Thank You

Just want to take a moment to THANK all the incredibly knowledgeable contributors here, whether holding or not. Your contributions have been fantastic. I don't have much in the way of technical knowledge to bring to the table (though I have been learning a lot thanks to you all and it has been fascinating), however, my partner will tell you that I have a knack for spotting things to make money from - let us hope this is another one (we attribute this to some high functioning autistic tendencies; being able to see underlying patterns etc.). She only wishes I was as industrious/ambitious with my 9-5 career!

Which brings me to a big question I've passed around in my head at times and I'm sure others have considered at some point too - along the lines of "If there is a good chance of 88E being a huge money maker, why isn't the share worth more than it is?"

Well, first let me point out that the share is actually worth quite a lot - compared to what it was. Just off the tested existence of good hydrocarbons down there, the SP more than ten-bagged from its low of 0.006/0.007, to a high of 0.08, in the space of months, which makes for incredible returns in anyone's eyes - once in a blue moon stuff.

But...what stands between 88E being so far a great success story for investors who were lucky/clever enough to buy in at 1 cent or less, and you/me being part of the next Fortescue Metals Group? For those unfamiliar with Andrew Forrest and the FMG story, this Aussie share was once a mining penny stock that floated around 1 cent and hit a peak of $12 several years later - that's 1,200 x the original value, AKA invest $1000 and years later be declared a millionaire - once in a lifetime material.

My short answer is knowledge - this includes knowledge held by 88E's operators, engineers and scientists who are tasked with proving up the play and what they know so far and are yet to know. But more importantly, the knowledge held by investors in the market who ultimately decide the share price. And even more importantly, the knowledge of those who have not yet even heard of 88E, but may soon in the media. We got a whiff of this last time after IW1 - on prospect alone - consider what will happen if/when it becomes a sure thing!

My long answer to the question lies in the fundamentals of investment, which I've always termed "educated gambling". This term is not a condescension to deem any other form of gambling as dumb, rather, it refers to one's ability to alter the odds in their favour with self education - research and knowledge. What may seem like a 5-1 shot at first glance, can be further perceived as a 2-1 or 200-1 shot for the investor who took the time to read up on the company's fundamentals, interpreted market announcements in a favourable or unfavourable way etc.

Unlike a casino where there is a house rule designed to slowly extract money from you, the battlefield here is other investors in the same boat with the same base odds. Yes there are market makers and high frequency traders, however, they can never make you buy or sell your shares, only ever tempt you with mind games. Ignore them and they actually have little long term impact on your success. Ride their wave and, short term, you can actually make money off their tactics - but that's a different story. The munitions on this battlefield are knowledge and the more firepower you have, the better your chances of winning a war and making money from putting yours in the right places - no one would argue this, it's stock market 101 and most of us know it already, which is why you're here on Hot Copper.

However, not all of 88E's investors and potential investors are on Hot Copper. Even with a combined positive outlook we can't influence a single day of trading in favour of the green (that and many of us are LTH). The statistics would be difficult to calculate, but I would think less than 5% of investors/traders on the broader ASX or LSE read this site and benefit from the rich pool of research, interpretation, communication and ultimately knowledge that we have here - all of which offer clarity for our investment strategies. So when we read our posts on here; the technical explanations; the cheer posts fostering excitement and declaring this thing much closer to those 1-1 odds, a life-changing return on investment etc. - I think we are accessing a perspective that is unseen by the masses, leaving them to deem it just another penny stock and leaving some of us to wonder where the crowds of money hungry investors and high opens are. You can call it optimism, but with our technical and critical analysis of results obtained, it's not exactly unfounded. I'd rather call it early knowledge. Once the play is proven with data and then put in layman terms...once it appears in a way that the broader public can understand as crystal clear and be as sure as eggs about...reported in the media...that is when this share price will absolutely blow up to where it should be. In the meantime, you have access to both knowledge and what I consider to be cheap prices.

Thank you all again and good luck to all holders

Birds