To understand the revenue and share price drop from 2016, you...

To understand the revenue and share price drop from 2016, you first have to understand AVA, as it's now known, was a different business (solely FFT). Sadly I know it a little too 'well', given I first invested back above $1 (albeit today hold an average far lower at around $0.17).

The business at the time had what you might say was a disproportionate (and 'unhealthy') reliance on servicing the energy industry, particularly oil and gas pipelines and associated infrastructure. From 2015 to 2016, the price of oil tanked, down to as low as $26 in the early part of 2016. It took some time before it was becoming clearer how it impacted the business, but the impact of that swing in the oil market meant that various clients, or would-be clients, deferred their spending and in turn, hit FFT's revenue.

Now, there's another whole part that ensued as a result of that 'era' with the reliability of forecasting, disclosure and such, but I won't go into that, and I'd like to think that's a thing of the (distant) past. Much like the notion of AVA being reliant on the energy sector, given it is a far more diversified business today by way of the MaxSec tie-up and some of the trends that have been supportive in recent months (e.g. central bank printing, cash and gold hoarding) to offset whatever portion of prospective business that might have been exposed to this year's bout of plunging oil prices.