Peter Kennedy of Stockhouse: Corrupt or just plain stupid?

Greystar Resources (GSL.to) has had a lot of ink spilled about its predicaments recently, what with the denial of permits for its Angostura project in Colombia and the share price movements that have accompanied it. But no note has been as daft as the one written on GSL.to by Peter Kennedy of Stockhouse and published on April 11th in its regular "Short Report" section.

Seriously, this guy is either on the payroll of large money or he's just downright stupid. In the note we get all sorts of stuff about how badly horrid GSL.to's situation is and we even get pearls thrown such as a comparison of GSL to Crystallex (KRY) (even though the two operate in separate countries it's apparently valid....like telling people to avoid Peru mining projects because they're next to Ecuador, I suppose) and how...shock and horror!...GSL hasn't made anything in revenues recently...just like the other 1500+ mining companies in Canada that are calleed "explorers" I'd guess.

But the thing that makes the piece highly dubious, nay suspicious, is what Peter Kennedy leaves out. What he fails to mention is 1) the selling is all done (I mean, doesn't it strike you as odd that this Stockhouse hatchet job only appears with the stock is $3 a share? Where were you when GSL was $5 and getting pumped by Canaccord late last year, Peter?) and the stock is going up because of 2) the massive recent insider buying by Amber Capital, now up to what must be nearly 20% of shares out by wholesale buying of large chunks of GSL. And as IKN pointed out in late March there's a very reliable rumour out there that come the GSL AGM in May, shareholders will rebel and throw the whole board of directors out of GSL, a rumour that's been backed up by some crystal clear market signals since then.

Why try and batter the price down when it obvious that a large insto wants in to all the stock it can get? Why write baloney now, Petey? Why are you suddenly interested in an in-play TSX mainlisted company when all you normally write about is OTC scamjobs? Cui bono? Put simply, this Kennedy character is either being deliberately ignorant about a key factor in the GSL trading mix, he's stupid about markets and how they work or he's written what he's written to scare a few shares out of naive hands and into those of the large instos looking to change the management team at GSL at the cheapest cost possible. Which alternative is the real one? You be the judge.

Douglas Lake (DLKM.ob) was stupid and didn't bribe Stockhouse with advertising

The latest Stockhouse advertisement revenue campaign has kicked off! And guess what? Yup, it's crap! Here's how the latest issue of "The Short Report" , Stockhouse's effort that's (supposedly at least...or at least marketed as such) gonna help clean up them there mean streets sustarts:

Having racked up accumulated losses of $30 million in the last six years, Douglas Lake Minerals Inc.OTC:BB: DLKM, Stock Forum) does not have much to show for money spent on its exploration properties in Tanzania, East Africa. (

Since January 2004, the company has incurred $19.5 million in mineral property costs and $7.5 million in consulting expenses.

But that hasn’t prevented the shares from almost tripling in value in the last few weeks from 10 cents in mid August. On Wednesday, after a bout of profit taking, the stock was trading at 29 cents, down from 34 cents on September 9.

At current levels, Douglas Lake has a market cap of $21.3 million based on the 72.3 million shares that were outstanding on August 12.

That seems high for a company that is engaged in risky, early stage mineral exploration and has generated no operating revenue since its inception. The company posted a net loss of $2 million or 3 cents a share in the year ended May 31, 2010 -- when it had zero cash --, compared to a loss of $4.7 million or 8 cents in the same period last year.

On August 23, Douglas Lake issued six million restricted common shares, (upon the cashless exercise of stock options) at an exercise price of $0.05 per share, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shares were issued outside the United States to four non-U.S. persons who have not been named.

Douglas Lake is headed by Surrey, B.C.-based chief executive officer Harp Sangha, who could not be reached for comment on this story.

Sangha is a 46-year-old yada yada continues here

What a waste of time. A freakin two bit OTC that popped after six months of farting around gets the attention of the almighty Stockhouse? Jeesh, its is the kind of company that even your humble scribe and his ratty corner of cyberspace shrugs his shoulders at and says "yeah, scammy...big deal...obvious though" and never says a word. 

If it isn't clear to you by now that all Stockhouse is doing is trying to drum up advertising revenues from the hundreds of scammy juniors out there (i.e. you think it likely that a SH sponsor gets featured on "Short Report?"...you think it might be a good idea for the scammy juniors to run a small advert box as of today?) then I have a bridge that you may in interested in purchasing. Easy financing terms, too.

Stockhouse is just a big a scam as DLKM.ob, folks. The lack of useful information and inane crap served up as insight is why I stopped visiting stockhouse and other bullboards years ago.

Stockhouse's subtle marketing push

Although not a member of the 'Stockhouse Community' myself, I was forwarded this mail pasted below from the Stockhouse people by A.Reader this morning. The interesting bit has been highlighted by your humble scribe in red

AN UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Valued Stockhouse Member,

I want to personally let you know of some exciting changes coming soon to Stockhouse.

New Editorial: We will soon be launching two new editorial columns; a "short" report showing you some of the market's biggest scams and overvalued stocks as well as a weekly Q&A with some of the industry's biggest movers and shakers. This will be sent to you weekly via email. Website Redevelopment: We are planning a redevelopment of stockhouse.com and we would love your feedback! What do like or dislike about the website? What changes or features would you like to see? Let us know - now is your chance to have your say! Updates on what is happening at Stockhouse Expect to receive future updates from me periodically. I want to keep each of you informed of what's going on at Stockhouse.

Thank you very much for your continued support of Stockhouse. Please send me any comments or feedback.

Sincerely, Marcus

Marcus New
President
Stockhouse Publishing Ltd.

