SGR vs. MTO... My story.In October 2004 I visited the SGR mine (at my expense - YUL to YWG) and descended 5000 feet below for a complete tour of the Rice Lake Mine courtesy of Dale and Mr. Wynne. I stayed with my young family (wife and 2 young sons - 22 months and 6 months old) for the weekend (cold paper thin wall hotel) and found the visit truly remarkable - it was my first up close experience with a gold mine and due diligence. It was quite the adventure.
I liked the team and the project and bought heavily into it. At one point I had over 1,500,000 shares. I do hereby state that Dale Ginn is a fantastic person and truly honourable. He is no nonsense and straightforward. You can TRUST him blindfolded.
I assumed I could trade my shares and buy them back later. Sometimes though you end up wanting to re-establish your position but unable to at the current share price. I played my cards wrong and lost big time in the 2008 crash. I lost huge $. My mind started to go astray and my confidence eroded. My health took a turn for the worse. Survival and instinct gradually rekindled my focus to rebuild almost from scratch. I felt good about MTO who I have followed since 2005. On more than one occasion over the years I mentioned to my wife that the evolution of MTO resembled very much that of SGR.
I correlated their respective share floats, resources, mine development, devoted management, management shareholdings, shares outstanding at particular intervals after reopening, ore grades, institutional shareholders, past production etc. and concluded that there existed an uncanny similarity. My conclusion was vindicated upon reading the posts on this board referring to the peer comparisons. (Oh yeah, check out the charts on both co’s – same up and down ride!)
The recent low price range over the past 6 months or so for MTO made me slowly realize that this was truly a blessing in disguise for me (unfortunately not for the L-T shareholder who invested at $1) to repair the major damage I caused to my portfolio for ever having sold my SGR holdings. (There is a lesson in there for swing traders. DO NOT THINK SHORT TERM.) Somehow the investment Gods were on my side and allowed me to reposition myself in and around the 50 cent range in MTO. I do believe that someone, somewhere overhead was looking out for me and my family.
Furthermore the sour grapes that posters on this board were spewing made me realize, just like Déjà Vu, that I witnessed the exact same level of discontent on my SGR board way back when. I was touting SGR on the board while some bashers relentlessly hammered away at the management, share dilution, progress, blah, blah, blah. At the time I was a lonely poster on the SGR board (2004) – today there are so many posts I just drop in once in a while.
(Honestly, if I were a manager working for an outfit like MTO or SGR I wouldn’t be too inclined to respond to all the BS emails, phone calls etc. asking the most redundant questions time and again. I too would like to get more info from these guys but I can understand their position. It really isn’t easy dealing with investors who hold 10,000 shares acting like management MUST answer to them etc. When institutions holding millions of shares give the management free reign to make the project succeed then we small investors must give them some breathing room too. Think about that next time someone critiques management for not keeping us abreast every day.)
This entire scenario told me that years have passed, progress has been made, shares have been diluted, management promised this and that and they "lied to us" etc. etc. etc. and that investor sentiment had gone “Up In Smoke” (... remember that movie; I laughed my head off in the theatre on Ste-Catherine Street!) and that now was a great time to buy in - especially after having watched them (MTO) for so long.
So here I am now, holding long and strong with NO INTENTION to "trade" my shares until I have good reason (like buying a house, business or farmland.) I used my gut instinct and my head then (SGR) and I am using those tools again today on MTO! Trust yourselves NOT some newsletter writer, guru or any other hotshot that expects you to pay him for the research you CAN do yourself. You can make a good decision and you don't have to pay these guys for it. I know. On a side note I consider John Embry, among several others, to be totally tainted, morally bankrupt and devoid of any credibility whatsoever. I would not trust a word he says EVER AGAIN.
IMHO MTO will do fantastically well over the years - JUST BE PATIENT- timelines and haste cause us to make poor calls - and there will be MUCH MORE share dilution (but don't let that cloud your better judgement, just look at SGR and they ain’t done dilutin’) and disappointments along the way (SGR production still has not eclipsed the 50,000 oz. level. That’s after Wynne kept telling me 80,000 back in 2005! How d’ya like them apples?). But somewhere down the line, sometime when you least expect it, those of you who will have held on will be eternally grateful for the economic springboard this vehicle will have proven to be.
You will be handsomely rewarded by having more time to spend with your loved ones (less time toiling for the Boss), the nice car you will have bought, the home you will be able to afford, the business you've always wanted to start etc. Hang in there and you will do fine. Trust yourself and pay no heed to the short sighted trader or basher - they live for the day. You will live for yourself and better off than had you sold your stake in MTO.
I wish good luck to all LONG-TERM holders and when you get a little impatient with MTO then go fishing, turn off the computer and don’t read anything about them for 6 months. It will alleviate that stress that sometimes creeps up on us. I too have great difficulty with patience however this time I will not let go of this tiger I have by the tail!
Best Regards and with Sincerity,
Q
P.S. If impatience gets the best of you then to avoid any chance of trading away those shares you hold, out of frustration or otherwise, then defuse the matter by requesting a share certificate through your broker (cost is about $50) and stash the darn thing away in your safety deposit box. You will be far less likely to sell without just cause. It worked for me and may benefit you.