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Gold/Mining/Energy : Harken Energy Corporation (HEC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (3073)	7/1/1998 1:32:00 AM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5504

...Especially when you factor in the point that once the stock price dips under $4.80, if the RSG investors go to convert to common, HEC has the right to pay them off in cash instead... Is this feature different than other floorless debacles you have witnessed? Tom

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (3073)	7/1/1998 9:38:00 PM
From: Ed Ajootian	Respond to of 5504

Zeev, Whatever the reason, the fact that you are not acting on your calls is cause to make me seriously discount whatever you have to say. The rest of us suckers here, long _or short, are jumping in the pool with everyone else and not just standin' on the sidelines lookin' cool for the ladies <g>. Harken may in fact go down in price significantly over the next few months (Strain says if they miss the Islero its a $3 stock) but the reason for it going down, IMO, will have little to do with any of its securities and everything to do with possible exploration failure. Conversely, if they hit on the Islero its $7 easy, maybe even $8 --- again, without regard to the fact that they have a few % of their market cap. out in the form of floorless securities. IMO you are making the mistake of lumping HEC in with the other companies who did the floorless jobs because they had no recourse and needed the $$$ and the $$$ was immediately spent. With HEC, the money they raised in the floorless offerings is still sitting in their bank account.

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (3073)	7/1/1998 10:10:00 PM
From: Timelord	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5504

Zeev, I've done a number of searches and have come up empty on the short interest. I hear tell that the WSJ interactive offers short interest #'s for the AMEX, but I don't subscribe. Maybe someone else here does? I took your "shorting floorless is robbing widows and orphans" to heart and decided I didn't need to short this stock that bad - plenty of other candidates out there. You know my fondness for E & P companies - I really liked HEC's story in Columbia when I ran across them last year and actually had quite a position accumulated in Feb/Mar. I was "stopped out" several months later with a gain. Anyone here who thinks that floorless convertibles are "just kinda risky", but thinks things will be ok in the end, would do well to take a weekend and read through the SI threads for some of the corporate victims that Zeev mentioned. The whole ugly story can be found there. It will save you a lot of grief. If you still think its worth the risk after you know all of the facts, than by all means go for it. I can tell you that these floorless instruments can be the most devious and disgusting financing instruments I have ever run across. I personally couldn't believe that such things existed or that they were legal. Will HEC end up like the others? No one who is being honest can say yes or no, since we can't see the future (I wouldn't be posting on a stock thread at 7 o'clock at night if I could!). All we can do is show you what has happened in the past. By the way, the SEC won't help you. When I was stuck in EXSO I sent an irate letter to the SEC about the floorless situation there and they sent me a nice form letter back telling me they'd look into it and to go run off and play. Numerous other investors did too. That was back when EXSO traded on the NASDAQ at around $.50. They now trade on the pinks at $.05 and have 1-1/2 legs in the coffin. As far as I know, the SEC is still scratching its head trying to figure out what "rules" to issue regarding floorless debentures. Good luck to all of you. Alex