In the micro-cap end of the market, a falling share price...

In the micro-cap end of the market, a falling share price combined with no news, can be both soul destroying and capital destroying for many young players.

I am sure the chartists have a nam for this trend. Naysayers, play fair please, you really don't "know" any more than the rest of us.

As a business owner (unlisted) I can honestly say the time it takes to put a viable business plan and funding model is almost irrelevant. It's likelihood of success is the main thing in the focus of managment.

The Dubbo project is no small venture. In fact it is huge, way beyond the immediate scope of ASM. Thus, extracting Letters of Interest from both the US and Canada although non-binding, represent major planks of a funding proposal.

There are lots of REE wannabe out there at present, coming from nearly every continent. Many potential projects/miners will "wither on the vine" you can bet on that. ASM could be one of them. I have no tangible basis to suggest it is any closer or further away from a mine than any of the many other contenders. Though it has had many rulers run over it, long before the current rush emerged.

I understand there is some considerable funding and execution risk here, as well as the expected Chinese commodity price manipulation to thwart new entrants. That said, if I liked the various components of this business at higher prices, I like it even more in the low 70s. I don't need to be proven right or wrong in the next 6 months, and the Share price actually does not prove anything.

There are just so many small miners and micro-cap businesses trading at 52 week lows, it is a genuine challenge to invest in any one ahead of another.

I have a few in currently in play across divergent market sectors, that I have some experience in. Except that the current prices deplete my "notional" net worth, it is a veritable smorgasbord of opportunity.

At the moment all the companies I am attracted to look much the same....uncertain industry dynamics, short of capital, share prices in the sink, unloved and trapped in no man's land according to many TA. Well, it's June, that is what happens nearly every June when investors and institutions alike, do their year end house keeping.

Reasonably well prepared for this precise set of circumstances, I continue to accumulate my unloved dogs, ASM being just one, with a pre-defined exit strategy that more often than not, results in a green trading result.

I don't take joy in a declining share price, far from it. But when a share price fails to reflect the underlying value of an enterprise, I don't do nothing. I am drawn to take advantage (or suffer loss) from the depressed price action, in expectation of less sellers and more opportunistic buyers in July, a business development or announcement later in the year, whatever. Long term investors have time as their ally, punters have it as their enemy.

Many here may recognise my sentiment as a heavy accumulator of ALK in the "dark ages" 2015 - 2019 pre the ASM demerger. What an absolute outstanding 10 bag profit play holders enjoyed back then. Of course one had to sell into the strength and not overplay one's hand. Many did, many didn't.

Chartists, please take over, as this was not the thread for a protracted monologue. I apologise.

I look forward to the TA predictions of 60c, 40c, 30c and lower. They may well be accurate markers of the current down trend. However, unless everything that the Board and Rowena have put worked on ends up being BS, I am sticking fat. Patient as I was with ALK, for a JV partner, a green shoot, a white night, or a funding proposal.

How long it takes usually becomes irrelevant when posters minds shift from self harm to self proclaimed gurus. Nothing is certain, but many have seen this road before.

GLTASH