Your not the only one who has made financial decisions you live...

Your not the only one who has made financial decisions you live to regret. Decades ago I was coerced by Potter Partners to take up call and put options. Made a few profitable trades and then was behind on my fifth one, instead of coping a small loss I kept adding to my position until I lost the equivalent of a years wage at the time when the position closed. Taught me not to place my trust in brokers who were meant to work in your own interest and to stay well away from derivatives.

Fast forward to recent years and I went from being $900k ahead to being hundreds of thousands in the red when A2M dropped from $2.10 to $1.30. No one can even say even now what caused that drop other than the SP just getting well ahead of itself at the time. You were around at the time and plenty of doom and gloom experts materialized to gloat about the plight of those in the red and how they all saw it coming but magically were never seen from its 50c float at the time. The biggest taunter at the time was Hokey who mercilessly mocked and berated me and others and caused plenty of shareholders at the time to sell out at a loss at the time when the SP was around $1.30. Later on in other forums he gloated it was like taking candy from a baby from A2M retail holders on the HC forum while he bagged the stock while at the same time as scooping up their shares.

He infuriated me so much I keep adding to my holding lowering my average down until I was in the black again. In hindsight it it had gone the other way it would of seriously damaged us financially if it went the way of Bubs or Jat. We can all look back and claim we got to where we are through researching a company's fundamentals or following the charts when in reality its sometimes just blind luck you chose to go all in on a multibagger like A2M instead of a BUB, JAT or BIG.

I think at the last AGM in Melbourne Geoff B and Peter Nathan telling shareholders like you and me their investment was safe was correct at that point in time. Geoff B said that they always knew the company was going to do well but the speed and level of that success took all of them as well as LTH by surprise. A pertinent remark he made at the time the only thing that concerned him and the BOD was a event that was beyond their control that would rock the boat so to speak. Well that event came and it not only profoundly rocked their boat but nearly every company listed on every exchange. I know in the past he used to sell down his shareholding in A2M and used the excuse it was to stay diversified, thats all well and good but I was gobsmacked when he returned as a caretaker CEO as a replacement for Jayne H he returned without a single A2M share in his possession and was gifted 400K shares as a sign on bonus. I think it was poor form of Peter N to sell down every single share that was not locked down at the time just after telling us how well they were traveling. The magnitude of the BOD sell down caused a LIC fund I hold in the Willsons stable to completely sell out their long term holding in A2M at the time and they were one of the early investors from its Aussie listing.

If you were a skeptical person you would wonder whether he is hanging around until his replacement is found or is he hanging around long enough to claim some more time based shares still locked up that he would of forgone if he walked out the door now. I guess its not a good look to have people walk out with no notice all at the same time. I am glad we now have a new CEO and more new BOD to join the board soon as after this event as the original group for all their good work to get us were we got to miss read the state of play so badly. Especially in how much of the IF being sold locally was going straight to China and ramped up production and put us in this predicament. I guess the fall guy is rightfully Peter N and probably the reason for his departure. I think if we did not have David B onboard at this point in time the SP would be languishing at far lower levels. I believe many of the institutions have faith that he has what it takes to do what is necessary to turn it around even though it might mean more suffering and pain for shareholders in the meantime. Whether its underwear or IF at the end of the day at his level its just another commodity.

The company is bigger than any one person or group of persons. Companies like Apple have lost their founders and known what is like to hit hard times before getting back on their feet. A2M is still in the enviable position to have no debt and still be profitable so at least we know profitable companies with no debt and still making money dont end up going belly up when event out of their control eventuate. I guess we will know in a year or two when life starts to return to normal whether the new management has made the right decisions to see the SP back in the double digits again. At this point in time I remain cautiously optimistic, lets see whats the next report or two have to say before deciding to add or exit the stock.