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QuickDraw, I was fascinated by your response containing the inference that a company which is being pumped and dumped can actually be unaware that they're being pumped and dumped. I can picture that the company might not be an actual party to the pumping (though often I believe it's the case that pumping is "fed" by company press releases being generated at a more rapid rate than historically has been the case). But I just can't see that a company wouldn't be aware of what's going on, as I think just about all of us get the e-mails and even the boiler-room calls, not to mention that we see advertising material placed on various websites.
I've seen situations in which it would make no sense for a company to be a party to the P&D, such as when it's basically a family-controlled company and there's no logic as to why the company/family would like to engage in bad behavior when no one in the family will be selling any shares. But what I haven't yet understood is why, in those situations where there is an "external pump and dump" going on, doesn't the company itself complain to the SEC and send out press releases condemning the illegal activity.
I'd really be interested in being enlightened here -thanks, QuickDraw and to anyone else who can give me a clue here!
Good Monday morning, Hostastock. As regards the potential for mind-blowing news this week:
1. I think that if the company were going to announce (unaudited) fiscal fourth quarter sales as being a record quarter, they would have done so already. So I don't think that there'll be an operationally-oriented mind-blowing announcement this week.
2. As regards the infusion of equity financing, it's getting to be close to two months since the company began "hunting," and the story of numbers of shares and price per share really could come anytime. I'm not "plugged in" and have no idea what will be announced and when it will be announced, but the announcement will, by nature, be mind-blowing.
Let's take a mid-range of the "between $1 million and $5 million" that they stated they're looking for, i.e. $3 million. Let's arbitrarily pick 4 cents per share as the price, so every million dollars means 25 million shares. Thus, $3 million in equity financing means 75 million new shares which is in the neighborhood of what's currently issued post-Gotama. With all the fuss this board made over authorized shares a few months ago, picture the fuss we'll be making over issued shares.
3. The final potential for mind-blowing news is always going to be something in the regulatory realm, and that's a total wildcard. ...though in a related idea somewhat out of the blue, I'd really like to see this company partner up with a major respiratory health center (National Jewish in Denver comes immediately to mind) as regards creating some affiliation in the area of traditional cigarette smoking cessation.
So I wish you "mind-blowing news" this week, of course in a positive direction, as we count down to the full year earnings release and the 10K that will follow (the most fascinating item with the 10K will be to compare the "going concern" language to the prior annual report).
You're quite welcome, thebunkies. Regarding the stock being in a trading range of roughly 3.8 to 4.7 cents for recent weeks, you might see similarities to a few months back when the stock was in the trading range of roughly 1.8 cents to 2.4 cents. At that time the big question revolved around whether the large increase in authorized shares (necessitated by loan covenants in regard to Typenex) would be the precursor to a large increase in issued shares, in other words the dilution risk. When that matter resolved in the direction of no dilution via loan repayments, the stock bounced into its current trading range pretty quickly.
...and as I pointed out in my first response to you, I would believe that the stock will break from its current trading range when company has managed its infusion of equity capital. Remember that the stock right now is selling at only about two percent of its all time intraday high.
FWIW, the most informative document you can read is the company's 10K of last September, particularly the paragraphs about risk factors. I would believe that the greatest risk factors in descending order would be:
1. How FDA regulation will play out (very likely to play out in a positive fashion - go look at RPH's recent post on that topic).
2. How successful the company will be in protecting its intellectual property.
3. Whether the company will grow beyond its "family company" nature, as I think they are in great need of some outside directors.
4. Though not mentioned in the 10K, I think it is a risk factor that the company had been played as a pump and dump. I hadn't thought that a second P&D is possible for the same company until I saw this with AXMM in recent weeks. There is no motivation for the company's leadership to behave other than in an exemplary fashion, so I think that this risk of a second P&D won't materialize.
Again, let me welcome you to this discussion board. "Nobody died and made me king" here (somebody once wrote that I come across as "self-important," so I'm still repenting), and I'm not the best poster here (I'd vote for Sgreg), but I can tell you this is a good place to exchange views with people who won't jump all over your case if they happen to hold a different view.
Let me copy into this reply a portion of my post #4128 on May 20, which is an e-mail from VHUB's contracted investor relations professional:
Equity Investment Sought
Vaping/e-cigarettes is a new, multi-billion dollar sector, growing rapidly. We have a client in the sector that is, we are confident, the most creative company and also sound financially and in its management team. They anticipate $6 million in sales this year and $10 million or more next year. They are looking for an equity investment (not convertible debt) of between $1 and $5 million. If interested, please contact: Paul Knopick
While VHUB is not specifically identified by name, the fact that the e-mail is from Mr. Knopick and the fact that the sales volume is a strong match for VHUB leads one to believe that it indeed is VHUB that is seeking equity capital.
...and this is in no way an adverse development, given how debt-laden the company WAS at that time (much less so now due to the transformation of Gotama loans into stock at a conversion price more than 10 cents over market at the time, coupled with new bridge loan financing taking the place of further tranche-borrowings from Typenex pursuant to an arrangement of last November). However, until we all learn at what price the new shares will be sold, there is an uncertainty hanging over the company - and the common belief is that investors are uncertainty-averse.
So, we'll see soon enough whether the new equity infusion is closer to $1 million or to $5 million, and just as importantly we'll see what the pricing will be on those new shares.
I'm sure there are other answers to your question, but I'd also like to toss a question back to you. You wrote of "so much selling," but every seller has a buyer - given how the stock has appreciated from less than a penny per share last November to over 4 cents these days, I'd believe that the buyers in the past eight or so months have been more emphatic in the marketplace than the sellers. Accordingly, my question to you is whether your point of view of "so much selling" is derived from some technical analysis of transactions that you've undertaken.
Thanks, and I'll close by repeating that I have no position in the stock, nor have I ever. I became interested, albeit in a perverse way, when the Investor-Edge people were bombarding me with pump and dump e-mails in Spring 2014. I was later amazed to learn that this is a company with real products, real retail outlets, and what I think is a real future. After the company's stock suffered last year the predictable backlash in dumping compounded by tax-loss selling late in the year, I think that both the company and its decimated (the all time high was $2.01 on an intraday basis)stock have a bright future, for whatever my opinion may be worth.
Sorry to take up so much time and space this morning, but I should add to my earlier posts that I really don't think Gotama will find it feasible to pump and dump so as to extricate itself from its current roughly 400K loss (4 million shares at ten cents each). I read somewhere, though I've forgotten where, that a "good" P&D costs about 300K and comes with SEC and other legal risks. I just don't think it would be worth Gotama's risk, not to mention that maybe some folks in penny-land actually do behave ethically and Gotama might be one of them.
