Canadian circus billionaire blasts into space

Canadian circus billionaire blasts into space

Updated: Wed Sep. 30 2009 8:54:51 AM

CTV.ca News Staff

Billionaire Guy Laliberte became Canada's first space tourist -- and the world's first space clown -- when he blasted off towards the International Space Station in clear blue skies on Wednesday morning.

Laliberte, founder of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, and two astronauts are on board the Russian Soyuz TMA-16 spaceship for a 12-day trip that will end at the ISS on Oct. 2.

It was a smooth launch that happened at 07:14 GMT from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppe.

Laliberte, seen on the cabin's in-flight camera, gave two thumbs-up minutes after blast-off. He told ground control he was feeling "super."

Friends and family looked on from the ground, breaking out into chants of "Guy! Guy!" and singing Elton John's "Rocket Man" when a loudspeaker announcement said the ship was in orbit.

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"I'm very happy for him. It's amazing," said Laliberte's partner, former model Claudia Barilla, with her young son in her arms. "Now we know he's up there."

Laliberte, 50, paid $35 million for his ticket to space. He plans to use the publicity to draw attention to the importance of access to clean water on Earth.

"I needed it to be the right time and for the right purpose," he was quoted as saying by the flight organizer, Space Adventures.

"This is the time. And the purpose is clear: to raise awareness on water issues to humankind on planet earth."

Laliberte plans to stream out a webcast during his journey, which will be carried live on www.onedrop.org on Oct. 9. He's due back on Earth on Oct. 11.

The former fire breather and stilt walker from Quebec City is on board the Soyuz with U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams, 51, and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, 37. They latter two will temporarily join an expanded crew of six on the ISS and will stay in orbit for 169 days.

The Soyuz team will be helping with construction of the ISS -- the largest artificial satellite, which has cost the U.S. Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency more than US$100 billion.

Laliberte has become the seventh paying space tourist to travel to the ISS. He may be one of the last for several years as NASA retires its shuttle program and turns to the Russian space agency to send U.S. astronauts to the lab.

Laliberte formed Cirque Du Soleil 25 years ago. He holds a 95 per cent stake in the company, and is worth an estimated $2.5 billion. He has promised to play the clown as much as possible while in space, donning his trademark red nose and even tickling his fellow travellers while they sleep.

"I promise I will plant as much as possible nose clowns in space," he said. "So it will be not only brilliant stars but colourful stars in the future."

DEE Technically ready to run up 1.49-1.63 Check It Out

Delphi Energy to list 12 million more shares

2009-09-28 18:16 ET - Prospectus Approved

TSX bulletin 2009-1226

An additional 12 million common shares (symbol: DEE) will be listed at the opening on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. The listing will cover common shares to be sold to the public at a price of $1.25 per common share pursuant to the terms of a short-form prospectus dated Sept. 23, 2009. The closing of the offering is expected to occur prior to the opening on Sept. 30, 2009.

Delphi Energy arranges $15-million financing

2009-09-09 17:33 ET - News Release

Mr. David Reid reports

DELPHI ENERGY ANNOUNCES FINANCING

Delphi Energy Corp. has entered into a financing agreement with a syndicate of underwriters, led by National Bank Financial, to issue and sell, on a bought-deal basis, 12 million common shares of Delphi at an issue price of $1.25 each, resulting in gross proceeds of $15-million. The underwriters will have the option to acquire up to an additional 1.2 million common shares at an issue price of $1.25 per common share for additional gross proceeds of up to $1.5-million for total gross proceeds of up to $16.5-million. Proceeds of the offering will be used to finance Delphi's continuing light oil development program in Hythe and additional potential acquisition opportunities. The offering is subject to normal regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Closing is expected to occur on or before Sept. 30, 2009.

Pescod Talks about ... BNK and more

BANKERS PETROLEUM
(T-BNK)
$4.68 +0.17
I guess everyone out there knows that for much of the
last part of the year, Bankers Petroleum was one of our fa-
vourite stories (although now Wavefront Energy is very close
on their heels). We thought we were safe sending out a
note on Bankers in the form we did last week—what with
Abby Badwi off speaking in Connecticut and Doug Urch at
an energy conference in Toronto. No one would note any-
thing we would write here, right? Wrong. It’s not as if
Abby took us out behind the shed for a spanking or any-
thing, but there were a few corrections that he figured peo-
ple should be aware of. His points are:
1)
Bankers had a CAPEX of $78 million in 2008 and are
planning a $50 million program this year, despite only
spending $7 million in first half of this year. 2010 he
suggests, will probably exceed $100 million. This point
is made because we has suggested that some people
even within Bankers might love being taken over by a
huge international that would allow them to throw huge
dollars at their projects in Albania, just to see what it
can do. Bankers is already and definitely doing that,
particularly next year.

How Many Tickets Will It Take Before You Fight Back? GPS Radar Detectors Pay For Themselves.

COLOSSUS MINERALS
(T-CSI)
With gold and precious metal prices coming back over
the last six months and so many junior explorers being
financed, there is lots of exploration out there these days
around the world and there have been some stunning drill-
ing results.
All of a sudden, there seems to be more and more good
gold deposits out there from drilling that has been re-
ported, but few compare with the absolutely stunning re-
sults announced from Colossus Minerals today. Not only
were the widths unbelievable, with 70 metres, but the grade
of 53 g/t gold and 20 g/t platinum and 31 g/t palladium, was
the kind of stuff an explorer can only dream of.
Huge widths, unbelievable grades, when does Colossus
get bought out? They are working in an area of Brazil
known to have rich ore that had been mined by garimpuros
for a long time, so finding stuff isn’t the surprise. The big
question remains how big this project could be.
Canaccord had recently raised their target from $5.50 to
$7.25; Thomas Weisel from $4.50 to $7.00 and we suspect
there might even be future additions.

Globe says Oilsands Quest joins upticking oil stocks

In the News

See In the News (U-BQI) Oilsands Quest Inc

The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition the massive bump in share price for Opti Canada has some of the hallmarks of a high-frequency trading blitz, say traders and analysts who cover the oil sands stock, which has swung wildly over the past two days. The Globe's Nathan Vanderklippe writes that on Wednesday, Opti closed up 34 per cent. The rapid movement was mirrored by another small oil sands player, Oilsands Quest. It is up 22 per cent over the past two trading days. Volatility also affected UTS Energy and Connacher Oil and Gas, and raised eyebrows across the oil patch, not least among those affected.

