If chatboards have become a part of the culture of the online investor, it is a culture that we could certainly live without.
We’ve seen better culture — and better English — on the washroom wall at the local saloon.
A year ago, one could unearth an occasional nugget of wisdom about a company, but a recent tour of chatboards shows little more than trashy, childish and ignorant drivel.
The real mystery here is why otherwise useful investment sites such as Stockhouse would risk their credibility and integrity by continuing to showcase boards that have become a kind of babysitting service and sounding board for bitter, whining losers who can’t spell cat.
It’s apparent that many of the astute and serious investors and traders have already tuned out these boards, so one wonders when the people who host them will wake up to the reality that the boards have generally become a bad joke.
It seems that the boards have sunk so low that even many of the notorious bashers and hypesters have vanished from them.
If the companies that host the chat boards are incapable of editing the postings that offer no value to serious online stock players, they should do the right thing and slam-dunk the boards.
On the other hand, if they could find a way to properly filter the messages, they could expect a stampede of legitimate posters providing due diligence and reasonable food for thought, because this was once a useful concept.
Now, the boards are generally not only an insult to online investors but a slap in the face to decent public companies who have their reputations dragged through the chatboard gutter on a daily basis.
Surprisingly, to this point, there have only been a handful of convictions over libelous, slanderous or fraudulent postings but, if the nonsense is allowed to continue, chatboards could become melting pots for legal wrangling.
And the lawyers will be laughing all the way to the bank.
PRO'S THREE STARS:
Tracy Hurley, mining analyst with Vancouver-based Wolverton Securities, picks three battered penny stocks on the Canadian Venture Exchange — Eurozinc Mining (EZM), Expatriate Resources (EXR) and JNR Resources (JNN).
Hurley cautions that, due to the high-risk nature of resource stocks, each of the companies are recommended as speculative buys for aggressive investors only. Eurozinc, which had a recent price of 30 cents with a year range of .30-.89, is assembling production financing for its Aljustrel zinc-lead-silver-copper project in Portugal.
“The project boasts robust economics and excellent potential for both reserve expansion and new discoveries on the property,” says Hurley.
Expatriate, with a recent price of 38 cents and a year range of .38-.95, has completed a positive pre-feasibility study on its Finlayson zinc-lead-copper-silver-gold project in the Yukon.
The potential at Finlayson is also excellent, says Hurley.
JNR, with a recent price of .08 and a year range of .06-.30, is exploring for uranium in the Athabasca basin of northern Saskatchewan with joint venture partner Kennecott Canada.
“JNR’s stock price has recently weakened with the sad passing of the company’s president,” says Hurley in reference to Dale Hoffman.
“Dale assembled a strong technical team at JNR, who will carry the company’s plans forward in what is promising to be an exciting exploration season.”
TRADING TIP:
Many traders succumb to gut-wrenching shake-outs that are often designed to remove the weak hands before a potential run-up in share price.
Often, it can be unwise to bail out in these situations unless the fundamental reason you bought the stock in the first place is no longer valid.
SITE OF THE WEEK:
www.bloomberguniversity.com
You’re never too old to go back to school — especially if it’s free.
This mini-site on the popular Bloomberg financial centre offers actual classes in investing, such as Mutual Funds 101 and Investing 101.
We would recommend it to anyone, except maybe Warren Buffett, who knows too much already.
HOT STOCK: ENCAL ENERGY
ENC-TSE $12.45
Up 2.45 (+24.5%) on 3,671,600 shares (for week ending Feb. 2)
Encal Energy has had a bullseye on its back for some time and announced Friday that it was in preliminary talks with an unnamed buyer. The TSE had halted trading to request the Calgary-based oil-and-gas company explain the heavy trading. Encal has been touted by analysts for months as a mid-cap ripe for a takeover. In December, Elvis Picardo of Global Securities singled out Encal Energy as one of the Three Stars in the Financial Edge column, giving it a target of $13 when it was at $9.40.
COLD STOCK: COMSTATE RESOURCES
CSR-TSE $2.00
Down .40 (-16.7%) on 45,600 shares (for week ending Feb. 2)
Comstate slipped on low volume to its lowest price since September on no news. The Calgary oil-and-gas producer, headed by oilpatch veteran George Fink, recently announced it would be paying out a semi-annual dividend on Feb. 15 of 18 cents per share. The stock has traded as high as $2.90 in the past year. Its year low is $1.55. Comstate’s wells are primarily based in Alberta.
