HCG: Insider selling and short seller target I have been self-investing for years. In the past mostly buy and hold. I enjoy doing research. Have recently started to move in and out of positions quickly to actively manage my portfolio. It's becoming a hobby and I might be here quite a bit this winter as fall has clearly set in.
I have enough experience to know how to take my profits, cut my loses and enjoy the cheap $7 costs of self investing. My discount brokerage now also has made changes to better give me a view into any short positions which I find is likely the "sign of the times". You can't just be long anymore. Some of the traders I respect the most go long and short and some are short only these days. I find the "short and hold" type of investors the most interesting because they tend to be market savvy and determined. Which is how I see myself.
Just recently, I became very "tuned in" to short sellers as a formidable force. Some are known, most are hidden under an anonymous vail with various "handles" here and on tweeter which appears to be a hotbed for short seller information sharing.
I was a holder of a company in a different sector which blamed short sellers for its massive downfall (-95%). I originally bought into the management premise that it was short seller's fault for driving down the price but it's clear the short sellers were simply well researched. Instead of listening to short sellers (bears), I discarded their point of view and I paid for it. It was a good lesson.
One observation I made was they are very, very smart. And are able to manipulate the negativity as if it's a well tuned warship. As management start to "feel the heat" they panic and make serious mistakes that exposes themselves. I do forensic analysis and the analysing the "aftermath" is nothing but fascinating.
So I started to I really pay attention to what the posters on these discussion boards were saying and researching the messages. I don't want to get into endless battles with people here so I won't respond to any attacks, I want to focus on the company and welcome any intelligent long/bull or short/bear views.
That stock brought me here via links I prefer not to discuss. I want to see who is a credible messenger (poster) and who is just here to waste their time or mine. I have no patience for games. I want to ignore the time wasters and have intelligent discussions with like minded investors who are long or short.
So, I'm here as a prospective short seller. I have no position and never held one on HCG. On the overall financials (the five banks) I would actually be long if that was a sector I was interested in.
So this is a bit of an odd position for me but one that hedges my significant real estate holdings if the markets were to see a serious correction in Canada. So from an overall investment strategy, I would love to find the best (meaning weakest) company about to crash. That's why I'm here.
As for insider selling, I see the following recently which is significant considering the timing of the various press releases. And what would concern me the most as a shareholder is it break a pattern of insider acquisition in the previous 6 months of acquisitions of various types.
Filing
Date | Transaction
Date | Insider Name | Ownership
Type | Securities | Nature of transaction | Volume or Value | Price |
| Sep 12/16 | Sep 12/16 | Marsh, John M. | Indirect Ownership | Common Shares | 10 - Disposition in the public market | -57,100 | $28.39 |
| Sep 12/16 | Sep 9/16 | Marsh, John M. | Indirect Ownership | Common Shares | 10 - Disposition in the public market | -81,900 | $28.94 |
| Sep 8/16 | Sep 8/16 | Marsh, John M. | Indirect Ownership | Common Shares | 10 - Disposition in the public market | -36,000 | $29.50 |
Someone indicated more insider selling was seen yesterday, could I ask when you obtained this information from. Please don't take this as an insult, I research everything. Posters often make mistakes on purpose or accidentally so self-researching goes hand-in-hand with self-investing.
So, does anyone have a good summary of the "HCG Short Seller Thesis" they would like to share because on the surface, this company looks fine.
You can do it here or send me a private message. I promise to keep all private messages confidential to me and other investors I know. None of them would participate in these types of discussion forum on this small cap web site of questionable quality. And none of them would repeat anything to anyone they don't know in person.