"It's interesting that the markets swing this far this fast. It puzzles all of us, I think," said Oilsands Quest executive chairman Murray Wilson. Mr. Wilson believes the jumps came from a combination of technical trading and more normal activity among long-term investors and hedge funds. Oilsands Quest is not seeking a merger or acquisition, although it is often approached, Mr. Wilson claims. "We have absolutely no specific knowledge about matters which could cause the shares in ourselves, or the rest of our peer group, to move in the manner that they have," he said.

Connacher completes Pod One turnaround

2009-09-28 17:27 ET - News Release

Mr. Richard Gusella reports

CONNACHER OIL AND GAS LIMITED PROVIDES OPERATIONAL UPDATE

Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. has successfully completed its annual turnaround at its 10,000-barrel-per-day Great Divide Pod One steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oil sands plant in northeastern Alberta. The company is in the process of restoring normal operations and again ramping up its bitumen production, which had exceeded 8,000 bbl/d prior to the turnaround. The Pod One plant, steam generation and injection, wells, and production were down for a period of four days during the turnaround. All vessels and treater systems were inspected and cleaned out and routine maintenance was conducted. The company also took the opportunity during the turnaround to conduct a number of SAGD well workovers. This work included the installation of one additional electric submersible pump (ESP) and workovers on five wells in the north pad, all part of the company's optimization program aimed at reducing steam-to-oil ratios (SORs), maximizing steam injection to specific wells and the location of steam in the wellbore, while increasing production in the affected wells. The company now has ESPs in six SAGD wells.

Production is now under way at 15 of the 17 SAGD well pairs at Pod One, including production from the company's two most recent SAGD wells, which were converted from steam injection in July of this year and which are still in the early stages of their ramp-up. It takes several days after reactivation to achieve targeted production levels from all wells and once steady state production operations have been achieved, we will report an update on bitumen production at Pod One.

The company anticipates installing two to three new-generation, high-temperature ESPs later this year which should result in longer pump run lives while allowing higher production volumes and reduced SORs. The high-temperature ESPs represent an evolution of ESP technology that has better applicability to Connacher's reservoir. Connacher is pleased to announce that it will be among the first oil sands producing companies to use these new ESPs in commercial operations. It is anticipated bitumen production levels will ramp up to near-design capacity in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 2010 daily average bitumen production is anticipated to be approximately 9,500 bbl/d.

Construction activities at Connacher's second 10,000-barrel-per-day SAGD facility (Algar) in the Great Divide region of northeastern Alberta are progressing with excellent results. Field construction at the Algar plant site resumed on July 7, 2009. At the time construction reactivation occurred, Connacher had estimated a remaining cost of $200-million to complete the project, excluding contingencies of $15-million. With the recent cancellation and deferral of a number of oil sands projects in the Fort McMurray region, the actual costs for labour, services and equipment may end up being lower than the cost estimates used in the Algar reactivation budget, providing a built-in contingency.

The company anticipated that completion of construction activities at Algar and the drilling of the associated 17 SAGD well pairs would take approximately 275 days from the reinstatement of construction. It appears that today the company is modestly ahead of this schedule, without taking into account approximately five days lost due to inclement weather. Construction activities have benefited from generally positive weather conditions since the recommencement of the Algar project in July, 2009. Drilling activity has proceeded in a very efficient manner, with improved engineering processes and technology, supported by the availability of superior hardware and crews compared with the company's experience at Pod One. Once plant construction and drilling and tie-in of the SAGD wells are complete at Algar, anticipated for April, 2010, a 30-day commissioning of the SAGD facility is anticipated. This will be followed by a 90-day steam circulation phase for the SAGD well pairs, prior to commencement of SAGD production and ramp-up toward rated plant capacity of 10,000 bbl/d, by the end of 2010 or early 2011. Connacher posts weekly pictorial progress reports about the Algar project on its website, including pictures of construction activities and a construction countdown clock.

The company's scheduled turnaround at the Great Falls, Mont., refinery is also proceeding favourably regarding timetable and budget, with the restoration of full throughput anticipated for mid-October, 2009. In the meantime, asphalt sales are proceeding favourably at attractive prices. Efforts are under way to capitalize on this strong asphalt market before the normal seasonal slowdown, when the company will further reduce inventories consistent with the restoration of normal refinery throughput.

Assuming no unusual collapse in crude oil prices such as occurred in 2008, Connacher anticipates that the combination of cash ($401-million cash on hand as at June 30, 2009) and future cash flow from operations, before non-cash working capital adjustments, during the second half of 2009 and during fiscal 2010 will be sufficient to fully finance completion of the Algar project, finance its conventional and refining capital activities in 2009 and 2010, finance the construction of an estimated $27-million cogeneration facility at Algar, finance an estimated $10-million dilbit sales transfer line between Algar and Pod One, and service the company's indebtedness through 2010. The company's remaining cash balances and future cash flow, including production from both Pod One and Algar, and funds from its conventional and refining operations, would then be available to service debt and to partially finance the company's growth expenditures during the 2011 to 2015 period, as the company moves toward achievement of its goal of surpassing 50,000 bbl/d of bitumen production in 2015. The company is presently evaluating a new round of core hole drilling on its existing acreage, aimed at further expanding its bitumen reserve and resource base. It also plans to evaluate some modest additional conventional exploration activity on its existing lands in Northern Alberta.

We seek Safe Harbor.

DEE Technically ready to run up 1.49-1.63

Delphi Energy to list 12 million more shares

2009-09-28 18:16 ET - Prospectus Approved

TSX bulletin 2009-1226

An additional 12 million common shares (symbol: DEE) will be listed at the opening on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. The listing will cover common shares to be sold to the public at a price of $1.25 per common share pursuant to the terms of a short-form prospectus dated Sept. 23, 2009. The closing of the offering is expected to occur prior to the opening on Sept. 30, 2009.

