Blogs don't matter, Pacific Rubiales (PRE.to) edition

Here's a five chart of Pacific Rubiales (PRE.to) that shows the end of last week's action and the two days of this week.

And just so things are clear, this one shows PRE.to matched up against ^XOI, the Amex Oil Index, to show how the stock has done compared to the industry benchmark.

A 10% gap between the industry benchmark and PRE? Wowsers, so what's changed? Well, there was this superlative post about PRE.to by Setty that hit the wires on Sunday March 27th which pointed out the recent issues over at the company and especially how management has been playing the mushroom politics card...as well as making significant insider sales on info of bad production numbers that it held back from the world. And if you haven't worked it out already, Setty is a dude read by anyone who needs to keep in touch with the LatAm O&G scene .....due mainly to his brilliance.

The thing is, as Setty pointed out in his post last weekend it would have been much easier for the PRE.to IR department to have answered his mails and calls for replies to his queries and presented its side of the case that (knowing the fair-handed Setty as I do) would have made it into print to balance things up, but that never happened. We can only assume that the mighty and rich PRE.to Public Relations people were too busy lunching and couldn't be bothered to talk to a pissant little blogger. But hey never mind that, PRE.to IR department, you've only lost over $510m in market cap since Monday. What's half a billion between friends these days?

Dorato Resources (DRI.v): Strange how the President and CEO of the company was so keen on selling his own shares to the market recently, isn't it?

Hey Keith, dump 'em at $1.50 and watch the stock dive afterwards as reality sets in why don't you?

Dorato Resources Inc. (DRI)						As of March 2nd, 2011
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price

Feb 09/11	Jan 06/11	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,000	$1.490
Feb 09/11	Jan 05/11	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$1.430
Feb 09/11	Jan 05/11	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-13,000	$1.500
Feb 09/11	Dec 29/10	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-18,200	$1.500
Feb 09/11	Dec 30/10	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-24,300	$1.500
Feb 09/11	Dec 30/10	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-6,500	$1.520
Feb 09/11	Dec 31/10	Henderson, Keith J.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-1,000	$1.540

So to recap that's 75,000 shares sold around the $1.50 level that brought in gross proceeds of $112,500. Not only that but all of the sales were late filed too so as not to tip off the poor retail saps he was dumping on (many of whom live in Germany and have been raped once agian by the scumbag pushers like  boersenbrieflemming). So let's see how DRI shares have done since the President and CEO of DRI Keith Henderson dumped his stock and didn't tell the market?

 

Hmmm....44.6% down since he started selling his own shares.....I've seen better, gotta be said.

Hey. I wonder if Henderson and his cohorts have any more late file sales to declare to the market still? Certainly part of the company's M.O. (and they wonder why i insist on telling people to avoid Cardero Group companies like the plague?). Hey again!, Perhaps Mr. Henderson had advanced warning about the documentary that's getting aired on CBC tonight? Inquiring minds.....

Radius Gold (RDU.v) thoughts

So let's start with a question for you chartists and TA buffs that refuse to be fooled by randomness. Here's the 12 month chart for Radius Gold (RDU.v) (RDUFF.ob). As you can see it ramped late August, spent September up at the 70c level (and even touched 80c for a moment) but in October it's faded back somewhat and right now stands at 56c.

Being nice and that, your humble scribe has included Bollybands, MACD and RSI (cos we normal people know how you TA guys lurve them there squiggles) and now here comes the question: 

At what price would you buy (or buy back) RDU.v?

Personally speaking I don't really know (and this is why I ask), but once everything were taken into consideration my answer would probably eschew the finer points of TA and be "Whenever the insiders start buying back". That's because not one but five insiders took advantage of that pop in RDU.v to sell their held stock in September at those elevated prices, all the sales coming after a long period of inactivity in their insider positions when not a single paper got sold. Here comes the details, with first up RDU's Exploration Adviser, David Cass:

Cass, David Maurice

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  51 - Exercise of options -90,000  410,000   0.5200  

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  51 - Exercise of options +90,000 0.5200  

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -50,000 0.7800

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -5,000 0.7900  

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -19,500 0.8000  

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,500 0.8100  

2010-09-07 2010-09-08 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -5,000 0.8200

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  51 - Exercise of options -100,000 310,000   0.5200  

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  51 - Exercise of options +100,000 0.5200  

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -30,000 0.7800  

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -15,000 0.7900  

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -45,000 0.8000

2010-09-08 2010-09-09 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,000 0.8100  

A lot of numbers and lines there, but put simply on September 7th and 8th David Cass exercised 190,000 options he had at a base price of 52c and immediately sold them into the market for prices between 78c and 82c. The total value of shares sold was $150,505, but to get the profit David Cass walked away with you have to subtract the 52c exercise price on those shares, which comes to $98,800. Therefore Cass's proceeds from the trades come to $51,705.

