Yes I'm an optimist and yes this probably counts as a ramp. No I do not care, because 1. I am talking to long term holders who are going to have little bearing on changes to the current SP, and 2. I am not stating any unfactual information to positively influence the SP.
All I am saying here, if you can't be bothered to read the lot of it (and it is long), is to have faith and ignore the red numbers that appear in your portfolio - for the time being. Everything is A-Okay - so far. Disclaimer: never invest money you cannot afford to lose; stocks are gambling...but...so far, we as a company, are winning, even if the SP sucks.
I don't know how Dave Wall & co could (legally) tell us any more how positive things are looking for our little exploration. Yes there are more announcements to come, still the high degree of uncertainty and we should not jump the gun on anything, because this is still a risky play that 88E are trying to prove up for us blah blah. BUT...oil prices aside...we have not seen ONE negative thing from the straight shooting CEO, who as we know wouldn't be afraid to tell us how things really are. Nothing in the last announcement, which in my opinion has been our most positive to date. I think I saw one comment in all of the recent announcements reminding us that this is a high risk venture with a lowly 25% (correct me if I'm wrong) chance of success. That's as good as it got for the naysayers of 88E.
The testing, acquisition of 3D seismic and subsequent announcements over the coming weeks and months will be all about trying to raise that 25% closer to 100%. Yes, this project was/is never a guaranteed thing (what 1 in 4 chance is?). BUT...as far as I'm concerned, until I see any negative news from 88E, it is a guaranteed thing for me. I wouldn't stay invested in the share if I didn't think the odds were higher than that, or if I didn't think the 25% chance could be hit...and neither would you. That's the nature of a spec, you might have a low chance of success, but the reason you're still in it is that you believe your numbers will come up on the roulette wheel and the wins will be big. So the naysayers will be 1 of 2 things - people who do not hold, but for whatever reason are interested enough to keep an eye on the stock, or people who hold and have nothing to look forward to, on the market and probably in their broader lives! To me, things are looking up. Which leads me to the only down...
On the topic of our SP: it has taken a tremendous beating since I first invested in the stock (at around 1.8 cents if I recall correctly). It's since traded at 1/3 of that, which is just ridiculous. As a former short termer I would have called it a day on this a long time ago. Many long termers are here from the TPT days, (these guys really have my sympathy) and no one could blame them if they didn't mention the prices they first entered the stock at. But when I look at this stock and the company behind it, this is the price it was always going to be at this point in time. Aside from share dilution which has arguably done the SP no favours, the company has done nothing wrong in terms of operations (a drill repair?), rather, everything right - everything has gone to plan in that respect, on time and as planned and as costed. That only leaves us with either market manipulation, general market downturn, or the price of oil to mess with our SP. This is why I say, if you are a true long termer, ignore the SP for now, because these three factors will not last. Markets can only be manipulated for so long, confidence always returns, and the price of oil will only stay low for so long. If those factors rebound, and they will, so does the SP...which is why the current SP means little in the scheme of things.
Yes it sucks that we could have bought more shares if we'd waited until the SP bottomed out. Yes it reduces long term profitability of a portfolio because a Disallowed now would only give us what a 4 bagger used to. The SPP CR was a kick to the guts. But fellow long termers, do 1 of 2 things here: ignore the current SP, or continue buying up and bring down your average purchase price. That's all you can do for the waiting game.
To the down rampers or negative nancies reminding us that gravity plants us firmly on planet earth and that we should be focusing on the chances of this not succeeding (why?) - go suck a lemon! If we like to talk positively about this stock because we want to look to a brighter future and it makes us happier in the interim to talk positively about it, rather than looking at the value wiped from our portfolios...let us do this in peace! As long as we're not telling blatant lies to each other about company operations then it's only our own hopes we are getting up and within perfect reason. Odds might be stacked against an oil exploration from the get go, but if you really think success is a pipe dream here, then why invest in the first place - your money is safer elsewhere and you're pissing it down the drain by investing in stocks you don't believe have a chance of succeeding; wasting your time by reading forum threads dedicated to those stocks. Us being optimistic does not change the end result here; it won't determine if 88E find commercially valuable oil or not; it only serves to make us feel better until we get to that end result, be it good or bad. You, therefore, only serve to make us feel crap...because you can't change the end result either.
Good luck to all long term holders and stay tuned for those announcements over the coming weeks and months. We are in exciting times here, for one of the most exciting stocks on the market, and I...am excited!
Your pal, fellow long termer, and all round optimist...Birds.
(20min delay)