Further, P&D's require press releases to serve as their engine. I just don't see people with reputations on the line, like the Investor Relations and SEC folks affiliated with VHUB, "feeding the beast." If you see Paul Knopick going away, it's time to sell your stock, I would believe.
Most of all, VHUB was pumped and dumped in spring 2014 by the folks at Investor Edge. Just to pick one example, Kyle saw his roughly 16 million shares reach a value of about $32 million on an intraday basis in spring 2014, before plummeting to a value of about $200K during late autumn 2014. I just don't think Kyle wants to go through another round of brain damage.
One last item to repeat from earlier posts - the big unknown with VHUB right now is what the pricing will be on the new equity funding they've been looking for since late May. If they sell 125 million new shares at 4 cents each, so as to get the maximum $5 million they were seeking, that'll be great, provided that the company can earn a rate of return on that new money that will, in effect, not damage the existing shareholder base. We'll all see soon enough what's going on here, but right now that's a big question mark hanging over this company (which may largely explain why the stock hasn't really exploded to the upside yet).
Good day to all.
UHD, not only would I not call 4 million shares a "ton" as regards dilution, I wouldn't classify the sale for fifteen cents of something worth around four or five cents as anything other than making a phenomenal profit.
I'm very stale as an accountant, but somebody on this board maybe can confirm my suspicion that the company will recognize a gain on this transaction of about $400K (roughly ten cents per share on each of four million shares). That 400K, while not a matter of being part of calculating net profit from operations, still would be part of the overall bottom line - and that's what could trip the entire year's results into being just about breakeven. ...which in turn could propel this stock in a few months when year-end results will be promulgated. I can see Paul Knopick's press release reading something like "VHUB in less than two years has attained the progress of exceeding $5 million in annual sales, a near-breakeven bottom line, and long term debt of roughly only half a million dollars."
Sgreg, thanks as ever for bringing "light rather than heat" into this board. I've got some minor comments on your concepts:
1. Are you sure that Niels and Justin have exercised their options, in contrasted to just having the privilege to sit on those options for up to a decade, then exercising (and probably selling enough to cover the cost, presuming the stock has risen above the strike price)? This is really just a technical quibble.
2. Your points about Gotama being seriously annoyed by having VHUB force the conversion and the potential for an externally-driven pump and dump are very well taken. I don't think that Gotama would short against the box, thus locking in their loss (difference between fifteen cents and roughly five cents for each of four million-plus shares) as contrasted to either orchestrating a pump and dump or (much better)their seeking a seat on the board so as to help foment legitimate growth in the share price.
3. Regarding Big Tobacco wanting to destroy this fledging industry, I do believe that they've hedged their bets by becoming players in this industry. I don't have time right now to Google for examples, but perhaps those wiser than I can point out examples.
I'll conclude by congratulating you for having gotten in here in the cent and a half range if I'm remembering correctly, and I wish you continued success (also hoping that you escaped MD*N in time).
Now that's a great answer you've provided this board, RPH, and you've probably saved Paul Knopick a few minutes if the company decides to issue a press release - Paul can use your post as a jumping-off point for his work. Thanks, and I'm looking forward to updates on whether or not the wall in the mid-4's has reappeared, though for the sake of most of the gang here, I hope the wall is just a memory.
I've been leaning bullish on VHUB in recent weeks, as those who have read my posts have seen - and the recent stories regarding the company's financing (e.g. Gotama loan conversion, search for equity capital, no additional Typenex tranche borrowings) have been my motivation towards positive opinions about the stock.
This morning I awoke to my usual look at the MSN website and found this story:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/fda-cloud-hangs-over-vape-shops/ar-AAcEnNE
While this is not "new news" - the company included regulatory initiatives in the risk factors section of last September's 10K report - it will be interesting to see whether the company puts out a press release to calm the waters or whether it just expects that the story won't gain traction. Our discussion board is blessed to have at least one vape shop proprietor, and it would be interesting to learn his reaction. FWIW, the article would appear to be more "cautious" as regards Internet sales than store sales, so perhaps individual shops would be less concerned than manufacturers employing an Internet marketing strategy.
This board in recent months has been very good in serving as a place for airing out ideas as contrasted to cheerleading on the one hand and bashing on the other, and I hope we'll continue along that road. Is anyone here more or less concerned about regulatory matters than they've been before - just curious.
BobKS, let me copy into this reply the relevant section of the 10K from last September:
The principal amount of the note is convertible at any time, in whole or in part, at the Company’s election or the election of the holder into shares of the Company’s common stock at a price equal to the greater of $0.15 or 90% of the average closing prices of the Company’s common stock for the ten trading days immediately preceding the applicable conversion date.
I've disagreed with a number of other posters on this matter (people whose opinions I've come to generally take as being more valid than my own most of the time), but I would still maintain that a literal reading of the above paragraph, focusing on the word "or" on the second line, means right now that VHUB forced this conversion into equity and that the lender is not a happy camper at this moment. Remember that the stock traded as high as $2.01 on an intraday basis so that 15 cents was probably not expected to be experienced on the downside. Also, I'd point out that the phrasing on the fourth line of the quoted clause is "the greater of" rather than "the lesser of."
Accordingly, I would have no reason to believe that Gotama expects to see 15 cents on this stock any time soon.
But please listen to other opinions you'll get on this board, and make up your own mind. Finally and having nothing to do with the topic at hand, congratulations upon the exquisite Yiddish pun that is your screen name!
If one looks cynically both at the operations of market makers and also at company motivations, one might think that the company, having suppressed its stock price to get Niels' and Justin's options done in the low 4's, similarly wants to keep the stock relatively low until the Form 4's have been produced for Lori and Kyle as well.
But I have to admit that I don't know my Tochas from my elbow in the realm of whether it actually is feasible for a company and its market-maker to "conspire" to keep a stock up or down and how they would go about if it actually is feasible. I'm not cynical by nature, though I differentiate cautious (e.g. I think I know pumping literature when I see it) from cynical.
In the end, I would believe that the risk of getting caught in doing "bad stuff" would exceed any possible reward for a company with a promising future - so I really don't believe that any "funny stuff" is going on here as contrasted to there being shareholders who'd be delighted to take their money and run at a particular price.
I really am open to the wisdom of those more experienced in the penny stock realm.