Delphi Energy arranges $15-million financing

2009-09-09 17:33 ET - News Release

Mr. David Reid reports

DELPHI ENERGY ANNOUNCES FINANCING

Delphi Energy Corp. has entered into a financing agreement with a syndicate of underwriters, led by National Bank Financial, to issue and sell, on a bought-deal basis, 12 million common shares of Delphi at an issue price of $1.25 each, resulting in gross proceeds of $15-million. The underwriters will have the option to acquire up to an additional 1.2 million common shares at an issue price of $1.25 per common share for additional gross proceeds of up to $1.5-million for total gross proceeds of up to $16.5-million. Proceeds of the offering will be used to finance Delphi's continuing light oil development program in Hythe and additional potential acquisition opportunities. The offering is subject to normal regulatory approvals, including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Closing is expected to occur on or before Sept. 30, 2009.

Gary Sorenson, wanted for his alleged role in a Ponzi-type scheme that bilked investors of $100 million, has been arrested at Calgary International Ai

Sorenson, 66, was taken into custody as he stepped off a private plane Tuesday, said the RCMP.

Police did not disclose where Sorenson travelled from, other than to say it was from outside Canada. The suspect's last known address was in Honduras, where his company, Merendon Mining Corp., was based.

After being charged with fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000, Sorenson was released on bail of either a surety of $300,000 or $150,000 in cash.

A justice of the peace ordered Sorenson to:

* Surrender his Canadian passport and other travel documents.
* Report weekly to the RCMP.
* Remain in Alberta.
* Live at an address approved by the authorities.
* And refrain from communicating with people on a list provided by the RCMP.

"This arrest is an important milestone in our investigation," RCMP Supt. Eric Mattson said Tuesday about what "appears to be the largest Ponzi-type scheme" in Canadian history.

Sorenson is the second Alberta man arrested in the alleged pyramid sales scam in which the original investors are paid off by new investors.

Milowe Brost, 55, was arrested Sept. 13 on the same two criminal charges as Sorenson, which carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years each. He has also been released on bail.
Involved thousands of investors

The pair is accused of bilking 3,000 people in Canada, the U.S. and overseas out of $100 million — and possibly up to $400 million — between 1999 and 2008.

Police said the two men created a business, Syndicated Gold Depository S.A., then formed an agreement to lend money to Merendon Mining with a promise of a high rate of return.

Lured by the promise of high returns, investors were then enticed into offshore shell companies marketed by Brost's firms, Capital Alternatives Inc. and Institute for Financial Learning Group of Companies Inc., said the RCMP.

The shell companies included:

* Asset Trax Inc.
* Quatro Communications Corp.
* Rapid Express Corp.
* Strategic Metals Corp.
* Merendon Mining (Nevada) Inc.

Alberta RCMP are asking anyone who was victimized b

Pescod Says...

CRUDE OIL
$66.62 -0.22

It wasn’t too long ago in the good ole days that every-
one seemed to be talking about peak oil. The world econ-
omy was humming along just beautifully, thank you very
much, and oil was in increasing demand just about every-
where...well, just about everywhere except North America.
Oh! The good ole days!
One of the biggest industries of the time was churning
out books that dwelled on the topic of peak oil and how
sooner or later the world would run out of this stuff and the
price would go to $150, $200, $250 a barrel. Take your pick.
Oh! The good ole days!

I don’t think too many people believe that anytime soon
now. Heck, we might have bought into that theory our-
selves, once upon a time, now I can’t see this peak oil be-
ing believable...even ten or twenty years out doesn’t seem
possible.

Maybe now a person has to play oil and gas
stocks for cycles, price range, seasonal moves, but more
importantly—discoveries.

Last week the New York Times did a feature article enti-
tled “Oil Industry Set the Brisk Pace of New Discoveries”
and points out that almost 10 billion barrels have been dis-
covered in the first six months of this year. The Times
writes, “The oil industry has been on a hot streak this year,
thanks to a series of major discoveries that have rekindled
the sense of excitement across the petroleum sector de-
spite falling prices in tough economies.

These discoveries
spanning five continents are the result of hefty investments
that began early in the decade when oil prices rose and of
new technologies that allow explorers to drill at greater
depths and break tougher rocks.”
The Times continues, “More than 200 discoveries have
been reported so far this year in dozens of countries in-
cluding Northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, Australia, Israel,
Iran, Brazil, Norway, Ghana and Russia. They have been
made by International giants like ExxonMobil, but also by
industry minnows like Tullow Oil.”
As far as their 10 billion barrel number, you could use
much bigger numbers if you consider discoveries made in
the last 12 months or so. The numbers are all over place
for the sub-salt discoveries offshore Brazil, but you could
use numbers as low as 10 billion barrels potential or as
much as 50 billion barrels. New discoveries in the Gulf of
Mexico made recently are in the two to five billion range.
They’ve just made one of the biggest ever natural gas dis-
coveries in Venezuela and projects planned in Venezuela
could add significantly to production.
Then of course there are areas like Kurdistan, where we
don’t doubt there is going to billions if not tens of billions of
new discoveries made over the coming time.

Given that it’s one of the most corrupt places in the
world, and politics are a big problem, one could question
who would ultimately own the prize, but we don’t doubt
discoveries will be made.
At the same time as all these oil discoveries are being
made and we must admit, some of them are going to take
at least $60 oil to see actual production, there have been
immense changes in technology from horizontal drilling to
fracing that is going to make the discovery and the pro-
duction of oil much more efficient and cost effective.
Then of course, there is the story of Wavefront Energy
which we’ve talked about many times in the last four or
five months and is one of our favourite stories. If their
technology works, it is simply going to revolutionize the
oil and gas business and if they can produce an extra 15%
to 20% of the oil out of old oil fields, with tens of billions of
barrels plus that could be found this way, is simply mind-
boggling.
Yes, there might be a peak oil some day, it’s just proba-
bly decades in the future.
Mind you, there are other opinions. Goldman Sachs,
who seems to change their bets on oil prices weekly, is
now suggesting $85 for the end of 2009 from $65 and $95
for the end of 2010.

We caught up with a very busy John Kaiser today and
he’s busy because he’s got one of the hottest hands in the
mining sector. He is the guy that was talking about rare
earths before people even knew what it was, and some of
his picks have absolutely flown.
When we caught up with him today, we were hoping to
get some information on Quest Uranium (QUC), one of his
previous picks was moving today, but he preferred not to
comment.
Meanwhile, for those following Peregrine Diamonds
(PGD) it would be very important to read his comments in
today’s Kaiser Bottom Fishing Report (just go to
info@kaiserbottomfish.com) and heaven forbid, anyone
would listen to a technical analyst for opinions on Pere-
grine rather than someone who knows fundamentals.

