declined markedly after my warning because of the floorless. Go and check their charts, and then rationalize why it will not happen to HEC:
EXSO, CTYS, AKSEF, CAFE, AND (from 16 to 6 in less than 2 weeks), AIPN, RNTK, GATE. I got back into few of these after a selling climax (EXSO, AKSEF, AIPN and Gate (a five bagger), but not for any length of time, because the long term implications of a floorless is that the company is in financial troubles and unable to obtain traditional financing. Take it, or leave it.
Finally: "Instead, you adopt a somewhat condescending, professorial tone", there is a good reason for that, you behave like a child playing with a dangerous toy and you refuse to listen to any reasonable argument, hoping beyond hope that HEC will escape the ravaging effects of the bandits. I have not seen a stock that has, and thus statistically HEC will succumb (it already has fallen by 40% since my warning at $5/share).
In the hay days of Arakis, I had a couch on the Arakis thread to treat people adicted with Arikitis, which refused to see the truth about the dangers of the floorless bandits and tried to rationalize their investments with Strain's dream of an elephant field (10 to 20 billion barrels according to Strain). Look at Arakis then and now and try and see the parallels, where Arakis is now is where HEC may very likely end up.
Zeev
If you have any heart, you should direct the HEC thread to read this post, but you won't of course, because posting criticism of your beloved stock, rational or not, is against your religious beliefs. |
