A Pox on Promoted Stocks (2)

Posted on by David Merkel

By this time, I would think that it would be worth the the time of penny stock promoters to put a big red X over my house, and not send me any more promotions.? But alas, I got another one, Stevia First, Inc.? This is a weird one, a really, really weird one, as I will attempt to explain.

Stevia First [STVF] was originally Legend Mining, which was based in China, and was looking for diamonds in Canada, much as Nova Mining may be doing.? Any organization flexible enough to switch industries from mining to agriculture is probably no well-managed.? The two skill sets are very different.

Stevia First was a subsidiary of Legend Mining, but through a reverse merger, it became the parent company in 2011.? In the process, the majority of the stock was sold to a new CEO, but that has happened before with this company.? The original interests in the company were priced at a pittance, giving large profits to those who sold them.? The original shares were sold for a small fraction of a penny, and now trade for nearly $2/share.

And what has the company done to deserve this increase in value?? Less than nothing because:

  • There have never been any revenues
  • Income has always been negative
  • Net worth is decidedly negative

That is similar to so many promoted penny stocks.? The valuation is absurd, but remember absurd is like infinity.? Twice infinity is still infinity.? Twice absurd is still absurd.? “The market can remain insane longer than you can remain solvent, as Keynes once said.

I think that the price is so high because speculators are manipulating the price, thinking they can profit off of the momentum, and exit before the crash.? Why do I think this?

Well, as I researched this, reading through the SEC documents, and Googling some search terms, I ran across a series of websites promoting penny stocks, and tracking the promotion of penny stocks.? This was new to me, if there is anyone in my readership that has a more cogent explanation than I am about to give, please give it in the comments.

Here are some of the websites for Stevia First:

When I write about penny stocks, I usually print out the juicy parts of the disclosure because that explains the story, and so I will do here.? It was in 5-point type.? It is a blur until I do OCR.? Maybe we could have a rule that says disclosures must be made in the same font as the largest print in the document.? My but that would cramp their style.

Chuck Hughes and the Microcap Alert Newsletter OWNS NO SHARES, OPTIONS, WARRANTS in Stevia First, Inc (STVF). Also, Stevia First, Inc. has neither approved nor paid for this specific advertisement. ?Readers should perform their own due diligence. The information presented is provided for information purposes only and the endorsement is not to be used or considered as an offer or the solicitation of an offer to sell or to buy or subscribe for securities. Endorser has not taken any steps to ensure that the securities referred to in this report are suitable for any particular investor.

My but that is lousy work.? Every evening, even though I make mistakes, I endeavor to make sure that what I write will help people.? But what of the promoter?

Conmar Capital, Inc., the third party advertiser, has paid $869,500 to Diamond Spot Media, LLC (DSM) as of March 7, 2012 for this advertising effort in an effort to build investor awareness. DSM shall retain any amounts over and above the cost of creating and distributing this advertisement which advertises Chuck Hughes, Microcap Profit Alert Newsletter coverage of Stevia First, Inc. Advertising services include; production, outsourced advertising copywriting services, mailing and other related distribution services and advertising media placement costs. Conmar Capital, Inc., the third party advertiser, is a company based In Belize City, Belize. Conmar Capital, Inc., the third party advertiser, has represented to DSM in writing that it does not own any shares of Stevia First Inc. except for restricted stock which Conmar Capital, Inc. has represented to DSM in writing that it will not sell, pledge or hypothecate or otherwise agree to dispose of forgo days following the initial dissemination of this advertisement Conmar Capital, Inc. has also represented to DSM in writing that neither it nor its affiliates will buy or sell any shares of Stevia First, Inc. during the period that this advertisement is being disseminated by DSM or third party media vendors.

Wait.? Let me get this straight.? You paid $870K for the mailing, and from what I can tell, more than $2 million for advertising in entire so far, and all you have is restricted stock?? With 2/3rds of the stock in the hands of the new and old CEOs, how can they make money?

Here are some ideas:

  • Since the start of the promotion, they have pushed the stock up from nearly 80 cents to nearly two bucks.? That’s a 150% gain.? To cover the $2.4 million paid, they would have had to own at least 2 million shares.? That’s not impossible, but remember, rocket up, rocket down.? Tough to lock in the gain.
  • Maybe they have some implicit, quiet deal with Stevia First management.? After all, they stand to benefit the most from this.? If I were part of the Stevia First management, I would be looking to do some sort of dilutitive deal (like a PIPE) to bring real cash into the company, and allow the company to last.
  • Maybe penny stock promoters are getting more slick.? They don’t speculate on their own deals, but on the deals of others.? Working as a greater group, they earn more money off the rubes that speculate on penny stocks.
  • Maybe they think the pump will hold the price up long enough that they can sell their restricted stock for a profit.

So how well has the pump and dump been working so far?? Pretty well.? But that says nothing about the future.? This is a company with no equity, no income, no assets, no stable management team.? It’s all air.? There are no patents that they own on Stevia.? There are no barriers to entry, so why should an obscure company be worth anything when it has no sustainable competitive advantage?

So far on the penny stocks, I am batting one thousand.? In my opinion, Stevia First will not be an error on my part, but only on the part of those that buy this company.

8 thoughts on “A Pox on Promoted Stocks (2)”

  1. I don’t care who promotes a penny stock I will never bite on that hook. I’ll take Penny slots over penny stocks

  2. This is chump change. The real money is from pumping up a big bank… Or lots of them. You have to buy a few members of Congress, but it is totally worth it. Also helps if you are pals with the President, and your dad was a former member of Congress.

    Turns out Buffet’s big bank play Wells Fargo is stalling on answering an SEC subpoena about … well the same shennanigans as BofA.

    Solomon Bros, FNMA, GenRe, and now Wells Fargo… each time old Warren, son of a Congressman, manages to squirm away like he was the Teflon Don of NYC.

    Insider trading at Berkshire? Nothin’ to see here. Goldman and GE pay Warren 10% and almost before the ink is dry the same firms get unlimited 0% funding from the boys in DC…

    Once or twice might be coincidence, but with this much smoke there is a fire somewhere.

    Kenny Boy? Meet Warren.

  3. > Since the start of the promotion, they have pushed the stock up from nearly 80 cents to nearly two bucks. That?s a 150% gain

    I bet they pull your quote and put it in their next scam to show how much $ can be made.

    So….. can you show me how to get in at the start and out with a 150% gain? – Never mind, I do not want to play with them, Power Ball has better odds.

    It is our version of Tulip mania from the 1630s.
    For details see:
    – “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” (a book)
    – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

  4. I’ve often thought of running an analysis of penny stock promotions to determine the standard curve that describes their price, starting at the time of the promotion. With that information, I’ve wondered about timing short sells to coincide with that peak. 😉

      1. No, unfortunately, I don’t. It seems as if I’ve been getting stock scams as far back as I’ve had email, even back on AOL. I should’ve been keeping track of them all these years.

        All I can imagine is to do a search for keywords associated with the scams, since a lot of those scams have been posted on websites over the years.

  5. Good info on penny stocks and the stvf promo. I picked up stvf by a itchy trigger finger and luckily dropped it with gains intact before the crash. I got stuck with a few other penny’s in my portfolio. Not sure why penny’s are the rage on investors hub though. Not much investing and a matter of who can pull the trigger first on both sides of the hump. They can be fun and extremely dangerous. The scams pulled on these make Nigerian scammers work look like child’s play.

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