But when we ask Kaiser to pick one stock to buy today,
he goes for something right out of left field, a walk on the
wild side and picks International Enexco for their “hot pot”
project in Nevada which is expecting assays shortly, but so
far is coming up with all the rights poisons and work to
date suggests there might be something interesting com-
ing. Kaiser points out the little company has $8 million in
the bank.

Stockhouse Is A Slow Ad Invested POS

The Stockhouse boards are bloated ad infested boards.

This speed test from my Laptop in Toronto, Ontario thru Rogers Cable wireless should be able to connect to www.stockhouse.ca or .com in an instant, I have tried to get on to DEE, CMT, PDP and other Bullboards.

The server is overload, or the internet connection to their servers are overloaded. It amazes me that advertisers continue to waste money on stockhouse.

Have you noticed?

cmt-t The Bids To Buy Are Huge - Ask Yourself why then Buy Compton Fast!

Compton reduces debt level through the sale of overriding royalties

CALGARY, Sep. 28, 2009 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- Compton Petroleum Corporation (TSX - CMT, NYSE - CMZ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into purchase and sale agreements for the sale of various overriding royalties to two parties. Total proceeds of the transactions are approximately $54.5 million with an option for an additional $47.5 million, providing Compton with total potential proceeds of $102.0 million which will be used to reduce the Corporation's bank debt. The transactions include the sale of a 2.5% overriding royalty ('ORR') with an option to purchase an additional 2.5% ORR by December 24, 2009. Assuming the full exercise of the option, the ORR will represent 5% of the gross production revenue on the Corporation's existing land base less certain transportation costs and marketing fees, calculated on a monthly basis. Substantially all of Compton's current proved, probable and possible assets are included in this ORR. In total, assuming the full exercise of the option, the transactions represent approximately 1,170 boe/d of production based on second quarter 2009 results. These transactions combined with the recently announced equity offering are expected to reduce total debt by approximately $263.0 million. Should the option not be exercised, proceeds available to reduce debt are $216.0 million related to 635 boe/d of production. The ORR transactions are anticipated to close in October 2009. Scotia Waterous Inc. acted as a financial advisor to Compton with respect to the transactions. "The sale of the overriding royalties is another key step in realizing our objective to reduce our debt level," said Tim Granger, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This sale and our recently announced equity issue are positive first steps to improve the Corporation's capital structure. We're pleased with these achievements as Compton now has greater flexibility and choice, allowing us to start shifting our focus to growth opportunities from our substantial asset base. In the upcoming months, we will continue to assess additional debt reduction options." Advisories

Toronto's Zenn stops making electric cars

Toronto's Zenn stops making electric cars

September 28, 2009

FROM THE STAR'S WIRE SERVICES

In an apparently radical shift in plans, Toronto-based electric car company Zenn Motor Company Inc. says it decided to switch its business strategy from selling electric vehicles to distributing an electric drive train.

As a result, the company will no longer be building its cityZenn car, instead focusing on what its calls the ZENNergy drive train. This would be an EESU-powered drive train that can be installed in the cars of other automakers.

"The way things have really changed over the last year – there have been such dramatic shifts and focus on electric vehicles – it doesn't make a lot of business sense for us to go into the distribution and sale of the vehicle," said Zenn chief executive Ian Clifford.

Clifford, like the rest of the world, is still waiting for EEStor to come through with a pre-production battery.

"We are working on a daily basis with EEStor on this final milestone – this very, very critical milestone – because it takes us to commercial viability," Clifford said.

U.S.-based battery maker EEStor Inc. is developing a battery that aims to charge in minutes and power a car for 400 kilometres at speeds up to 125 km/h.

Zenn has a 10.5-per-cent stake in the company. Meanwhile, Clifford is in talks with other automakers who might be interested in EESU-powered cars. Zenn also has the exclusive rights to sell the technology for cars up to a maximum weight and retrofit cars more than one year old.

Zenn still plans to build proof-of- concept cars, but won't mass produce them.

The company in a statement said the its previously announced cityZenn highway-capable electric vehicle will not be developed into a standalone commercially available offering.

"Integration of the Zennergy drive in vehicles has always been our long-term objective," said Clifford.

"We want to partner with all OEMs (original equiment manufacturers) so that consumers can drive a variety of electric vehicles across numerous automotive brands with one common denominator–they are all powered by Zennergy." Zenn has built about 350 all-electricm, two -seater vehicles that sell for about $15,995 (U.S.) and have a range of 80 kilometres.

Why gold may be losing its lustre

If the past 30 years are any indication, gold does not constitute an attractive investment over the long term,' National Bank of Canada says

Virginia Galt

Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Monday, Sep. 28, 2009 06:40PM EDT

National Bank of Canada is revising its outlook for gold, following other forecasters who have questioned whether the metal's runup may be over.

Since 2005, National Bank economists have promoted gold as a commodity likely to improve the performance of investors' portfolios.

However, despite the recent rally that propelled the price of gold to new heights, National Bank economist Matthieu Arseneau said Monday that “it appears more and more clear to us that the time has come to revise our position.”

The weak U.S. dollar has been a major driver of this year's surge in the price of gold. However, the currency has recently been showing signs of stabilizing, and could be about to turn upward, National Bank chief economist Stéfane Marion said last week.

Following up with a research note Monday, Mr. Arseneau said “investors who dared place some of their eggs in gold in recent years have been nicely rewarded for what they did.

“However, the time has come now to revise their positions” as signs of a global economic recovery start to emerge, he said.

“Headwinds are building against the price of gold. Risk aversion is gradually returning to pre-crisis levels and inflation fears should abate,” Mr. Arseneau said in his report.

“If the past 30 years are any indication, gold does not constitute an attractive investment over the long term. Moreover, in times of economic recovery, the return on gold falls well short of the return on the stock market.”

Gold (GC-FT991.70-2.40-0.24%) edged down below $990 (U.S.) an ounce Monday as the U.S. dollar rose versus the euro, prompting a liquidation of long positions in the market after bullion failed to stay above $1,000 an ounce.

Mr. Arseneau noted that gold “has acquitted itself well as a safe haven by outperforming the S&P/500 over the course of the past two recessions.