Bales, Kevin

2010-09-02 2010-09-10 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -30,000 0.2600  

2010-09-02 2010-09-10 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -30,000 0.6300  

2010-09-28 2010-09-30 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options -20,000 0.2600

2010-09-28 2010-09-30 Direct Ownership : 10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.7300  

This time the quickmath shows that company CFO Kevin Bales exercised 50,000 of his 26c base price options on Sept 2nd and Sept 28th, selling both tranches on the same day. Selling value of $33,500 minus options base total of $13,000 gives us the final proceeds to Kevin Bales of $20,500

Cooke, Bradford

2010-09-20 2010-09-24 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -10,000 0.6900  

This one is straightforward, with no options exercising involved. Director Bradford Cooke sold 10,000 of his RDU.v shares on September 20th at 69c a pop, $6,900 cash in hand.

Osler, Tim R.

2010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -3,500 0.7000  

2010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -3,500 0.7000  

2010-09-21 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -8,000 0.7000  

2010-09-22 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.7000  

2010-09-22 2010-09-26 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -20,000 0.7000  

RDU's Corporate Secretary Tim Osler decided to sell a chunk of his shares in September, too. In his case, 55,000 shares and all at 70c went on September 21st nd 22nd. Proceeds from the sales, $38,500.

Rushton, Ralph

2010-09-03 2010-09-06 Direct Ownership :  10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -7,500 0.7000  

Our final September seller was VP Corp Development Ralph Rushton, who sold 7,500 wholly owned shares for 70c on September 3rd and bringing in proceeds of $5,250

So in total, Radius Gold insiders sold 312,500 shares of the company to the market in the month of September. The total value of the shares sold came to $234,655 and the (pre-tax) cash banked by the five directors aggregated to $122,855.

 x

To sum up, it's not the absolute amount of cash involved here, because in the great scheme of things less than a quarter of a million dollars' worth of insider sales is a drop in the veritable ocean when it comes to the cash moved around the markets in any single day. But there is clearly a good sense of timing shared by not one but five insiders here, something that catches your humble scribe's attention far more than any squiggly line on a chart will ever manage. So watch those insider filings on RDU.v in the future, people. Clues available for winning trades.

Finally, we'd like to applaud company head honcho Simon Ridgway for not selling a single share of RDU recently, despite having loaded up earlier in the year at 30c and 35c prices in the open market. A man with bigger fish to fry, perchance....

DYODD, dude.

An inside trend question

So here's a question for y'all. Has anyone else...

Rainy River Resources Ltd. (RR)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 20/10	Sep 15/10	Caridi, Elizabeth	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-1,000	$8.780
Sep 20/10	Sep 15/10	Caridi, Elizabeth	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-1,000	$8.740
Sep 20/10	Sep 15/10	Caridi, Elizabeth	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	2,000	$5.000
Sep 20/10	Sep 15/10	Caridi, Elizabeth	Direct Ownership	Stock Options	51 - Exercise of options	-2,000	$5.000
Sep 13/10	Sep 09/10	Grinnell, James Gordon	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-13,700	$8.000
Sep 13/10	Sep 09/10	Grinnell, James Gordon	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-8,000	$8.010
Sep 13/10	Sep 09/10	Grinnell, James Gordon	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,300	$8.020

...noticed that recently...

ATAC Resources Ltd. (ATC)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 20/10	Sep 20/10	Archer, Alan Richard	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000
Sep 20/10	Sep 13/10	Archer, Alan Richard	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000
Sep 14/10	Sep 07/10	Goss, Douglas Owen	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	50,000	$1.400
Sep 14/10	Sep 07/10	Goss, Douglas Owen	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-50,000
Sep 13/10	Sep 07/10	Archer, Alan Richard	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-50,000
Sep 12/10	Sep 07/10	Wober, Helmut Hubert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	$6.050
Sep 08/10	Sep 03/10	Wober, Helmut Hubert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,300	$5.350
Sep 08/10	Sep 02/10	Wober, Helmut Hubert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,700	$5.074
Sep 07/10	Sep 03/10	Talbot, Ian John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-15,000

...more than one manager or insider....

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (FVI)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Ganoza Aicardi, Jorge R.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-50,000	$3.330
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Ganoza Aicardi, Jorge R.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	50,000	$2.290
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Ganoza Aicardi, Jorge R.	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-50,000
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,000	$3.390
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$3.370
Sep 15/10	Sep 15/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,600	$3.280
Sep 15/10	Sep 14/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-4,000	$3.220
Sep 15/10	Sep 14/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$3.190
Sep 15/10	Sep 14/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$3.170
Sep 15/10	Sep 14/10	Iverson, Michael Alexander	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$3.150

...in successful Canadian companies...