Good morning, Hostastock,
I like your implied distinction between "mind-blowing" news and just plain news. In the category of "just plain news," the recent 8K filing which we discussed recently (involving the Gotama loan-conversion and the announcement that there will be no additional borrowing via Typenex tranches) needs to be amplified with a press release to give the stories broader distribution. But it's not "mind-blowing" because we already know the story via the SEC filing. Similarly, what I'm guessing to be the fact that the monthly amount due to Typenex has been paid with cash (generated in part from the recent bridge financing) rather than with shares is a matter of expectation rather than a matter of any news at all.
But I will predict that there actually will be mind-blowing news to be released soon. You'll recall that the company announced that May was its best sales month ever and seemed to be cautiously optimistic that June sales would be OK (but escaped saying anything about April sales). So I'm going to predict that the company will soon proudly announce that the three months ended a few days ago generated the best quarterly sales ever, as May will be sufficient to "carry" the other two months of the quarter. What will not be stated is that the company didn't hit $6 million in sales for the fiscal (yes fiscal, not calendar, year, as I rediscovered that particular press release over the weekend) year which was a prediction the company made in an earlier release.
Most of all, though, there's got to be news coming soon as regards the company's search for equity capital. I'm sure the news will be mind-blowing, but only God and the Winthers know in which direction the mind will be blown. Given that the company is in a rapid-growth industry and has great products, according to people I trust such as yourself and RPH, I think the odds favor that the price isn't going to be a large discount from where we are now.
We'll see soon enough if I'm right about any of this.
Happy new fiscal year to VHUB and happy Independence Day holiday and weekend to you, Hostastock,
I recall that one of the recent questions that you and RPH have been conjecturing upon involves the "wall" at the mid-4's, or why is the stock price being suppressed. If I were a less trusting person as regards the question of manipulation, I'd be tempted to think that the Company would want to make its options more attractive to its executives and board members by having the striking prices as low as possible (and shortly thereafter issuing the pent-up good-news press releases).
The main good news for the Company revolves around the 8K form announcing that there will be no further Typenex tranches being utilized, meaning that the company believes that its recent bridge financing (in part with Typenex, in part with BofI) is enough not only to grow inventory but also to take care of principal repayments on the couple of hundred thousand dollars of Typenex loans that actually were processed.
That same 8K also had some additional great news, namely that the Gotama loans were being converted into stock. Ordinarily, you might label it dilution, but when the Company is issuing stock at a stated value of 15 cents per share when the stock price is about one-quarter of that amount, that most certainly is not dilution. I reviewed those loan terms awhile ago per the 10K, and it really turned out to be true that the Gotama loans were convertible at VHUB's option.
So, what's left to happen in the near future is the announcement of the results of Company's late-May search for $1-5 million in equity funding (I'd reduce that number by about $600,000 as the cancellation of the Gotama debt is in fact a boost to equity).
I'm open to any other interpretations of the recent news pieces.
Marchio, welcome back, it's been awhile since you've posted here, and your bearish leanings on VHUB are not to be taken lightly (though I think that the board would benefit from seeing you present your reasoning behind those beliefs - you have asked good questions, e.g. definition of "golden cross," so you might as well show us your reasoning for your opinions). I had to go back a ways to confirm my suspicion that you were referring to a post I made back on May 27 which had a lot of detail to arrive at my guess that the stock might see .09 next year.
Before "doubling down" on my opinion of a month ago, I'd really like to wait and see what will come out of the company's "capital call" on May 23 where they're looking for up to $5 million in new equity. If pressed, I'd admit that I'm slightly less confident in my guess than I was in late May, because I believe that the company's presentation at a micro-cap conference which featured a projection of something like $17 million in net income in a couple of years was so "over the top" as to invite skepticism. Also, the press release which celebrated the high monthly sales of May was "incomplete," as it didn't use that same opportunity to tell us, for better or worse, what April sales were.
But while the company has, in my opinion, made itself a little less credible in the past month, I still would remember what I think was Sgreg's mention that this particular sector of the stock market is driven by "hype and emotion." The rapid growth of the vaping sector of the economy, coupled with VHUB having excellent products according to the vape-shop owner in our midst, would still lean me bullish on the stock, and I don't think it's that big a stretch at all to see a doubling in the stock price in the coming eighteen months.
And so, Marchio, while I can understand the case for pessimism on VHUB, I think the case for optimism remains somewhat stronger at the moment. But I'd really like to see how much equity financing the company will bring onboard and at what price for the new shares. ...and as I wrote at the outset of this post, I'd also like to see you defend the bearish case rather than just give our colleagues on this board ammunition to belittle you with names like "troll" (I think that when a discussion board descends into name-calling, its days of usefulness are numbered and its days of being an enjoyable experience are over).
Good evening, Hostastock and RPH,
As regards equity investors entering VHUB, let me copy into this post part of my posting from May 20, which is the main body of an e-mail that Paul Knopick distributed seeking equity capital for presumably, even though not identified by name, VHUB:
**************************
Vaping/e-cigarettes is a new, multi-billion dollar sector, growing rapidly. We have a client in the sector that is, we are confident, the most creative company and also sound financially and in its management team. They anticipate $6 million in sales this year and $10 million or more next year. They are looking for an equity investment (not convertible debt) of between $1 and $5 million. If interested, please contact:
Paul Knopick
**************************
There are two inferences to be drawn:
1. It is no surprise that rumors would be swirling about new investors eager to enter VHUB, since the company itself recently instigated a call for equity investors (as contrasted to potential equity investors via dilutive conversion provisions of convertible debt). I have every reason to believe that there would be lots of expressions of interest to Paul's note by now (heck, even I forwarded Paul's note to somebody I know, and I have no idea if anything came of that).
2. Given the May sales of 630+K, April sales certainly less than that (as May was touted as the best month ever), and prospect for June sales having been described as good rather than looking to beat May, it would now appear that the $6 million in sales looked for in "this" year pertains to this calendar year rather than to fiscal year about to end in a couple of weeks. I predicted in a recent post $1.6 million in sales for the current quarter, and if they get that same number for the September and December quarters, that would take them to right around $6 million for the calendar year.
Beyond all that, I'm no technical charting expert (I don't even play one on TV and I have never stayed at a Holiday Inn Express), but I know enough to congratulate the bulls that .042 which was a level of resistance has been turned into a level of support. The risk/curiosity right now is what the pricing will be for the new equity (we already know the pricing for at least some of the 20 million potential shares involved - the 8K showed 3.8 cents which is a little under the most recent close).
Have a good week!