“However, it is important not to hold on to this investment for too long: Historically, the return spread has swung far in favour of the stock market in the two years following a market trough.”

Investors Bucking the trend by trading online

Investors Bucking the trend by trading online TheStar.com - Investing - Investors Bucking the trend by trading online

After being thrown for a loss during the market meltdown, more Canadians are taking the reins of their investments and riding off with some impressive financial rewards

Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew
Business Reporter

New products, lower fees, less frustration.

That's what prompting more Canadians to open online trading accounts, even after so many investors took a drubbing in the stock market last year.

"Today we're experiencing record interest and activity in terms of assets and account openings," said John See, president of TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage.

The rise of information technology stocks and dot com culture in 1999 also gave birth to the image of the day-trader: the stock market do-it-yourselfer who spent his days furiously buying and selling stocks electronically, often knowing nothing about the company or the industry.

The strong bull market attracted new investors in droves. When the tech bubble burst in 2001, so did the number of new discount brokerage accounts.

Interest in online trading stalled for a few years, then began to pick up steam as markets rebounded and the Internet became a way of life.

Then, last fall, came another market meltdown. Online brokerages braced themselves, but this time around, it was different.

"Last September, we had the markets falling apart. Yet we had account openings that were almost what we had in the height of the bull market of the tech bubble," said Connie Stefankiewicz, president and chief executive of BMO InvestorLine.

Experts say that new investment products, such as Tax-Free Savings Accounts and Exchange-Traded Funds, in particular, are driving the new boom.

They also point to widespread investor frustration – paying commissions to full-service brokers who failed to protect them from big stock market declines.

A lot has also changed on the technology side: Online investors today have a bulging tool kit that includes online calculators and portfolio builders, customized alerts, and stock and mutual fund screeners. Clients of bank-owned brokerages also have access to a steady stream of economics and equity research.

Stocks remain the bread and butter for brokerages but most allow you to buy and sell mutual funds, bonds and guaranteed investment certificates (GICs).

A recent survey by global marketing firm J.D. Power and Associates ranked Disnat Online Brokerage, a division of Desjardins Securities scored the highest level of investor satisfaction among Canada's online brokerage firms.

The same survey found that low transaction fees, new product offerings and efficient online trading brought more Canadians to discount brokerage firms in the past year.

Nearly one-third of discount brokerage customers in Canada indicate they have been with their primary firm less than 12 months. The study also found that lower trading fees are an important factor in the rapid growth of discount brokerage firms, but not the only one.

What clients value most: customer service – online, but also via telephone and in-branch channels.

"Discount brokerage customers may be independent and very self-directed overall, but when something goes wrong or they need assistance, it is critical that the firm delivers in efficiently resolving any issues," said Lubo Li, senior director at J.D. Power and Associates.

InvestorLine has found that investors are using Tax-Free Savings Accounts as a way to try investing on their own.

"TFSA's have had a significant impact in terms of new clients," Stefankiewicz said. "It seems that a lot of investors who may not have really looked at online brokerage for their RRSP or general portfolio are taking this opportunity with their TFSA to try a new approach to investing."

ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, with their low-cost and transparent structure, also seem to be an ideal vehicle for online trading. These investments are essentially index funds that trade on the stock market.

Canadians currently have about $27 billion in ETFs, and about $7.3 billion of that has come into the market in the last year, said Rajiv Silgardo, BMO's head of ETFs.

"Investors have gone through severe market downturns, volatility and lack of liquidity and less than full transparency. Investors want solutions that give them better risk control, that give them more diversification, more transparency. ETFs by definition do all this."

BMO launched four ETFs in June, two U.S. equity funds, a large-cap Canadian fund, and a Government of Canada bond ETF. It plans to launch more in the fall, along with a campaign to create awareness.

Typically, 20 per cent of brokerage clients are active traders who generate 80 per cent of the brokerage's revenues. The rest of the customers tend to be buy-and-hold types.

Discount brokerages are not allowed by stock market regulators to give advice, but investors can call with questions about how to use tools on the site, read charts or compare sectors or allocate their portfolio.

"We don't give advice but what we have found through this period of significant market turbulence is that often clients want to hear a voice on the other end of the phone to discuss what's in their account," Stefankiewicz said.

Experts are quick to say that online trading is not for all investors.

"People who don't have the time or the interest and they would be much better with someone who does that for a living," See said.

Ultimately, it also comes down to confidence, Stefankiewicz said.

"Do they have the confidence to make decisions? If they're not going to make decisions, they're probably not suited to doing it on their own," Stefankiewicz said. "They really would be much better of dealing with any adviser."

The growing trend, experts say, is clients using a combination of services.

"It's not an `either/or.' It's an `and' for investors these days," Stefankiewicz said. "Investors have an adviser and they have an online brokerage account. They segregate them in their own mind in terms of what they're doing in each of those relationships."

Investment Angels

Investment Angels TheStar.com - Small Business - Investment Angels

COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

Robert Koturbash, managing director and Marnie Walker, founding director of Maple Leaf Angels, pose with (on right) Paul Pelton of fleet ad firm City Flitz. Maple Leaf gets about 400 applications for funding every year, with only six or eight chosen.

Where can you turn after friends have ponied up and before your startup is big enough to interest venture capital firms?

September 28, 2009

Susan Down

Angel investors may not have wings, but they can be the answer to an entrepreneur's prayers, providing early-stage funding to deliver them from pre-revenue purgatory.

After the friends and family have written their cheques of support for the new enterprise and before the new company is big enough to interest venture capital firms or profitable enough to secure bank financing, angel investors are there to back a great idea.

"The biggest difference between angels and the other institutional options is that it's their own money," said Bryan Watson, executive director of National Angel Capital Organization, a Canadian group that aims to provide education and support to close to 30 angel investing groups in the country.

NACO is holding its Angel Investing Summit Oct. 14-15 in Toronto.

"They can spend it by buying as boat or a cottage or investing in an early-stage, high-growth company. On the venture capital side, they are managing someone else's money."

Money isn't the only benefit that entrepreneurs receive.

Most investments come with a caveat that the investor will be actively involved in the operations.

That means coaching and advice are included. Similarly, the eventual financial payoff – the length of a typical investment is eight years – isn't the only attraction for the angels. Typically seasoned entrepreneurs, they love the thrill of seeing a new idea succeed.

