I wrote in a recent edition of our free weekly Speculator’s Digest that it seems some people think that if I drag a CEO into the pit for a one of my due diligence interviews, it means I’m endorsing the company.
Not so: In The Pit interviews are neither endorsements nor recommendations.
If anything, the opposite is true. If I were convinced a stock is a great buy, I probably wouldn’t blab about it; I’d write it up in The Independent Speculator and buy it myself.
The way to see these interviews is as me giving execs a chance to convince me to buy their stock.
This is why you see me asking things like:
- “Why should I buy your stock now if you’re going to have to raise money soon?”
- “If this mine is any good, why did XYZ major sell it to you?”
- “What do these drill results tell us about your progress towards making the discovery you’re hoping for?”
- “How much is that going to cost and how much do you have in the bank?
- “How much of your own skin do you have in this game?”
My goal is to ask the hard questions any savvy speculator should ask company execs, if given the chance.
I’m not going to argue with these folks about their answers, which are generally opinions subject to interpretation. Unless they say something I feel compelled to correct, I leave it to the viewer to decide if he or she believes the answers I get.
Here’s a helpful hint; if the answer fails to directly address my question, or goes off on a tangent, that’s usually not a good sign. I may not have time to pursue it in the interview, but I’ll remember that management dodged.
Why don’t I conclude the interviews with a thumbs up or down?
I’d quickly run out of victims to interview if I ended my interviews by telling viewers not to buy—which is how most would end.
And frankly, that analysis is what subscribers to my newsletters pay me for.
If you want to know what conclusions I reach about the companies I drag into the pit, I urge you to step up to the plate with a subscription to My Take.
FYI: there are now almost 100 recent takes in the My Take index, ranging from Alamos to Yamana. (As I type, we’ve just put out a special uranium bonus edition, because President Trump is expected to act on his Nuclear Fuel Working Group’s recommendations soon.)
But I won’t twist your arm on subscription. My Reason for this brief post it so set the record straight.
As always, please remember my motto:
Caveat emptor—buyer beware.