Nooby, yes, it does fascinate me that any stock could have a second round of "pump and dump." This was initially, as you know, an Investor-Edge special - the same folks that, before AXMM, brought us BTFL and VHUB (the latter at levels up to $2.01 before crashing to $.006, now rejuvenated at over 4 cents due to growing sales).
I remain fascinated that a lot of folks either don't read the fine print at the end of the pumping materials or choose to believe that they can successfully ride the pumping and get out before the dumping.
Anyway, congratulations upon your discernment in reviewing stock recommendations. The one item I'm curious about is whether part of the pumping contract involves appearing on discussion boards so that folks like you and me will be quelled.
Thanks, RPH, and I'm sure you're even more amused than I am that the market has received the May sales news as well as it has, with the punching through of the .042 level of resistance at the time of my writing this note. You bring up a very strong point as regards the product mix within the overall sales, and the question is whether in this rapidly evolving industry a company can sustain its competitive advantage on price points. I hope that the new equity financing will take place during the stock's uptrend.
I'm going to try to put the 630+K May revenues into perspective by reading between the lines as best as I can. In a "more perfect world" the press release would have done this for us, so that investors and potential investors could make more informed decisions sooner. What my goal is here is to make a guess in regard to Q4 revenues and see how close that guess comes to what we on this Board recently agreed as the company's goal/estimate of $2.41 million for Q4 which in turn would tie to the company's estimate of $6 million for the full fiscal year.
What this all means is that I need to make guesses for April sales and for June sales. If April had been a stellar month, we can presume that the press release would have spoken about April's sales as well as May's. Lacking that, I'm going to guess 400K for April which is the average per month sales for the first nine months of the fiscal year, but also does represent growth from the average monthly sales in Q2 and Q3 (both of which declined from Q1).
Regarding June, the company said in the press release that sales would be "strong," but they didn't say that the sales would be stronger than May's. So I'm going to guess 570K which is about 10% less than May.
So putting the three months together, 400K+630K+570K adds up to $1.6 million for Q4 which is 25% less than the $2.4 million this Board has been looking for. That takes us to $5.2 million in sales for the full year. As regards the bottom line, I would guess that Q4 by itself is going to be very close to break-even, one way or the other, and the full year loss will therefore be around the 400K that represented the results of nine months of activity.
Given what I believe is the intentional "murkiness" of the press release, I think I can understand why all the recent good news hasn't created a buying stampede, and I still think that the pricing of the upcoming new equity financing is going to dictate how this stock will perform going forward.
Don't get me wrong here - I still think that over $5 million in sales for the first fiscal year is something to crow about and I still highly respect Sgreg's market value comparison of this stock to others in the industry. But I do think that the company is not doing itself favors by cherry-picking the good stories and leaving out the rest when directing Paul Knopick to issue press releases (which I still find to be exceptionally well-written).
I think that investors will place a higher price-earnings multiple on transparent companies than they will on companies in which investors need to be more active and effective in due diligence, because investors performing due diligence will always realize that they haven't caught everything that's being held back. If I were more blunt, I'd write that cherry-picking is the most subtle form of pumping, and all pumping ends poorly.
Summary: This is a viable company with some great products, and it can become a great company in an exceptionally fast-growing industry. The way there will be easier and more certain with greater transparency in reporting. The Company should have reported actual April sales when telling us May sales; the inferences investors draw from having had that info withheld are not more positive than any number that would have been reported for April.
FWIW, based on the 8K that just was issued and can be found right on this website, I did two "quick and dirty" annual percentage rate calculations. To save anyone the trouble of reading further, my estimate is 90(NINETY!)% for the annual interest rate of the BofI loan and 45% for the annual interest rate of the Typenex loan.
If anyone does want to read further, here are the details on the calculations should anyone want to check my work (but please have some mercy on me, as these are estimates and my CFO days have long since passed):
1. Regarding the BofI loan, the total interest is 40K, the average amount of money being borrowed is about $88,000 (i.e. half of the total being borrowed, since there is a principal component to each business-daily repayment), and the term of the loan is roughly half a year (126 business days multiplied by 7/5 to account for weekends comes out to about 175 calendar days). So the math works out to be roughly 40K/88K X 360 days/175 days, which gets us to about a 90% annual percentage rate.
2. Regarding the Typenex loan, the calculation is simpler - 45K interest on 200K principal borrowed for half a year, so 45K/200K X 2, which is about 45%.
If anyone wants to do the precise calculations, or if anyone finds errors in my calculations, I'll be appreciative (and apologetic as regards errors).
As to what this all means, I guess the question is whether you'd rather endure enormous interest rates for a short time or dilution forever. Whatever your preference, the key question remains what will be the terms of the new equity financing sought by the company's e-mail of roughly a couple of weeks ago. I think the pause in the climb of the stock probably has to do with a "wait and see" attitude as regards the issuance price of the new equity, and that curiosity/concern has trumped other fundamental factors - and even the positive technical charting factors - for now.
There are a couple of items to look at this morning, plus one more item to review later on when available.
First, let’s have a look at the 8K filing from six days ago that included the company’s presentation at the LD Micro-Cap Conference. Here’s the hyperlink to the presentation:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1515718/000151116415000305/vaporhubinternational.htm
The “cap table” slide is interesting, as it has a line for “Chicago Ventures.” Is this Typenex by itself, or does the line include the BofI loan as well – maybe someone can help me out here. Also, the numbers to the right of the dollar figures for the Chicago Ventures and Gotama loans – can anyone figure out what those numbers are supposed to represent?
The financial projection slide is similarly interesting. I’m trying to cross-walk the revenue numbers shown in the slide to the letter that went out to potential equity investors which estimated revenues at $6 million for this year and $10 million for next year. There may be some issue here between fiscal and calendar years. I won’t comment on the bottom line projections for the outer years, but less ambitious numbers might have made for an “easier sell” to the conference attendees. Also, the unique spelling of “allounces” makes one wonder just a little…
Second, let’s look at the e-mail we just got this very morning about the non-dilutive bridge financing:
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., June 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Vapor Hub International Inc. (OTC: VHUB) (www.vapor-hub.com) is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised bridge financing through the issuance of non-convertible debt. The company received net proceeds of $104,071 from BofI Federal Bank and net proceeds of $184,000 from Typenex Co-Investment, LLC, after the payment of commissions.
"The funds received from Typenex and BofI Federal Bank will help us meet our short term capital needs," said Kyle Winther, VHUB CEO. "We plan to use a significant portion of the funds to expand our inventory which will help drive our revenue growth."
For a further description of the terms of the financings, please see the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K which it intends to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or about the date of this release.