"What I love about is being at the birth," said Blake Witkin, co-founder and board director of Maple Leaf Angels, one of Canada's largest angel investment groups.

"When companies become more mature, more bureaucratic, it's not as interesting as being at the formation stage."

Angels are people with a high net worth, people who have successfully created other start-up companies and understand what's needed to succeed.

Angels can be retired, having sold their enterprises and cashed out, or they can be investors who are still working in other companies.

For example, Witkin is a managing partner in IT company Atra Vision Inc. He has also invested in about six new ventures as an angel, and believes he has a good track record. "All of them are surviving and some are prospering," he said.

Witkin likes to use an ecological image to explain the investment crap shoot: "Ultimately, job creation comes from the creation of wealth and all businesses like all trees have to start as a small seed. Angel financing is the water and the sunshine for those little seeds. And many of them don't make it, hence the risk."

Based in Toronto, Maple Leaf Angels is a non-profit organization established in 2007. The group has 50 members who have invested a total of $5.7 million so far. Every month the group holds a breakfast where members listen to three presentations from prospective investee companies.

If some of the members have interest then Maple Leaf will do some further investigating. Maple Leaf gets about 400 applications for funding every year, with only six or eight chosen to receive investment funds.

While angel investing sounds freewheeling, decisions are not made as fast as the CBC business show Dragon's Den would have you believe.

"It used to be that a sketch on the back of a napkin would be enough to get a cheque from an investor," said Watson. "Those days are gone. There's not much sketch-and-a-dream investing. People are looking for companies with a little bit of traction, a bit of revenue and a great team of people that will lead."

Even after careful assessments of the business plans, the ventures don't always become profitable. For every 10 investments, two go bankrupt, six will allow the angels to recoup their investments and two will deliver the big returns.

Typical investments are in the form of either equity or convertible debt in amounts ranging from $150,000 to $1.25 million.

An investor's exit strategy consists of one of three ways to get money out: an IPO, a merger or acquisition by another company or a dividend once the company has matured.

Angel groups say an extra $5 billion in investments is needed to ease the commercialization bottleneck and help grow new companies. NACO is pushing the federal government to initiate a system of tax credits as incentives to invest.

According to Maple Leaf Angels managing director Rob Koturbash, "fostering entrepreneurship is really what's going to drive us out of the recession because it's not established manufacturing businesses."

Street scrambles to revise forecasts

Have stock prices gotten ahead of themselves? Some say yes

The summer stock-market rally has been more than just a pleasant surprise for beleaguered investors. It also caught some of the Street's top market watchers with their forecasts down.

When the S&P/TSX composite index surged past 11,000 this month for the first time in almost a year, it blew through the targets that many of Bay Street's most respected forecasters had predicted wouldn't arrive until the end of 2009. After many market strategists had updated their year-end targets in June and packed away their calculators for the summer, the Canadian market defied the traditionally listless investing season to stage its strongest summer rally in decades, rocketing 14 per cent from early July to the end of August – and then tacked on another 5 per cent in the first three weeks of September, usually the worst month of the year for the market.

Although several strategists scrambled to raise their year-end targets in the past week, an informal Globe and Mail survey found that the median forecast among top Bay Street prognosticators stood at 12,100 – a thin 5 per cent above the index's 2009 high of 11,585.73 reached last week. In the U.S. market, meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported that the S&P 500 was trading last week about 5 per cent above the average year-end target in its monthly survey of leading Wall Street forecasters, and had already surpassed all but one of the 10 targets in its poll.

With the biggest rally since the 1930s already in the books, but With the traditionally strongest quarter of the year for the market still to come, the strategists are now asking themselves: Are their expectations too conservative, or is the market too frothy?

“The truth is, nobody knows where all of this is going, short term,” said Kate Warne, Canadian market strategist for Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis. She said the rapid moves of the market over the past year have made target-setting particularly difficult.

“It's difficult enough to get the direction right,” quipped David Rosenberg, chief strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates.

Even last week's trading caused forecasters to step back. After reaching their highest levels in almost a year, stocks spent the last half of the week in retreat (the S&P/TSX ended the week off more than 3 per cent from Tuesday's close), raising questions about whether investors were seeing a brief pause in the rally or the beginning of a long-anticipated correction.

Strategists said the rally, which has been built largely on expectations of an economic recovery that has yet to transpire, may need to see more concrete evidence of growth before it can go much further. “We've already bought and paid for a lot of the recovery we'll see in 2010,” said Myles Zyblock, chief equity strategist at RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

“We need to see the earnings [growth] come in,” Ms. Warne said.

She said the S&P/TSX could manage to claw its way to 11,800 before the end of the year, but predicted a “bouncy,” volatile ride to the end of the year – typical of a market searching for a new catalyst after a big move.

And, she predicted, the next few months could feature a rotation by investors out of the energy and financial sectors – which have led the gains during the rally and may have run their course – and into solid dividend-paying names that have lagged.

“It's a time of what I'd call ‘choppy consolidation,'” she said.

Chief strategist Stéfane Marion of National Bank Financial in Montreal, meanwhile, believes the Canadian stock market could be slowed by the U.S. dollar. The greenback's woes have been a major driver of this year's surge in the price of gold and, by extension, gold stocks, which make up 10 per cent of the S&P/TSX composite. But the currency has recently been showing signs of stabilizing, and could be about to turn upward.

“A U.S.-dollar appreciation will put some downward pressure on golds by the end of the year,” said Mr. Marion, who has decided to maintain his year-end target at 11,600.

But others argue that the growing global economic momentum, the Canadian market's resource-heavy tilt, and the country's relatively strong and stable economy leave the TSX well-positioned to extend its rally.

“My gut feeling is that we'll reach 12,000 closer to Christmas than next year,” said Vincent Delisle, strategist at Scotia Capital in Montreal. “I think it's going to be quick.”

Alberta authorities eye oilsands firm as Ponzi probe deepens

By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary HeraldSeptember 26, 2009

Milowe Brost, charged with operating an alleged Ponzi scheme, enters his home in Chestermere, Alta. on Sept. 17.

Photograph by: Leah Hennel, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — The Alberta Securities Commission has levelled its largest fine ever against Milowe Brost, one of two alleged Ponzi scheme architects, but the watchdog agency isn't done with the Calgary men.

