RE: The Roulston Effect / mrmrre"I have not confirmed this and have not seen the reports."
Hi,
The upgrade game in the July 20th report. You may have seen my previous messages re. Roulston on this board. I finally got my letter and indeed, he moved his rating to what he calls a "2A." Previously, he has had the company at other lower rankings, and if I'm not mistaken, at one point when the shares were down quite a bit some time ago, his ranking was also at "2A." I didn't take the time to look at the changes of his rankings so don't take that as "confirmed." But at least with his current ranking, it's most definitely his very high "2A."
The upgrade didn't come with an associated write-up. He has commented on the EXMIN story in previous issues. This time around, it was just moving the stock up on his focus list, as it were. Each quarter he'll publish a list of 80 to 100 stocks he's covering and the table is meant to be a taken as quick update to touch on all the names he's written about in previous letters.
By the way, Jay Taylor doesn't take money for write-ups at this point in time. He may have done it in the past. That I don't know.
Roulston does not take money, as you note. He's a pretty humble guy. Many people respect him as a geologist and as an impartial researcher in the mining industry. At times, I wish he'd write more about companies he covers - to get into more detail. But he does a great job overall and one of the best things about him is that he's got a good sense of being able to tell when a company has sold management teams and property prospects.
Anyway, I hope that helps. For further context, I have copied and pasted the description of his ranking system below. There were no "priority 1" ranking stocks nominated this time around and he seldom puts that stark of a spotlight on a single name. "Priority 2a" is taken to be the equivalent of "strong buy" by most of his readers, whereas "Priority 1" means not only does the fundamentals justify a "Priority 2a" but there's something going on in the very near-term that will revalue higher perceptions of a specific stock.
EXMIN will never get respect from the institutions because EXMIN's joint venture development model generally makes the company a less than ideal prospect for "mining" by Bay Street. Like you, I happen to think that's just fine! I think EXMIN has a lot in common with MAG Silver, in this regards, a company that has basically be ignored by the institutional resource community yet has been one of the very best mining stocks to own in the last couple of years.
Cheers,
Piece-of-eight
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Priority 1 is assigned to those companies which I believe have the best balance of risk and potential reward and where there is an immediate prospect of large near term gains.
Priority 2 are other companies that I like. They have been subdivided to “a” (highest), “bb (high medium), “b” (medium) and “c” (low). Priority 2a companies merit accumulation.
For companies ranked 2c, I see a longer term investment horizon and will only provide occasional updates. Readers should seek other sources of on-going updates. Less patient investors may want to look for a chance to get out as selling opportunities arise in the market. For 2bb companies, look for pullbacks in the prices as buying opportunities.
Priority 3 companies are those which have less favourable risk/reward profiles and which Resource Opportunities will no longer be following.