A friend just reminded me of an outperforming investment we have here at home.
I wish I could say it was those shares of Ivanhoe Mines (IVPAF) , still in certificate form and stuck in a cabinet in the family room. Nope.
I wish I could say it was several of the companies I helped transition to respectability, albeit briefly, starting in 2007. That is, as a writer, a researcher and an open-market investor and site reviewer. These include Bellhaven Copper & Gold ($BHV:CA), Gran Colombia Gold ($GCM) and Solvista Gold, by coincidence each active in Colombia.
I wish it were companies I was convinced would trip the light fantastic, again and again. Like BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) .
No. I mean, I still own all of them. (Although in the case of Bellhaven, I have been ejecting shares at distress prices, yet still own roughly 1 million of 'em.)
See, in each case, I failed to sell shares at the peak, near the peak or even at half the peak. Doppio-mio. Pitiful.
Worse, in the case of Gran Colombia Gold, as explained earlier, I went in with a view that the company was saving lives in Segovia, building bank accounts for ordinary folks in that bandito land of illegal miners and toxic garage-shop gold mills not far from Venezuela's border. So maybe it was to an extent. Still, I came out disgusted with its fiscal performance and its version of best practices on disclosure. [More to come on GCM's excessive salaries and what some see as a conflicted board of directors, including a proxy-analyst.]
Voila. My best 15-year investment in terms of return, emotional and real, is attached below. Grateful for The Grateful Dead. A friend convinced me it was worth owning at $50. The Avalon Ballroom print is worth 10 to 15 times that, maybe more. I get to look at it every day. I say Mouse and you say Mouse.
Sure, I did well with Illumina (ILMN) from 2003 to 2012 or so. Ditto Tencent Holdings in Hong Kong. MarketWatch naturally. And sure, for us here at home and for our growing TCR family, I still have high hopes for Solvista Gold ($SVV:CA), one of our TCR 7, now that miner Gran Colombia is off the TCR list whilst remaining in our personal holdings.
Ditto on upside for platinum developer Ivanhoe Mines in Africa. Others, too.
Even Gran Colombia, in a theory I am discussing with several asset managers and stock specialists; i.e, that the stock, aside from woeful management, also is suffering from rampant short-selling in Canada loopholes and could rise 6-fold or more on any harried buying. [The pity on that one is that a six-fold rise won't make some holders of GCM whole, given the prodigiously punctured reverse split and repeated dilutive financings.]
?The beauty, though, the perfect purchase, is the one you get to buy and hold. Enjoy. That's why numismatics, coin collecting and the like is popular and powerful. You don't have to be Steve Martin to enjoy art, even if it is rock poster art.
?To state again for our TCR family: our TCR 7 stands firm right now at Solvista, Pilot Gold ($PLG:CA), Colt Resources (its shares getting punished just a week after I paid 25 percent more than current price for a bunch in the open market), NuLegacy Gold ($NUG:CA), whose activity in Nevada will see more light of day with coming assays, Atico Mining (about the only Colombia prospector-miner worth its salt these days), Gold Standard Ventures (also Nevada) and Cambodia's Angkor Gold ($ANK:CA) and (ANKOF) .
?I am performing further research on Sysorex Global Holdings (SYRX) and will be meeting yet again with two of its principals on Friday. That one is a possible addition to the TCR 8. I have been purchasing shares of late.
What do I owe the family here? We await more light of day from the Michigan platinum-group metals drilling of highly speculative Bitterroot Resources ($BTT:CA).? I saw Tembo Gold in Tanzania, at a property I saw, published high-grade gold assays this week.
?Our Golden Valley Mines and Abitibi Royalties narratives of the past three years, and the past three weeks, days, even hours, is paying off BIG. The Malartic joint venture owner is again seeing new highs. See previous reports for GZZ and RZZ. Part of the parabola on these two might be our TCR coverage and our postings to the Stockr.com Thom Calandra network (link below).
I am still working on a profile of the brewing portfolio building efforts of a small-cap wizard and USC graduate hidden within the unadorned offices of Equities.com in Marina del Rey, California. This in the 30th year mark for the creation of the benchmark for small-cap stocks: The Russell 2000 Index.
?I know there are other coverage promises. For example, the two companies I will see in Quebec this next week are Argex in the titanium space and Nouveaumonde in the graphite space. They both trade in Canada, and I do not own them — unlike most of the other companies in this report.
The companies I will see at the Liquid Dynamite (my term) LD Micro Conference in two weeks include Sysorex, Gold Standard Venture (GSV) , American Sands Energy (AMSE) and a few others. See: LDMicro.com.?
?Almost forgot: still monitoring what could be a surprise appearance by an OTC stock that represents that Cabo Verde Capital group in coming weeks. You remember: beaches, casinos, hotels, western Africa off the coast of Senegal.? See: TCR article.
?Oh, and did I say my other task when I am down in Los Angeles in two weeks is not a chore at all?. It involves a collectible, like the art work below. My father-in-law's one-owner 1967 Mustang, cherry condition, was scooped up by one Bob Moriarty of 321gold.com in a transaction that involved platinum coins — Maple Leafs.
I will be assisting Mr. Moriarty in the pick-up of his Mustang, with new engine, near LA. I am wondering if I will shed a tear. I know at least two sisters, though, who are glad to have the coins. A good trade all around.
To borrow a phase from another writer, here's hoping for good trades all around.
— Thom Calandra