A hearing in the new year will focus on a purported energy and oilsands company that the securities commission alleges Brost, 55, Gary Sorenson, 66, and another man were responsible for developing, Arbour Energy Inc.

The commission says Calgary-based Arbour collected more than $46 million from investors — mostly Albertans — over 16 months.

According to Arbour's website, the firm was engaged in oil and gas exploration, and environmentally friendly oilsands recovery. But at the time it sought money from investors, "Arbour had effectively no business or operations," the ASC alleges in its hearing notices.

"They were trying get the people — they wanted to invest their money in something that was environmentally friendly. And that was the shtick that they used with Arbour Energy, that they were actually trying to clean up the tarsands," said Graham McMillan, a chartered accountant who has studied the business dealings of Brost and Sorenson since his elderly parents invested $50,000 in a Brost-related company.

Lawyers representing Arbour officials contacted for comment declined to be interviewed. A news release from Arbour's president Dennis Morice in 2008 said "the company intends to aggressively defend its position both before the commission and through the courts."

Last week, the RCMP slapped Brost and Sorenson with theft and fraud charges related to an alleged Ponzi-like scheme that could, through a throng of companies, involve as much as $400 million, according to court documents.

At the same time, the Alberta Securities Commission continues to look into Arbour Energy, which was a publicly traded company.

The commission alleges the controllers of Arbour Energy, including Brost, Sorenson and their associates, "perpetrated a fraud on Alberta investors" and illegally distributed Arbour securities.

Brost in particular is singled out. In 2007, he was handed a $650,000 fine — the largest in Alberta securities history — and banned for life from operating in Alberta's capital markets for his role in a fraud against investors through the company Strategic Metals Corp.

None of the new allegations have yet been ruled on by an ASC panel.

In all, Arbour managed to raise $46 million through the sale of shares, ASC documents allege. Most of those shares were sold through the Institute for Financial Learning (IFFL), an entity the ASC alleges provided unregistered advice to investors.

The IFFL was one of the companies listed by RCMP when they charged Brost and Sorenson.

"The majority of the purchasers were IFFL members, and more than half the sales — $25,144,689 — occurred in Alberta," says a ruling from the commission.

About $43 million was loaned to Merendon Mining, a company controlled by Sorenson, according to the ASC. Sorenson is now believed to be living in Honduras, a country which does not have an extradition agreement with Canada.

After numerous delays caused by fillings from the respondents — who include Brost, Sorenson and other controllers of the company — the hearing for Arbour will begin on Jan. 18.

Commission spokeswoman Tamera Van Brunt said if the ASC panel finds the allegations to be true, Arbour officials could face a fine of $1 million per contravention of the Securities Act. The players could also be banned for life from participating in Alberta's capital markets.

Meanwhile, more information came to light Tuesday about an anonymous group calling itself The Agency, which is taking credit for distributing wanted posters around Sorenson's palatial home in Honduras.

The posters appeared last week when RCMP charges against Brost and Sorenson were announced. They depict Sorenson and his wife Thelma, along with the promise of a $100,000 reward for their arrest and the return of investors' money.

In an e-mail to the Herald, the group said it will co-operate with authorities and does not want to jeopardize any cases against Sorenson and Brost.

The group claims it has been contracted to recover lost money, but will not say specifically who it is working for.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

What market watchers are saying this week

David Parkinson tracks down the insightful, the outspoken, the colourful and, occasionally, the just plain weird words coming out of the investing community


David Parkinson- Globe and Mail

A Capital Condemnation

"The Dow Jones goes up whenever the unemployment rate goes up, because Wall Street likes it when people lose their jobs. It's better for the bottom line of companies when they don’t have to pay people and they can get the remaining people to work twice as hard.” – Filmmaker Michael Moore, talking with long-time sparring partner Wolf Blitzer of CNN about his new Wall-Street-bashing documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, argues that the stock market’s recovery has come on the backs of the unemployed, as companies pump up their bottom lines by slashing payrolls.

Filmmaker Michael Moore declares the New York Stock Exchange a crime scene in Moores new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, an Alliance Films' release.

So what else would we expect?

“His latest film isn’t really a documentary … but a freewheeling denunciation of the capitalist system that is often mordantly funny and, by lurching turns, scornful, rambling, repetitive, impassioned, mock-lofty, pseudo-lowbrow, faux-naïve, persuasive, tabloid-shameless and agit-prop-powerful.” – Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern opines on Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, which he gave a generally positive review despite its unabashed attacks on the newspaper’s core audience.

Much atwitter about nothing

“Twitter is rewriting that old saying about a penny for your thoughts. It turns out that our most mundane and irrelevant musings are worth $1-billion.” – TheStreet.com’s Glenn Hall comments on a new $100-million (U.S.) private financing at Twitter, which, by implication, puts the value of the popular (and profitless) social-networking website into the 10-figure range.

I guess owning the Coyotes won't help, either

“Three things could help RIM: A takeout by a larger company with smart phone ambitions; RIM’s own acquisition of Palm; or new employment for millions of stock brokers, which would boost RIM’s enterprise sales. Take a bet on all that if you will. The fundamentals speak for themselves, and they only suggest that business will get tougher from here on out.” – Tiernan Ray, columnist with influential investment magazine Barron’s, suggests some Hail-Mary solutions that would be necessary to alter the bleak prospects for Research in Motion and its stock. The Blackberry maker’s shares plunged Friday after the company issued disappointing financial results and an even worse sales outlook.

Hey, goldbugs, maybe you should put down those muskets, too

“Gold could be investors’ version of World War II France’s failed Maginot Line – an expensive defensive hedge, yet unfortunately built to fight yesterday’s battles.” – Vincent Fernando of website The Business Insider argues that the defensive play in gold no longer makes any sense. He believes deflation is a more serious risk than inflation, and that the speculators who have been driving gold’s surge are risk-takers, not the risk-averse who began the rally.

Oil price may be down in 2009 but pace of discovery is gushing

Oil price may be down in 2009 but pace of discovery is gushing TheStar.com - Business - Oil price may be down in 2009 but pace of discovery is gushing

More than 200 sites reported in what could be the most impressive number of new finds in a year since 2000

September 26, 2009

JAD MOUAWAD
The New York Times

The oil industry has been on a hot streak this year, thanks to a series of major discoveries that have rekindled a sense of excitement across the petroleum sector, despite falling prices and a tough economy.