This is potentially great news for the company; still one needs to await the promised 8K to learn what sort of interest rate the company will be paying. At some point – though I’ll leave it to the analytical skills of others on this discussion board – dilution would be a better alternative to usury. Given that the effective annual interest rate on the current BofI loan is in excess of 100% per year (I did the math in a posting a few months ago – what you have to remember is that the average principal being borrowed is around one-half of the total principal, given the daily payment mechanism).
So overall, based upon limited information, what’s going on here is bullish for the stock IMHO. The major curiosity is whether and how the bridge financing announced today has any impact on the earlier letter in which the company is seeking $1 million to $5 million in equity financing – my guess is that today’s financing is, as it’s being called, the “bridge” financing until the equity dollars will flow in and cancel out these new loans. Let me close by apologizing for the length of this posting - I hope it's been worth anyone's effort to read.)
It was interesting for me to try to weave a cohesive picture out of several pieces of information that we've recently learned about VHUB:
1. First we learned that the company did not have a strong third financial quarter, measured by flat sales and the footnote regarding how the Typenex financing will not be sufficient to meet the full extent of their cash needs going forward.
2. Then we learned that the company is seeking up to $5 million in EQUITY financing.
3. Then (thank you, Hostastock) we learned that the company now has an Indonesian sales presence.
4. Shortly thereafter this morning, we learned that, as expected based upon last month's experience and the rapid growth of sales in Q4 as claimed by the company, the June Typenex payment was made in cash rather than in shares. Further, the company expects to be out of the Typenex loan within eight months.
5. In the midst of all this, the stock performance has been flat this morning, at least when I began typing this post.
So this is what I am guessing is happening:
1. Despite my skepticism (which was allayed to a large extent by Sgreg's response to me a few days ago), Q4 sales may actually be showing up as double the quarterly average for the first nine months of the fiscal year. ...and that's why the Typenex payment could be made with cash instead of with shares.
2. The reason why the Typenex loan won't remain too much longer is that it will be replaced by the equity financing the company is seeking.
3. The reason why so much equity financing is being sought is that this financing will furnish the seed money to really ramp up the marketing effort outside of the USA.
4. Finally, a plausible reason why the stock price hasn't fully responded to all this good news is that potential investors are waiting to see at what price the new shares will be issued in order to reach their own conclusions as to the dilution involved (or even not)in the issuance.
I wonder what other conclusions could be drawn from the recent inputs, so thanks to any of you for taking a look at this and sharing your own conclusions. Good day, fellow posters (and Marchio, I know you've become the resident bear here, so I hope to learn your viewpoint with your reasoning for it as a discussion board with just one outlook on a stock will not be as beneficial to the posting community as a more robust setting).
Lakingsphan, just to be incrementally more optimistic than you are, I would believe that .0525 became a moment of news-driven rather than technical resistance, as right around that time occurred the story of authorized shares being increased substantially to accommodate the Typenex covenants. As the term resistance is generally a technical-analysis kind of term, I might believe that some higher number might be in order, though I don't know enough to pick a number.
Just to be balanced on these matters, I don't think that the potential announcement later on this week about how cash will have been used to pay the Typenex installment will drive the stock, as this probably has become the expectation due to last month's experience. I think that the next "event" to drive the stock one way or the other will be the terms of the equity financing that the company advertised that it is now seeking.
Sgreg, good morning and yes, thank you, it was a good weekend here (at my age, if I wake up, it's already been a good day).
There was much to like about your response to my "agnosticism," and the baseball analogy was particularly cogent. The tracking of Typenex tranches is somewhat of a challenge, especially as regards trying to figure out what has gone on between the end of a fiscal quarter and the release of the quarterly reporting that follows roughly six weeks later. I also wonder how many shares are left after tax-loss selling in the hands of those who bought at ten cents and up (I do realize that resistance levels are derived from ill-advised earlier purchases).
Overall, the micro-cap sector is a challenging and intriguing sector to play in, and I have a lot of respect for those who commit to it, with the most respect for those who can identify companies that have a good chance of still being in business a few years down the road. Enjoy the week!
Sgreg, good morning, and I wonder if you could help me work through a puzzle as regards VHUB. Let's assume that they do reach $2.4 million in sales in the current quarter such that they reach their $6 million target in sales for the fiscal year. If we just simply annualize $2.4 million in quarterly sales, that takes us really close to their projection of $10 million in sales for next fiscal year...which means that in essence they will have stopped growing. Something doesn't feel right to me, and I trust your insights far more than my own on these matters.
In a somewhat related matter, I suppose that the major announcement this week will be that again the 35K monthly debt service regarding Typenex has bee paid in cash rather than in stock. But I'm not quite sure where the big triumph would be in that, as wouldn't the most likely scenario be that they paid those funds out of the next tranche of the loan? If they're burning through cash at about 80K per month (referencing the quarterly loss here), that still leaves each new tranche providing net incremental operating funds.
Overall, I think that we're in a stage here where the company actually will be doing whatever it is they can do to boost the stock in the short term so that the cost of the equity infusion will be less (meaning that whoever buys new stock will be buying at the highest price the company can reach in the negotiation, and the best place to start is at the then-current price of the stock). I agree with you that the company spokespeople have not been pumpers (to be complete in that statement, it's true ever since the Investor-Edge pump and dump of a year ago), but there will be temptations over the next few weeks.
Finally, I want to second your comment about the "quality" of this discussion board. As long as opinions diverging from the majority will be welcomed assuming analysis has been provided, this is actually a great community. I do think there is room for some occasional cheerleading, since most investors in this sector will lose most of their money most of the time (from what I've heard and what I've seen when a stock is recommended).
Have a great week for yourself!
Good morning, RPH,
You, the company, and Paul Knopick all agree that an equity investment is much preferred to convertible debt, and indeed that was the phrasing in Paul's capital-seeking letter from a week ago. I too am board with this line of thinking, as - echoing a point that Sgreg has made - it seems that the impact of potential dilution on share price can be more intense than the impact of even actual dilution.
Lest I forget, I need to tip my cap to Hostastock. His intuition of a (plus or minus) 10 cent target for the stock was far more efficient than all my number-crunching and piling one assumption upon another.
At the risk of totally embarrassing myself, I think I'll take a shot at figuring out what the stock price might look like if:
1. Next fiscal year's sales really will be on the order of $10 million; and
2. The company is successful in its endeavor to attract (I'll use the full amount)$5 million in an infusion of equity capital.