Or in other words, Stockhouse has just sent a very big advertising message to all the scammy mining juniors and scumball management teams hanging in Canada (and let's face it, there are hundreds of those):

Dear Scumballs,

You have exactly one week to get yourself signed up as a sponsor of Stockhouse and sent us money every month else risk being exposed for what you are. However, if you sponsor Stockhouse your far less likely to get any spotlights shone upon you.......(ahem, cough, ahem).

Air kisses, Marcus New

Smart marketing technique, Marcus. IKN applauds your inverse scumbaggery and bets that Agoracom is kicking itself right now for not having thought of it first. Hey, I wonder if Thom "Never Met A Junior I Didn't Like" Calandra will be in charge of the 'short report'?

ECU Silver (ECU.to) and this week's coveted award

Yesterday evening around the cocktail hour, instead of getting on with the work I should have been doing your humble correspondent got into a conversation with someone we'll call An Investor Friend ('AIF'). It was in fact AIF that gave me an initial "hey look at the books of this dog" comment on ECU Silver (ECU.to) some moons ago and so the conversation turned to that stock. AIF regularly does something that I gave up doing a while ago, namely reading bullboards on stocks (for me a case of 'too much noise, not enough info' more than anything else). Anyway, my friend AIF started sending me links to comments made by ECU.to bulls recently written on the boards.

I was amazed. I had no idea.

There are, apparently, a whole army of self-appointed mining experts out there pushing this stock to the gullible and less informed. For sure this isn't a new story and it goes without saying that in typical bullyboy style pointing out a few facts about this arch-dog of a silver miner is immediately called an idiot (and much worse), but the way that solid facts are ignored, abuse is heaped and the jam tomorrow story is pumped non-stop on an organized, relay-style basis between several old hands smacks of something far more sinister. So on reading the junk sent over by AIF I whacked a few simple charts together. Here are four that anyone even remotely considering ECU as a trade should consider. This stuff, ladies and gentlemen, is BASIC.

First, assets.
I look at this and laugh. The claims of fixed asset worth are the only thing that makes this company attractive, but if ECU had to sell land to raise cash the final prices wouldn't be anywhere near the purely subjective numbers attached to its property assets as featured above. Pure smoke'n'mirrors. Meanwhile, real objective values in the form of current assets have been whittled to virtually nothing, this despite the BS hype over the cash flow that would be generated by the new oxide plant that's been running since early '09. And it's worth reminding ourselves that ECU.to actually raised cash via share placement in 2009! The cash netted by selling over 43 million shares to a naive market has all-but disappeared into this money pit. ECU.to is running a $99m deficit since inception, fer chrissakes! WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE?

Now the debt load at ECU.to.
How much airtime to the pushers and shillers give to this part of ECU.to? The company has virtually no cash ok, but what's with all the debt that comes due this year (and on which ECU paid $641k interest last quarter)? We hear all about the ridiculously hyped oxide mill (that's running out of mineral feed so quickly that the company has seemingly taken to stealing from its own JV partner) but any cash generated is just being used to pay off interest on loans pacted at 15% annual. Not to mention how the majority of that principle is now due soon...how on earth are they going to pay it off without reaming the people holding stock?

From those two, here's the utter trainwreck known as working capital.
What's your definition of "we have no money"? What's your definition of "we have squandered over $47m in cash since 2q07?". That's mine above. Let's make this really simple; if ECU doesn't raise at least $20m and soon, it won't have enough money to do anything. Not pay wages, not release more BS news releases, not offer its directors free shares and undated loans. IT HAS NO MONEY. Got it? And how do you think it's going to raise cash? Yep you got it, another bullshit dilutive financing. Right now I'd guess 50m shares at 40c (with the half warrant kicker, of course) but that could get much, much worse if the market wakes up to this stock and drives the PPS to where it belongs, because this company is also the living, breathing definition of "a sitting duck" right now.

And finally, just in case you think that the people running ECU.to are unfortunate victims of circumstance, here's how they've awarded themselves $5.89m in stock options in the last seven quarters.
Yes, that's right. Despite running the stock into the ground, getting way overburdened with debt due in less than 12 months and letting working capital swing from +$30m to -$17m in the space of just 18 months, the people that run ECU.to have awarded themselves a heap of bonus options; talk about a sense of entitlement (and that's putting it as mildly as possible).

But this week's coveted award doesn't go to ECU.to management. It is reserved for the message board shillers and bullshitters that proclaim themselves experts. Just by taking one quick look at the books, anyone with an ounce of ken about miners and how they run can see that this company is a disaster movie with no happy ending. Therefore those self-proclaimed 'experts' that troll public (and private) message boards are either pig-ignorant about miners (perfectly possible) or they are fully aware of the major problems faced by ECU Silver in its very immediate future and refuse to mention them in their non-stop bullish postings. In which case they are simply liars. Either way there is precisely zero reason to take these people seriously, either about this stock or any other stock they might opine upon.

So therefore, ECU.to bullboard shillers and bullshitters, you collectively win this week's coveted award. Waste your own money on this dog if you like, but what right do you have in trying to palm off a full scale trainwreck of mining company to those that read bullboards and hoodwink them into believing its a company with some bright future ahead. Your analyses are disgraceful and have the sole aim of conning other people and covering your own ego, back pocket, reputation or (most likely) a combination of the three. Your time is now up. Enjoy, dumbasses:

UPDATE: The hatemail has started already, so let's point out here on the blog nice and clearly that I have no position whatsoever in ECU Silver (ECU.to). In fact I've never owned the stock. That's also true for family and (as far as my knowledge goes) any friends. That clear enough for you?