Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Stock Also Rises



As a commenter on the company's Investor Hub message board noted, Alloy Steel International (OTC BB: AYSI.OB) was up 39.29% today on 6x average volume. It's nice to see the stock move up for a change, particularly with its earnings release expected next week, but I think this says more about the inherent volatility of an illiquid, low-float, micro-cap stock than anything else. I still expect the company to post a loss when it reports its quarter. Maybe there will also be some encouraging forward-looking statements though. We'll see.

12 comments:

Lil Kim said...

I wouldn't get too excited as the total dollar volume of trading was only about $21,000.

JK said...

Well, Paul, it is only a penny stock.

Microsoft was 0.10 in the eighties...Mcdonalds was about a buck...maybe if more stockbrokers like yourself were not so adverse to (honest) microcaps, as opposed to bloated, opaque blue chip whales, many folks would be a lot richer by now, eh?

Lil Kim said...

Whatever the price per share, the dollar amount can be significant or not.

$21,000 is NOT significant trading.

DaveinHackensack said...

Paul,

The volume was high (6x as high) relative to its three month average, but, if you read my post, I didn't exactly overplay the significance of this. I wrote,

"I think this says more about the inherent volatility of an illiquid, low-float, micro-cap stock than anything else."Which is true. The point is that, with such a small market cap (~$7 million) and an even smaller float (~70% of the outstanding shares are owned by the CEO and CFO) it doesn't take a lot of buying or selling to move the stock significantly higher or lower, respectively.

J.K.,

A good point about the preference, in recent years, for bloated, opaque "blue chips" (e.g., AIG, C) over micro caps with understandable business models and more transparent financials.

BTW, did you read the post where I excerpted parts of that NYT Mag article on Russ Whitney's real estate class?

JK said...

Yes, I read the article. However I wasn't sure why you titled it "picking on the wrong real estate guru", since Sheets' and Whitney's M.O.'s aren't that far removed. I believe both advocate buying low cost housing with no money down and flipping it or renting. Sheets recommended interest only mortgages, and scamming people by using junk bonds to purchase property from the financially illiterate by pretending the bond is worth its face value. Both are snake oil salesmen in my book. Russ Whitney being one of the most unethical of the real estate guru breed, IMO. But it probably would have made a better read if they stuck with Russ Whitney and got back in touch with the people they interviewed in 2007.

The article on Sheets notes that he used to work for Robert Allen, where he apparently got his pitch from. I did read, a few years ago, Allen's book "Multiple Streams of Internet Income", which was actually a decent little book. The irony of Allen selling his blueprint for gyping the customers of "guru products" was probably lost on many of his sycophantic customers who pay 5000 dollars for a seminar. If you ever want to get rich by telling other people that they can get rich too, then Allen's MSII is the book for you. All the infomercial real estate guru's derive their methods from Allen. And get progressively less effective and ethical, IMO.

DaveinHackensack said...

The main reason I titled it that was because Sheets sells his program for $9.95 or something like that and Whitney was coaching people into raising their credit limits so they could pay him ~$50,000 for his advanced course. My sister got Carlton Sheets's program. Never actually listened to all the tapes, but no one tried to get her to drop $50k on some "success U.".

The other reason is that Sheets at least comes across as a decent guy (that fatherly figure they mentioned in the article), so its less surprising that folks would drop $10 on his program; Whitney, on the other hand, can barely keep a straight face about what he's doing, as the article I excerpted demonstrates a couple of times. I thought the end, in particular, was pretty funny, where that custodian who clearly seems to have gotten nothing out of the program except another ~50k in debt tries to assuage Whitney's feelings.

Just Asking said...

Do you think today's volume was from mulitple hedge funds or was the full $3.20 a big committment from Ken Heebner alone?

DaveinHackensack said...

LOL. That was funny, Paul (for a change). Nice work. Seriously, though, that volume was just tape-painting. It looks like one guy picked up most of yesterday's shares. Maybe he tried to paint the tape down so he could accumulate more at a lower price and he was stymied by another tape-painter.

Paul said...

That Destiny Media comment was NOT from me, but from a stockdoc wannabe. That's why it was so unfunny.

JK said...

Sheets sells his initial "book" (reportedly it is so unsubstantive that some classify it as a pamphlet) for 9.95 ...however like Whitney, he strings you along (-by not giving you enough info to be successful) to buy more and more, some of his information products cost thousands of dollars also. In fact, the 9.95 is just a trial period, and you have to mail it back within thirty days or they will automatically debit your account over 200 dollars.

He's not a total farce like Whitney, however, and I've met a couple people who have used his program successfully. Whitney is a degenerate predator, and I'd pay money to kick his ass. I don't know how you can accept all that money from disadvantaged people and live with yourself. Society would be better off if he had remained a car thief or just became a pastor (since he wants to infuse his scam with his religion). I did laugh when he said he wouldn't buy his own program, to someone he knew was a reporter. What gall.

If I were serious about real estate investing and wanted training instead of winging it, I'd go for the real deal and become a licensed realtor and take a community college property management class instead of paying some self proclaimed guru for training. I doubt any true real estate guru bothers with infomercials selling his system.

Daniel Kurtz said...

Just Asking,

No, it was a full commitment from me. I'm dipping into margin for this one.

Commodities are not done yet!

One day they'll make a movie about me...

DaveinHackensack said...

It looks like someone's sense of humor has been terminated with 'extreme prejudice'.