Let's say that the cost of good sold will be about 2/3 of sales, so that would leave a gross margin of roughly $3.3 million. Let's say that general and administrative expenses would rise to about $700,000 per quarter, up about 25% from the experience of the most recent quarter, reflecting mostly annualization of the costs of new marketing programs initiated in the most recent quarter. So that would be $2.8 million in these costs for the year, leaving $500,000 in net income before interest and taxes.
Let me assume - just pulling numbers out of my Tochas - that the $5 million in equity infusion will be 125 million newly issued common shares at 4 cents per share (really, who knows?), and that the $5 million is used in part to rid the company of: March 31 debt of about $1.1 million (just adding the relevant numbers on the balance sheet - Typenex, Gotama, officer loans, BofI); any new Typenex tranches since then; and any financing needs from now through the end of the coming fiscal year.
Accordingly, I won't reduce the $500,000 above by any interest expense. I'll assume an effective tax rate of 40% (just picked out of thin air), so that will leave $300,000 as the bottom line. The number of shares will be the sum of 68 million currently issued plus 125 million newly-issued shares. For today's purpose, let's round off to 200 million shares. And all of these calculations lead us to per-share earnings of $.0015 per common share. Let me assign a price/earnings multiple of 40,given that the company would be a real growth stock due to its zooming sales. So that takes me to a target stock price of 6 cents per share, or more than 50% above where the stock closed yesterday.
However, I've missed one thing in this analysis. I assigned at most $2 million of the $5 million of the funds infusion to obliterating/obviating debt, so that would leave $3 million available for expansion of the company. If there would be only a 5% return on those funds, that's another $150,000 to the bottom line, which would represent a 50% increase to the $300,000 number I've calculated above. Running that all the way through the analysis takes the stock price target up to 9 cents per share.
I realize that by the time some of the readership pokes holes in every assumption, my 9 cent target for the stock will look like Swiss cheese. But someone had to do a first pass at this, and since I'm neither a share-holder here nor thin-skinned by nature, it might as well be me. It does fascinate me, though, whether commenters will suggest changes to the assumptions that would raise or lower the price target for the stock.
Good morning, Sgreg, and thanks for having re-read my post, as you mentioned. Let me copy into this post part of my post #4128 which is an excerpt of Paul Knopick's search for investor capital for this company:
"Vaping/e-cigarettes is a new, multi-billion dollar sector, growing rapidly. We have a client in the sector that is, we are confident, the most creative company and also sound financially and in its management team. They anticipate $6 million in sales this year and $10 million or more next year. They are looking for an equity investment (not convertible debt) of between $1 and $5 million. If interested, please contact..."
I just believed at that moment that if you're looking for capital in excess of your then-current market value, you've put yourself into play to be acquired - and I believed at that moment that other companies in the industry would be lining up at the door to pick them up, given the quality and constant improvement/expansion of the product line.
Meanwhile, that same letter from Paul referenced sales for the current year of $6 million and for next year of $10 million. The math then is present as regards $2.4 million in sales for the current quarter to get the current year up to $6 million, then annualizing the $2.4 million (without even growing it) to get up to nearly $10 million for the next year.
And that indeed is when I turned bullish on the stock, despite my continuing skepticism that, somewhat out of the clear blue sky, sales will double from one quarter to the next. I would have believed that such a positive development would have been announced contemporaneously with publishing the Q3 financial statements so as to soften the blow of what really was poor financial performance in that quarter.
What all that leaves to answer is two questions - Marchio's question regarding what's the stock worth if the company is doing $10 million in sales for the next fiscal year and my own question as to what the stock is worth if it's an acquisition target (who'd put $5 million into the company and not want all of the company in return for that?). ...and I'm going to "wimp out" of answering those two questions for the moment by writing simply that the number I'd come up with would exceed the closing price yesterday of the stock.
Have a good day!
I appreciate your point of view. I would believe that when a forecast on its surface looks to be ambitious, it is best to go into even just a little detail to explain why/how that forecast may be attainable. It's the flatness of sales for the past six months, despite reports of how well the Limitless Mod is doing (also how well the social media marketing approach is doing), that can breed some level of skepticism.
Overall, you and I are bullish on the stock, though for different reasons. Your optimism is grounded on the basis of the company's operations, and mine is grounded on the basis that the company looks like it's in play, and the attractiveness of the product line in particular makes VHUB a good candidate for acquisition.
Nonetheless, I do think that there's a legitimate risk that the cash position of the company could put management in a difficult spot in terms of both operations and negotiating posture as regards being acquired. Clearly, if there were no liquidity risk, the stock would be going for a lot more than it is now (referring back to a number of Sgreg's postings in which he reviews comparative market valuations of various companies in this industry).
The company's press release, abstracting from the quarterly SEC filing, really is fascinating:
1. It struck me as unusual that the bottom line, i.e. the loss, was totally left out of the report.
2. If the company's gross revenues were roughly $3.6 million for three fiscal quarters, that averages $1.2 million per quarter. And if management is projecting $6 million in sales for the fiscal year, that would mean that the fourth quarter would yield $2.4 million in sales, which is double the quarterly rate so far this fiscal year. I would find that easier to believe if quarterly sales had not been trending down since the first fiscal quarter.
3. Also omitted was the "going concern" commentary from the 10Q in which the company admits that the Typenex financing won't be sufficient (the recent letter from the company to potential equity investors or bondholders, which I posted earlier to this Board, tends to confirm this picture).
To me, this is a company which keeps on developing great products, keeps on innovating in marketing those products (e.g. its social media and storefront approaches), and is a leader in a booming industry...but which is a company that is living from month to month as regards its cash situation (even given the multiple tranches of the Typenex loan).
Given that the value of the stock in the marketplace is about $2 million and that the company per its own letter is seeking $1 million to $5 million, this is a company which surely looks like it is "in play." It would be interesting to see which other companies in this industry would like to acquire VHUB and at what price.
I also would suggest to the company that putting out press releases about quarterly performance that don't even mention the bottom line is not the best way to build trust within the investment community. While I disagree pretty strongly with Marchio's view about this company being "a scam" - RPH has debunked that idea with the facts on the ground - I can still respect Marchio's opinion, given how the quarterly reporting for press-release purposes omits the bottom line and contains a highly ambitious projection for Q4 sales.
RPH, thanks for your summary and your insight about the convention season, and I'd like to add one very positive item about the company's balance sheet: for a company which will do roughly $5 million in sales this fiscal year, it's remarkable that their inventory is as low as it is, i.e. in the 200K range. The less cash tied up in inventory, the better. I do believe that most shop-owners would be thrilled if their inventories were only about 2-3 weeks worth of sales.
