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Back then,
I was living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a sell-side
oilfield services analyst at Salomon Smith Barney in downtown Manhattan. My
life was as consumed with oil as it is now with gold, but I had been working
in the energy sector for seven years, a bit burnt out.
The
75-hour weeks were in my past, due to investment banking saturation, Wall
Street scandals, and the bear market that commenced March 2000. I was already
considering leaving Wall Street, albeit with less intensity than in
subsequent years. In fact, I would have left New York in 2001 if not for
meeting my wife-to-be, who I proposed to at Trattoria
Grosso in Cold Spring Harbor in February, 2002.
Diana and I met through my summer home (rented) in Montauk, Long Island
– my favorite place in the world – and after our engagement, I
decided to stick around New York for a few more years.
Although I
researched all of my personal investments, Salomon Smith Barney assigned each
employee a broker. We were required to keep all our investment accounts at the
firm – to prevent insider trading – and thankfully I came across
Doug Cundey – via an equity research
colleague. We chatted from time to time, but I rarely listened to
recommendations until he mentioned Newmont Mining, which he viewed as
“cheap” at $12/share.
I had
never heard of Precious Metals as an investment class – but given my
growing skepticism of the U.S. economy and dollar, it made sense. I had sold
my ENTIRE stock portfolio in April 2000, and was still 100% in cash in May
2002 awaiting an opportunity that piqued my interest, and this was it. Within
a month’s time, I was 100% invested in mining stocks – perhaps
95%, as I may have held some Central Fund of Canada – and never looked
back.
Anyone
that understands me knows I do things FAST – with great INTENSITY
– and by June 2002, I was printing 50 pages of reading material each
day for the gym and train, absorbing EVERYTHING I could about Precious
Metals; just as I had with Oil & Gas when my hedge fund made its first
such investment – Marine Drilling Company – in April 1996. I
immediately found Richard Russell, Jim Sinclair, Bill Murphy, and Bill
Bonner, and by the time I was finally – mercifully – laid off
from Salomon in February 2005, I was a PM expert and regular contributor to
GATA.
I spent
the next two years trading my personal account – ALL PM miners, mostly
juniors – tripling my net worth and feeling invincible, all from
my small, two bedroom apartment in Port Washington,
Long Island. Simultaneously, I built an enormous Precious Metals database
– seeking to become a sell-side mining analyst – traveling
throughout the country to pitch my idea. I was so desperate to leave New
York, I interviewed in New Orleans (I had lived there in 1998-99),
Birmingham, Memphis, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Denver, but NO ONE wanted to
hire a PM analyst, even five years into a growing bull market.
I was so
disgusted by this experience – to this day, only two
PM-dedicated sell-side analysts work on Wall Street
– as well as the general direction the nation was headed, I decided to
move out of New York and seek my fortunes in the mining industry itself. I
had already been to the PDAC (Prospectors & Developers Association of
Canada) conference in Toronto in 2006, and thought it would be the perfect
opportunity to introduce myself as a mining expert with Wall Street
experience. I returned to PDAC in 2007, and by May, Diana and I were driving
out to Denver to set a new life.
I quickly
found a job as head of Investor Relations at Geovic
Mining, a junior miner based in Grand Junction,
Colorado, and started writing RANTS more often. They weren’t yet called
RANTS, but they laid the cornerstone of my future. Thankfully, Geovic was a stable company, as my personal investments
lost most of the gains I had made in the prior years, initially due to the
peak of the TSX-Venture (Vancouver) stock exchange in April 2007, and
subsequently the vicious Cartel ATTACK during Global Meltdown I, when
I initially realized PAPER investments might not be the best bet,
particularly given my assumption of an upcoming FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON.
I cannot
express the misery I was put through by the Cartel during that period, and if
it weren’t for two fortuitous decisions, I probably wouldn’t be
here writing today. In early 2008, I sold myriad mining stocks to pay off my
house – damned if I was going to let the gold Cartel take away that
dream – most of which have since decline by 75% or more. Additionally,
I invested heavily in a junior called Silverstone at the market bottom in
late 2008, betting a significant percentage of my net worth that it was
rebound.
Silverstone
was the “other silver royalty company,” spun off from copper
miner Capstone Mining in 2007 in the same manner Silver Wheaton was spun off
from Wheaton River in 2004. It was one of the ONLY profitable juniors, well
managed, and down roughly 65% from its year-earlier highs. Thankfully, it was
acquired for Silver Wheaton shares valued at roughly $7/share, and when the
sector took off in 2009, I maintained it as my top position for two reasons –
to reach the threshold for long-term capital gains, and because I was now too
scared of juniors to take significant positions.
By the end
of 2010, I had already converted roughly 30% of my shares to bullion, holding
nearly all the rest in Silver Wheaton. I was now writing regularly for GATA,
and had been nicknamed “RANTING ANDY” by Bill Murphy due to the
content of my frantic emails each time the Cartel attacked. Holding mining
shares does that to you, as lost stock wealth is GONE FOREVER, unlike coins
that GO NOWHERE when the PAPER price declines. I was also tiring of Geovic Mining – whose stock continued to decline no
matter how hard I worked – so I felt blessed when offered an
opportunity to work as a Managing Director of Torrey Hills Capital, the
largest U.S.-based consultant to junior miners, in January 2011.
Initially,
I loved the job, as the people were fantastic and I got to travel a lot.
I hosted client meetings throughout the country, went to all the mining
conferences, visited mines and wrote reports on such, and had my own blog
page for RANTS. However, as the junior mining bear worsened, I finally realized
that the stock market game was over for me. Too much misery, too many
failures, too much hard work in vain. Thankfully I had my home, and that
summer I sold the last of my SLW shares in the low $30s, converting ALL
proceeds into PHYSICAL gold and silver.
At which
point, David Schectman called me out of the blue. I
had certainly heard of Miles Franklin from seeing them on eBay, but had not
yet transacted with them, or heard of their daily blogs. That changed
quickly, as David and I quickly became friends, a “twin brother from
another mother.” When he asked me to join the firm last Fall, he
didn’t yet know in what capacity I would work in – only that
I’d be a good fit.
After
chatting with him and Andy Schectman several times
over a two-month period, we decided that Marketing Director was the way to
go. I’ve now been with Miles Franklin for six months, and
couldn’t be happier. Our firm has been in business for 22 years, with
much of our tight knit team either friends or colleagues going way back. I am
finally being appreciated for my talents, and helping more people than ever
to PROTECT THEMSELVES from the inevitable end of the global fiat
currency system. Plus, I no longer own mining shares, and thus, sleep better
than I have in at least five years.
May 2012
– ten long years later – I have finally found my calling, as
described in my inaugural RANT on October 26, 2011…
My
Goal is to Protect as Many People as Possible from the Upcoming
Hyperinflation
PROTECT
YOURSELF, and do it NOW!
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