Amerigo Resources Ltd (ARG)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 20/10	Sep 13/10	Beaty, Ross J.	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-500,000	$0.850
Sep 20/10	Sep 17/10	Davidson, Aurora	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	250,000
Sep 20/10	Sep 17/10	Davidson, Aurora	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-250,000	$0.310
Sep 20/10	Sep 17/10	Dean, Steven G	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	350,000
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Dean, Steven G	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-6,000	$0.910
Sep 17/10	Sep 17/10	Dean, Steven G	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-344,000	$0.900

....has been looking to....

Sandspring Resources Ltd. (SSP)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 20/10	Sep 16/10	Gryba, Charles M.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-20,000	$2.300
Sep 17/10	Sep 15/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-83,300	$2.330
Sep 16/10	Sep 15/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-61,400	$2.259
Sep 14/10	Sep 10/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-43,000	$1.946
Sep 08/10	Sep 02/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-13,900	$1.620
Sep 02/10	Aug 31/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-55,700	$1.602
Sep 02/10	Aug 27/10	Libra Advisors, LLC	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-134,000	$1.581

....take some money ....

First Majestic Silver Corp. (FR)						As of September 20th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Sep 20/10	Sep 20/10	McCallum, Robert A.	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-26,000	$6.050
Sep 17/10	Sep 15/10	Shaw, David Andrew	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	20,000	$2.030
Sep 17/10	Sep 15/10	Shaw, David Andrew	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	100,000	$1.560
Sep 17/10	Sep 15/10	Shaw, David Andrew	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-20,000	$2.030
Sep 17/10	Sep 15/10	Shaw, David Andrew	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-100,000	$1.560
Sep 09/10	Sep 07/10	Young, Robert John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-200	$5.432
Sep 09/10	Sep 07/10	Young, Robert John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-200	$5.422
Sep 09/10	Sep 07/10	Young, Robert John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-4,900	$5.440
Sep 09/10	Sep 07/10	Young, Robert John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-13,400	$5.420
Sep 09/10	Sep 07/10	Young, Robert John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-18,800	$5.430

...off the table? 

And the above are just a sample, there are plenty more where they came from. Choose your own poison (and why not start over at pacific rubiales, where sales have been 'chunky'?).

None of these people or investment entities are selling out their whole bunch of shares and most of them just a sliver or two. I'm sure there's nothing underhand going on with these sales and each one has solid reasoning to back it up, but it does strike this humble scribe as indicative of where we are on a macro scale. DYODD and be careful out there, because when market shillers are screaming "TO DA MOON ALICE!!" at the same time as smart players cash out some, there may just be a message worth heeding hidden between the two facts.

When you have an overriding sense of entitlement....

...things like correctly filing your trades do not apply to you. As an example, here's the Casey bullshitter Marin Katusa deciding that the 10 day rule for filing insider sales of Copper Mountain (CUM.to) is only for the little people and he can do what the hell he wants.

Hey, thanks for telling us about those March sales, Marin. In August.

Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (CUM)						As of August 5th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Aug 05/10	Mar 16/10	Katusa, Marin	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-41,600	$2.890
Aug 05/10	Mar 15/10	Katusa, Marin	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-21,500	$2.810
Aug 05/10	Mar 12/10	Katusa, Marin	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,700	$2.900
Aug 05/10	Jun 25/10	Katusa, Marin	Direct Ownership		50 - Grant of options	70,000	$2.390

New Gold (NGD): Sheer coincidence

You just know that this.......

New Gold Inc. (NGD)						As of July 6th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Jul 05/10	Jun 29/10	Gallagher, Robert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-350,000	$6.604
Jul 05/10	Jun 29/10	Gallagher, Robert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	160,000	$3.210
Jul 05/10	Jun 29/10	Gallagher, Robert	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	190,000	$2.710
Jul 05/10	Jun 29/10	Gallagher, Robert	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-160,000	$3.210
Jul 05/10	Jun 29/10	Gallagher, Robert	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-190,000	$2.710

....has absolutely nothing to do with this:

"On July 7, the Fifth Auxiliary District Court in Mexico City denied the company's appeal against the September 2009 ruling by the Federal Court of Fiscal and Administrative Justice that ordered SEMARNAT, the Mexican government's environmental regulatory agency, to cancel the company's EIS in November 2009.

.........

""While we are disappointed by this most recent decision, we will continue to pursue all avenues to ensure the continuous operation of Cerro San Pedro," stated Robert Gallagher, President and Chief Executive Officer."

I mean, it's only 350,000 options with (pre-tax) net proceeds of $1.28m. Who would ever screw over their shareholders for such a measly sum?