I'm sorry, Lakingsphan and others, but my own initial impression is that this quarterly report is presenting a "fustercluck" situation. The ratio of cost of goods sold to gross revenues appears to have increased in the third quarter from that attained in the first six months (despite all the wording we've read about how more higher-margin products are being sold).
Further,the ratio of general and administrative expenses to gross revenues appears to have actually increased in these most recent three months compared to the first six months, despite the avowed intent of the company to pare down these costs.
Regarding the balance sheet, the current assets have actually dipped below the current liabilities. I'm working from memory here, but I believe that there was a positive current ratio at the end of each of the first two fiscal quarters.
Regarding the footnotes, the "going concern" section is not surprising and doesn't seem much changed from before. They're honest about needing more money to stay in business, whether the money comes from loans or from sale of stock. My earlier post today referenced the solicitation for new equity capital.
I'm going to leave it to others wiser than I am, and who are more experienced than I in the penny stock arena, to reach their own conclusions as regards whether the stock is a buy at current levels. It does seem clear to me, however, that so much depends on what the response will be to Mr. Knopick's letter - if you can picture the company hosting a bidding war among those who express an interest in putting one to five million dollars into the company, then you're bullish on the stock.
I'm interested in what others are thinking. Again for the record, I'm not, and never have been, an investor in the stock. I got interested in the company about a year ago when I got a series of "pump" e-mails from the Investor-Edge folks.
First, just in case you didn't get Paul Knopick's e-mail, here it is:
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Equity Investment Sought
Vaping/e-cigarettes is a new, multi-billion dollar sector, growing rapidly. We have a client in the sector that is, we are confident, the most creative company and also sound financially and in its management team. They anticipate $6 million in sales this year and $10 million or more next year. They are looking for an equity investment (not convertible debt) of between $1 and $5 million. If interested, please contact:
Paul Knopick
******************************
Second, one can be burned by leaping to conclusions, but I have no reason to believe that E and E Communications has other clients in the vaping industry (and it would appear that it would be a conflict of interest if such were the case).
Third, Paul's language is that his client is "sound financially," and that is as good to hear, though one would not expect wording to the contrary.
Rather than my drawing inferences on the sensitive topics of viability and dilution, I'll just write that I'm sure that the group that hangs out on this discussion board will be fascinated at what percentage of ownership of the company an equity investment of X million dollars will bring, given that the approximate market value of the outstanding shares at the moment is about $2.4 million. Referring back to an earlier post I made recently, I think that this seeking of financing may constitute a "subsequent event" that could hold up issuance of a quarterly report.
Sgreg, thank you for the kind words, and let me give it a shot as regards your thought of factors endemic to this sector that could hold up quarterly reporting.
One set of financial statement footnotes may involve "subsequent events," i.e. what's gone on since March 31 in this particular case. This industry sector, whether one includes marijuana in it or not, is very susceptive to subsequent events as regards legal usage, health and safety matters, and financing events (sometimes involving dilution, sometimes not).
So on the one hand, there's a need for the CPA firm partner involved in the audit to be careful in signing off as regards subsequent events, and on the other hand, I'm sure there's a push to get the quarterly material out before anything can happen.
Again, all of this is in the FWIW category, and our review of the quarterly material may or may not tell us what was going on in the days/weeks before the release of the reporting. The one aspect of the delay that pertains to stock pricing is that, if the old adage is true that the stock market hates uncertainty, the delay is a negative factor in the short run (which actually ties well to your conviction that the stock is currently under-priced).
As a retired CFO, I'd like to offer several plausible reasons why the quarterly reporting is being delayed, above and beyond the boilerplate explanation already provided by the company.
First, the auditing firm has changed, and it can take awhile for the auditors to create the "permanent file."
Second, if I were in the role of CFO, I'd be seeing if there might be some way to capitalize some of the costs of the marketing initiatives that we've been reading about in the past few months. This could require extensive conversations with the auditors.
Third, the "going concern" footnote may be ripe for revision (in either direction).
Fourth, the BofI loan came on the books early in the fiscal quarter, and the footnote describing that loan may be very sensitive, given the high effective interest rate.
Nothing in this post is inherently bullish or bearish as regards the stock. I just thought this community of posters might be curious as to potential reasons for the delay in the release of the quarterly reporting. When the report does come out, I'll be looking in particular at how many days of expenses there are in the accounts payable compared to the statistic as of December 31, and also whether there is a change in the Loans from Officers, to see to what extent, if any, the operating losses are being financed by approaches beyond the Typenex tranches. Most of all, I'll be reading the footnotes carefully.
Good luck to all!
You're welcome, Sir! The Company's answer to your "outside director" question was found, I believe, in the risk factors section of a 10K where they stated that, if it weren't for the costs of having outside directors (compensation, increased Directors and Officers insurance, etc.), they'd love to have some.
They particularly need, in my opinion, an audit committee, which would typically be predominantly staffed by outside directors, which would not have let the CPA firm of Winther and Company do the consulting engaging in response to the material weakness finding by the auditors that the company business procedures lack the essential "segregation of duties."
Finally, let me add to my earlier answer in regard to what's keeping the lid on the stock price. While I personally think that the company could do very well in presenting its "fact on the ground" that it's not a marijuana play, wiser heads than mine on this board have stated that the marijuana market sector is about to run - so perhaps the fact that VHUB is not really a marijuana stock is holding it back.
Marchio, let me try to formulate an answer to your question, and we'll start with the belief that the stock actually is under-valued (which is a reasonable presumption for all the reasons that Sgreg has provided quite eloquently on a number of occasions):
1. The company was given a bad name due to a Pump and Dump frameworked by the Investor Edge folks around a year ago, and it is hard to overcome such things.
2. The company via Mr. Knopick (and at the risk of irritating a colleague-poster here with a different opinion - I think that the man is doing a great job for the company) has been issuing press releases that focus on processes rather than answering key questions such as "overall (not just one product)were sales up this past quarter" and "is the company running through cash at ever-slowing rates such that dilution will be minimized."
3. This remains a family company, and the absence of outside directors gives the company less credence in the eyes of potential investors.
4. The reduced sales of Q2 versus Q1 was a shock to investors as was the BofI small but usurious loan taken out so soon after the Typenex tranche-based loan. It is hard to shock investors and then get them to bid up the stock.
5. There was a short term CEO a year ago by the name of Birnbaum, if I'm remembering correctly, and a fast-exiting CEO casts doubts as much on the company as on himself. Piling on this point, I'm guessing when the press release came out about expenses being down a bunch, the baseline for that included Birnbaum's salary, such that the reported 57% decline in expenses was a bit of a magnification.
