where is the bottom?, page-3

Guys, I'll fess up. I bought ION at $1.50. It went against my rules - never buy capital intensive businesses. But it looked such damned good value with that dividend. Plus the businesses were making operating cash surpluses.

But times have changed. The word is they are making layoffs at their plants. And raw materials prices are costing them.

The trend is DOWN for the BUSINESS (forget the stock for a moment). Now, while that might not normally be such a problem, in ION's case it has a huge amount of debt - which leverages both the upside and downside.

ION could well go bust, because they just don't have the leeway for a downturn.

This company really is looking sick. There are people being attracted by "NTA". NTA is completely meaningless here. (Here's a hint: only ever pay attention to cash and land or other easily liquidated and verifyable assets). What is the liquidation value? Most of ION's factories involve specialist machinery etc - so their value is probably as scrap (ie worthless).

Wait for a turnaround in operating performance AND insider buying before buying into this. This could take a couple of years...

SELL and AVOID. Take losses now - it will be smaller and less painful than if you wait.