Well, it was $1.80 last weekend when this was published. It’s now $1.68. And yes, my error in the intro last weekend has been pointed out several times (and I’m not changing the script today), he’s the exec chair rather than the CEO, which makes it worse rather than better.
CEOs and
liars
Ivan Bebek of Auryn Resources
(AUG.v) (who was until yesterday an IKN Weekly subscriber) decided to accuse me
of being short his stock instead of facing the justified criticism of yet
another fluff NR out of his company on Friday (1). To be clear, if somebody
decides to falsely accuse me of such or similar financial matters directly, I
will reply (and later more forcefully if required) that it is not true, but it usually
gets resolved between the two parties and no bad feeling is carried forward.
However, when said CEO decides to use a “That IKN guy/Mark/Otto Rock/whoever is
shorting the stock, that’s why…” with third parties when it is simply untrue,
that is the work of a liar. Ivan Bebek, CEO of Auryn Resources (AUG.v), is a
liar.
From this point the decision on
what to do with this information is subjective, as my personal reaction of
calling the liar out in public and avoiding anything the person ever does again
in the mining sector may not be for you. We should also note the bad track
record of CEOs who blame shortcomings on shorts, as it were. But my main point
here is more general; if your mining company is not making a profit, all they
have to sell you is a story (and this is doubly true for exploreco stocks).
Therefore, if you are happy about buying into a story when the narrator
has a propensity to use untruths to try
and weasel their way out of a tight spot it is your decision and money. On the
other hand, it would make me wonder just why you’re spending U$40/month to read
The IKN Weekly, a publication written by a market commentator who has developed
a reputation for shining light on this type of corporate behaviour. In the
long-term, there is no point at all in reading The IKN Weekly and being long
stocks like AUG.v.
With 95.3m shares outstanding and a
price this weekend of C$1.80, AUG has a market cap of C$171.5m, which is
impressive for a company that has tried and failed to find anything of worth on
its properties for the last four years. Hot air only works for so much time,
lies for less. I’m not short today, but I’m now tempted because there’s a lot
of downside potential here.