Same to you Kyrie!
While some of us have cricitized the other forum for much of what they do over there, today I want to compliment one of the posters for an excellent summation of how he views his investment in Ocata in retrospect and also with some very wise knowledge which applies not only to Ocata but to any stock and for that matter the market in general-imo this is one terrific and spot on post:
What I Learned From Advanced Cell Technology / Ocata
I have truly enjoyed my time with all of the “ICell family.” As our journey together ends, I thought I would reflect and share some of the lessons I learned as an investor along the way.
I originally bought into ACTC more than 5 years ago in December 2010. Over countless hours of due diligence I truly came to believe that ACTC’s technology was the future of medicine. Like many here, my mind swam as I did the math on what the RPE treatment alone could be worth. I worked hard at my career while raising a family, and carefully invested little by little over 40 times, accumulating a hard-earned 5,200 shares. I imagined my investment would lead to life-changing wealth. Instead, I lost approximately 15% on my investment (much more if you consider the opportunity cost of having been invested in ACTC during a bull market).
Why? How did it happen? The answer lies much deeper than any one factor, and I believe in fact goes into the very nature of us as conscious beings and why we are here experiencing life in the physical. But for this post I only wish to share the following much more specific investment world lessons that I personally learned. I intellectually understood most of these going in, but ACTC allowed me to learn them experientially:
1. A great product does not mean success. There are countless examples in history of great companies who have had revolutionary products, but failed. Still, somehow I felt the truly world-altering restorative medicine of ACTC by its very nature would compel others- both in supporting the company, and also in assigning value to its shares. Generally however, this did not happen. While the “story” of ACTC did keep it afloat, in the end ACTC was treated as a cold hard business like any other, and management business execution ended up being more important than the potency of the product.
2. There is no guarantee that stakeholders will come along for the ride. In the capitalist system, greed is acceptable. Yet personal gain often conflicts with collective gain. The system our markets operate in is one where personal gain is not only tolerated, but celebrated. Where another individual’s success is involved, an investor cannot simply rely on the other to uphold their responsibility to the stakeholder. In our case, while I understand management may have been in a “tough spot” for acquiring the necessary funds, I feel management failed to fulfill their “fiduciary duty” to shareholders in light of all statements made to us, the “owners.”
3. Existing expectations fulfill themselves. Technical trading works because everyone believes the same thing and trades accordingly.
4. The market value of something is only what others- a lot of others- are willing to pay for it. “Intrinsic value” is not easily actualized, even if seen by a large number of people who are themselves a small fraction of the entire group. Rather, in a large market, a big enough number of other people have to consistently see the value for it to materialize. If the greater herd doesn’t see it, value will not materialize.
5. The market respects money, not potential. Put another way: the market respects money right now, not an epic sh*tload of money down the road. I had several knowledgable, successful family and friends say to me: “I looked at Ocata’s balance sheet- really doesn’t look good.” Really? Ya think? Yet I think their comments reflected a prevalent concept: trust the money you can see, not what you can imagine. Ocata was always a “news driven” company because its value was its potential. That story was incredible (even if poorly told)- but even the promise to cure blindness, repair heart attack and stroke damage, and heal MS and autoimmune disease was not good enough.
6. Buying a stock is taking a position in its perception. Ocata was always funded by dilution, which was funded by stockholders, who bought the promise. Thus the perceptions of the promise upheld the company. As perceptions waned, so did the company’s strength. I personally feel management did a poor job of actively managing the world’s perception of the company, and this contributed significantly to its end.
7. Success is built on trust. While it is common in business for management to not report what is really going on, I feel that Ocata management was not honest with shareholders. Ocata had one of the most fiercely loyal and proactive shareholder bases in history, and there’s a lot we could’ve done to support the company. Yet management sold the company for a low figure rather than take the hard, rich road of going it alone as they had promised to us they would do time and time again. Management knew its investors had signed on for the “golden goose,” and we bought because we trusted they would pursue that “golden goose” as they promised.
8. What you see on the surface is not what is happening. This is the norm in business actually, and it was a fact that I re-stated many times when some of us took Ocata leadership comments at face value. However, this phenomenon was particularly true with Ocata. For instance, their September 2015 corporate presentation clearly communicated their enduring promise that we planned on being a stand-alone company- even though at that time the management knew the company was being sold.
9. American companies lack long-term balls. Because the science was so extraordinary and the IP was so good, I mistakenly believed that at least one American company or European company would step up to the plate and fight for Ocata. They did not. Every one of them was risk-adverse. I should say- the leadership of each one of them was risk-adverse. This is partially because American management, and American companies in general, focus on the short-term. They care about the current fiscal period- this month, this quarter, and maybe even this year. Asian companies, however, think ahead. Way, way ahead: 5 years, 10 years, even 50 years again. That will serve Japan very well in this case.
At the end of the day, life is good. Very, very good! I am rich with blessings. I feel blessed to have had this experience with this investment. I feel blessed to have come to know so many other visionary investors on ICell. I feel blessed to have learned so much. I even feel blessed to have gotten my *ss kicked by this investment, because I have grown through the experience. Thank YOU all for sharing it, and best of luck to all of us in our future endeavors!