Let me emphasize that I'm not a basher and don't want to be construed as such, but an honest question like yours deserves an attempt at an answer that's better than "the rest of the world is just a bunch of ignoramuses." Thanks for letting me have a shot at offering a response, and I hope that others wiser than I will pipe in with better answers.
Thank you, jimg and M.K., for setting me straight here - it's appreciated!
Sporty, as a retired CFO with some victories and lots of mistakes over my career, I was reflecting over the challenges you face in leading and administering your stock advisory endeavors. If you wouldn't mind, let me offer a few thoughts in no particular order...
1. I haven't researched the statistics, but my uneducated guess would be that let's say 80% of the companies in this penny stock universe will go belly-up. Accordingly, if you get even one-third of your picks to do really well, that is an accomplishment to be celebrated rather than criticized.
2. Your task is made even harder by what I think the phenomenon was at work in regard to IENG. If you don't try to catch "falling knives" and instead choose stocks that already have positive momentum, you run the risk of becoming the inadvertent pump to those who are ready to dump and celebrate their profits.
3. I do think that you are correct in having reached the conclusion that is fair for you to invest before you recommend, as this is a fair "price" to exact for recommending based upon the work involved in doing due diligence. The more challenging moral question is whether, at a time when you have soured on a recommendation, it is proper to make your own sale before you have so advised others.
4. There are lots of scoundrels involved in the penny stock arena. Frequently we won't know if the scoundrels are involved in a particular company and/or its stock. But sometimes in performing due diligence one can ascertain that the scoundrels have gotten there before you have. As a matter of practice, I think it is wise to steer clear of stocks regarding which you already know that the scoundrels have arrived. From the discussion board regarding IJJP, it seems that there may have been some unsavory characters in the mix early in the game.
5. There is one prevalent practice on I-hub which I think should be reined in somehow. It appears that I-hub "celebrates" stocks by the number of posts taking place on the discussion boards, and thus it is a temptation to try to boost a stock by posting multiple "hurray for the company" entries, few of which postings add to the base of knowledge potential investors will have. Perhaps having you and yours set an example here would be another example of how set the pace in morality around here.
Wishing you the best and with much respect!
Neiltrader, I want to take a minute of both your time and mine to commend your viewpoint which has, after reflection, impacted my own. I had been of the belief, which I now admit to be mistaken, that all of the "villains" were playing on the same team, unified in their joint endeavor to shaft the regular investors/speculators who play in this pond. It hadn't dawned on me that there could be separate and competing camps among the villains and that the villainous bears (such as those who tread outside whatever the rules may be in regard to short selling) could be every bit as corrupt as the villainous bulls (the pump and dump boiler factories). Good luck in your endeavors, and may you win your battles against all the corrupt players, whatever the angle they may be playing. I always appreciate learning something new in my old age!
Village Man, I concur with your viewpoint, and I will fortify the opinion you've offered by sharing with this Board portions of the e-mail I just received from "Investor Edge" and separately/identically from "Analysts Review."
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Better Days Ahead for AXMM
Valued Members,
Remember, "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
Today, AXMM experienced that difficult period – creating an opportunity for all of our members. Nothing fundamental has changed with Axiom Corp. (AXMM). The company remains as strong as ever, released positive news and is about to retire 30M shares. [Using what for money to do that, as has been pointed out earlier in this thread?]
For us, this is an easy call. We have every intention of supporting AXMM as our top recommendation for the remainder of the quarter. Remember, this is just the very beginning of what we believe is a $4-5 story. To be absolutely clear and leave no room for doubt – we fully expect to see AXMM recover 84% in the coming days to $1.84 and get right back on track toward $4-5 levels.
For those members who are emailing in, we are reading every single incoming email.
We feel your pain, but more than that, we feel an obligation. There is a big story brewing here with AXMM and it is our responsibility to ensure that story gets told. We believe in AXMM. We believe you should believe in AXMM. This is a powerful emerging play, nothing has changed and the current situation presents an opportunity to see an extra 84% on top of the previous potential available at $1.84.
We will address member questions in the most important order:
#1 — What happened to AXMM today?
Today, AXMM traded down -45.65% on 7,416,967 shares volume. To the best of our knowledge, this was the result of a highly coordinated short attack. This activity could have been in an effort to cover a large short position ahead of the 30M share retirement. [...as contrasted to the truth being repeated, namely that this company is essentially asset-less?]
We reached out to our industry contacts and heard that High Point Capital Group, Inc. (Market Maker ID: COHI) was giving out nearly unlimited borrows to shorters in the morning, fueling a sell-off of impossible amounts of money.
To put it into perspective, today's volume was nearly 50% greater than any other prior day as a direct result of an unfair advantage given to shorters today in the form of nearly-free borrows.
#2 — Was there any negative news?
No, there was zero negative news! In fact, the news today was extremely positive – AXMM's lead product PaperNuts® is now available at Staples® (and here's the link as proof: http://www.staples.com/PaperNuts/product_965205).
The entire trading panic appears to have been caused by aggressive short sellers. There was zero negative news.
#3 — Is the news today actually true?
Despite false rumors spread by those with ulterior motives, the news is absolutely true!
PaperNuts® is really available at Staples®. Check it Out for Yourself!
PaperNuts® is also available on Staples Industrial order website.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet. [...totally agree here, as I remember the constant pumping in regard to other recommendations of theirs, which were in each case followed by the inevitable dumping]As an investor, as a shareholder, it is your responsibility to keep a cool head and investigate all claims, positive or negative and make wise investment decisions from there.
Don't let emotion get the best of you. We're not whining or complaining about what happened in the market. We could give you 100 reasons and point fingers at 100 different people, but the reality is, this is the stock market and this stuff happens. We are writing this message to let you know we are right here with you. We all feel bad after a day like today, but shareholders need to lock up their shares and wait for the storm to pass.
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I'm not a shorter, and in fact I'm not in the market at all these days, though in my retirement I retain my "spectator interest," as my career included a number of years as a CFO, followed by some years as a federal regulator, though not in the securities industry. The participants in this Board can Google "Brighton" and its various tentacles like Investor Edge and Analysts Review, and you'll see how at times Brighton is challenged to behave properly. I should conclude with a statement "from the other side" in order to be fair, namely for all I know (which always is little), COHI may have been fueling a short attack - I have no knowledge one way or the other.
Good luck to all, as long as you are honest in your dealings!