These discoveries, spanning five continents, are the result of hefty investments that began earlier in the decade when oil prices rose and of new technologies that allow explorers to drill at greater depths and break tougher rocks.

More than 200 discoveries have been reported so far this year in dozens of countries, including northern Iraq's Kurdish region, Australia, Israel, Iran, Brazil, Norway, Ghana and Russia.

They have been made by international giants, like Exxon Mobil, but also by industry minnows, like Tullow Oil.

Just this month, BP said it found a giant deep-water field that might turn out to be the biggest oil discovery ever in the Gulf of Mexico, while Anadarko Petroleum announced a large find in an "exciting and highly prospective" region off Sierra Leone.

It is normal for companies to discover billions of barrels of new oil every year, but this year's pace is unusually brisk. New oil discoveries have totalled about 10 billion barrels in the first half of the year, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

If discoveries continue at that pace through year-end, they are likely to reach the highest level since 2000.

Although recent years have seen speculation about a coming peak and subsequent decline in oil production, people in the industry say there is still plenty of oil in the ground, especially beneath the ocean floor, even if finding and extracting it is becoming harder.

They say prices and the pace of technological improvement remain the principal factors governing oil production capacity.

While the industry is celebrating the recent discoveries, many executives are anxious about the immediate future, fearing that lower prices might jeopardize their exploration drive.

The world economy is weak, oil prices have tumbled from last year's records, corporate profits have shrunk and global demand for oil remains low. After falling to $34 (U.S.) in December, oil prices have doubled, stabilizing near $70 a barrel. But if the world economy does not pick up, some analysts believe the price could fall again.

Oil companies contend that is not a prospect they can afford. Despite reaping record profits in recent years, many executives have warned that they need prices above $60 a barrel to develop the world's more challenging reserves.

In fact, some exploration activity has already slowed this year as producers seek better terms from service companies and contractors.

Exploration spending swelled in recent years, partly to offset a doubling of costs throughout the industry – from steel prices to the cost of renting deep-water drilling rigs.

A big issue confronting the industry now is how to drive down costs while maintaining a high level of exploration.

On average, costs have fallen by 15 to 20 per cent from their peak, according to petroleum executives.

Carrigan Is A Bull - Technicals Show Time To Invest

Do You Have Rare Earth In Your Holdings?

It’s time for the Cambridge House Conference in Toronto
this coming weekend hosted by Joe Martin, the perfect host
and as usual, there is a long list of exhibitors and speakers.

We don’t mean to be blunt or nasty, but some of those long
list of speakers have been suggesting over the last many
months that the market was going to crash and to stay out
of it and had you listened to them, you might not have
made any of the money in the bounce back in the markets
of late. But then a more polite person would have said
those two or three people should be listened to just to hear
the other view.

We suggest you listen to some of the people that have
made you a lot of money in the last while, had you been a
subscriber or a listener to some of their views. Those peo-
ple have names like Jim Letourneau of the Big Picture
Speculator; John Kaiser of the Bottom Fishing Report and
one of the few people that know what the heck rare earths
are about; David and Eric Coffin of the Hard Rock Analyst
who have come up with some big winners and are admit-
tedly bullish on the gold market, but whose East Asia Miner-
als is now a five and six-bagger.

Our checklist for companies you have to visit include:
⇒ Avalon Rare Metals: One of the big rare earth stories and
one of the big success stories over the last while and
the question to be asked at the booth is; “just how big
their resource might be and how long one thinks the
rare earth phenomena can extend?”

⇒ East Asia Minerals: Has been one of the huge success
stories over the last while and one has to ask, “how
come the Coffin’s like it so much?” Just what kind of
resource estimate is it that they are talking about as
potential in Sumatra.

⇒ Hathor Exploration: This is one of the exploration plays
those in the mining sector all talk about, but it’s also in
a sector—uranium—that has been in the tank over the
last several months. When things change as I think
they will, one wants to be asking these guys in the
booth, how big they think their resource is and how big
a program they plan for this winter which will be impor-
tant. If Tony Nunziata is manning the booth, just whis-
per in his ear, “how big do you think it is Tony?”

⇒ Riverstone Resources: Is one you would have to call a
“cheapie with a chance” and after delay after delay
after delay, they are finally starting drilling in the next
few weeks on their project in Karma that the Coffin’s
have hopes to see rather significant success.
Rodinia Minerals: I’m quite sure the average person
doesn’t know much about lithium, so if Don Mosher
is in the booth, ask this ex-hockey player “what the
heck lithium is all about and what is the big differ-
ence between brine and all those hard rock sources
of lithium?” This should be one of your “must-see”
booths.

⇒ San Gold Corp: This is one of the success stories
over the last while as gold has recovered nicely and
their project in Manitoba, many think is an extension
of the huge gold discoveries of Red Lake. The
question to ask someone in the booth is “Just how
big the resource is at this time?”

⇒ Ucore Uranium: Soon to be called Rare Earth One
might have Jim McKenzie in the booth or someone
close to him and the question of course to ask them
is an important one…“Just how big do they think
their rare earth resource is at this time and just how
does the USGS come up with those numbers given
the little drilling to date?” Having said that, if the
rare earth mania continues, they are one of only a
handful of obvious plays.
As far as asking some of the speakers some ques-
tions of those that have been winners over the last while
go to:

⇒ Jim Letourneau: Letourneau has had some huge
winners of late, one of the first to mention rare
earths and winners like Medicago Inc. (MDG) and a
long list of others. The story of the day as far as we
are concerned is Wavefront Technology (WEE) who
just may have an advancement in oil and gas recov-
ery that could revolutionize the oil and gas busi-
ness. The question is obvious…“Just how big
could this be and what possibly could go wrong?”
Jim Letourneau’s two favorite picks other than
Wavefront are Energold Drilling (EGD) as gold and
mineral explorers ramp up around the world, and
Matamec Explorations (MAT). You might ask Jim
about Matamec, a cheapie in the rare earth sector.

⇒ John Kaiser: Is one of the very few people out there
who understands rare earth and has been talking
about it for a long time. Just how serious John are
you about the mania you suggest over the next six
months and what is it that could keep things going
and what are your favorites? The other question...just
how high a target does he have for Brett Resources
(BBR)...

Really? Today on BNN, Kaiser moves Pere-
grine dramatically!