I recommend reading the Equedia link provided in the message below.

https://tsxnews.blogspot.ca/2013/10/the-state-of-tsx-venture.html

The State of the TSX Venture

TSX News has changed its name to TSX Tech News And Analysis to reflect a recent change in strategy. After reviewing the calls made over the last 12 months, it is apparent that the TSX Venture, but in particular mining and exploration stocks are being rigged to keep their prices extremely low. The TSX Venture has dropped over 60% since its early 2011 highs while the big board has remained about flat and the NASDAQ has increased nearly 50%. In 2008 it made sense when the TSX Venture tanked as all stock markets crashed. But we are in the midst of one of the longest bull markets on the US exchanges, which have included strong price gains in risky stocks. Some sectors like gold have experienced pullbacks across the board, but there is a big disconnect between the performances of oil, tech and biotech stocks on the US exchanges and the ones in Canada.

Oil, gold and other metal small cap stocks in Canada have struggled mightily as it is routine to see losses of 90% from their 2011 highs. The TSX Venture is rampant with bankers and other institutions who want to rob Canadian investors and the Canadian public of their assets as cheaply as possible and they do it through the use of naked short selling and dark pool trading. The lazy and complicit CEOs of these companies would rather spend their time posing as informed bullish investors on Stockhouse reminding people to think of the long term potential of their company while collecting an easy paycheque instead of doing what they can to maximize shareholder value today. TSX Tech News And Analysis recommends reading the article "Why the TSX Venture is Failing" by Equedia Investment Research to gain a better understanding of the fraud and trickery seen on the TSX Venture:

https://www.equedia.com/why-the-tsx-venture-is-failing/

Despite the poor performance of the tech sector since it was pumped in 2011, led by Intertainment Media, investors at least have a fighting shot when investing or speculating in tech, biotech or other similar small cap companies which are growing their revenues, are on the verge of profitability or have exciting products in their pipeline. Looking at TSX Tech News And Analysis calls over the past year, SBM at 8 cents in December while it sits at 15 cents now, CST at 10 cents in January and it now sits at 11.5, MBI at 6.5 cents in February and it now sits at 13, NCI at 16 cents in June and it now sits at 61, FSW at 9 cents in July and it now sits at 25.5, and the latest pick of ZMD at 6 cents while it now sits at 7 shows that there are great opportunities to consistently make money on the Venture when you are selective and are the first to jump on the bandwagon when a company appears to be improving on its bottom line.

When looking at the two mediocre calls of this site over the past 12 months, one needs to look at the AEE call at 5.5 cents in January and the IFR call at 5.5 cents in August. Although IFR sits at a gain with a 7.5 cent stock price, much of the shares were traded well above that price recently and it is 50% off its 52-week high. First off, TSX Tech News And Analysis would like to apologize to anyone who may have lost money on these two picks who were prompted by the recommendations on this site. Certain critics of this site claim that it is involved in pump and dump tactics. While the calls listed in the paragraph above certainly cast doubts over these claims as they have maintained their stock prices months after they were recommended in the face of continued bearish movement on the TSXV, TSX Tech News And Analysis must also address these two poor oil performers. It is of sincerest hope that anyone who lost money on these two calls have made it back and more on the winning picks.

Now to get into the specifics of each to find out what went wrong. AEE was a heavily manipulated stock where fake walls were used to scare out buyers as much as possible. Heavy selling brought the stock to 52-week lows shortly after the TSX Tech News And Analysis pick. The company was eventually bought out by Cub Energy (KUB) with about 10 shares of AEE going for 1 KUB share. At the time KUB was priced at 20-25 cents so AEE shares were valued at 2-2.5 cents in the deal, basically at 52-week lows. KUB got a steal while AEE holders faced significant dilution as they only received 14M shares of 312M total shares of KUB. It's going to be very hard for long-time AEE shareholders to make money on their position going forward.

TSX Tech News And Analysis took a lot of heat (more on that later) for being a driving force for IFR moving from 5.5 cents to as high as 15 cents as an article was written about IFR's potential for a lucrative deal on its properties leading into a land auction within the Central Mackenzie Valley. The auction resulted in IFR purchasing additional land in the area but otherwise fell flat, contributing to IFR dropping back down to 7.5 cents.

A move from 5.5 to 15 cents is a drop in the bucket for this company. IFR was once in the $2 range in the 2004-06 peak oil craze but a failed exploration attempt in the North Sea along with the 2008 crash caused the stock to fall to a few pennies. When the 2010-11 auction resulted in over $500 million worth of bids for the land, IFR shot up to 30 cents. Those auction results did not disappear. A lot of money has been spent procuring land in this region for the purpose of exploration and production of oil. It makes no sense for IFR to have dropped as low as it has. IFR does not have any debt, hasn't spent large sums of money digging up dry holes since 2009 and it has a very low burn rate with some small time production so it has no reasons for its stock price tank unlike some of its similarly poorly performing peers like CLL or ROZ over this time period. All it has been doing these past three years has been sitting on prospective land while the oil price has risen back over $100 a barrel.

Before TSX Tech News And Analysis started to cover the IFR story, insiders were buying shares in August. Since the stock has came back down to these low levels they have continued to buy more in October. It's anyone's guess whether they are just taking advantage of the cheap share price to load up or if they are allowing the market manipulators to bring the stock price down so they can load up. Either way IFR is one of the many stocks fallen victim to the raid on the Canadian junior markets that is allowing bankers and foreign interests to buy up Canadian assets for cheap. Perhaps the goal of the Canadian Government and the financial institutions is to ensure that China gets all of our natural resources for pennies on the dollar like they did when OPTI Canada got bought out by CNOOC.

As if the bankers and other rats who want to destroy the value in Canada's junior market aren't enough, they are getting help by so-called bashers who post on message boards like Stockhouse. People are certainly allowed to be bearish on a stock, but you can tell a basher whose sole purpose is to scare people out of their shares by the fact that 100% of their posts are to spread fear or are insulting or sarcastic to others. A normal investor would post a mix of bullish, bearish and neutral ideas when they post because their intentions are to share honest investment thoughts and advice. These bashers hate websites such as this one and throw around libelous terms like "scam artist" as TSX Tech News And Analysis works hard to bring up companies as good investment or speculative ideas which is in direct opposition to their goal of bringing every company down at every chance they get. To those who do such things, congratulations, you are helping the bankers and other scum to try to destroy Canada's junior and speculative market. The only scam artists around are these bashers who want to kick companies like INT or EKG while they are down even as they try to do what they can to move their businesses forward.

IFR will be the last resource-based stock recommended on TSX Tech News And Analysis. It is apparent that the entire resource sector is filled to the brim with a mix of fraudulent shorting, unabashed greed and lazy management teams that wish to do nothing but collect a paycheque. No matter how much they try to short every company on the TSX Venture, they cannot take away the earnings growth of a company like NCI or the revenue growth of a company like FSW or the technology and partnerships of a company like ZMD. These companies and others have proven that they can fight against the trend of the TSX Venture and actually provide investors and speculators with solid gains. It is the goal of TSX Tech News And Analysis to continue to help people find the hidden small cap gems out there even as the TSXV heads towards multi-year lows. If you are interested in reading up on some strong performers within the TSXV tech sector, have a look at the TSX Venture Microcap Tech Stock Comparison.