| To: Pluvia who started this subject | 1/25/2004 8:20:11 PM | | From: Wolff | | | | SEC examines Calandra's Ivanhoe links. Investment guru's endorsement of energy, mining companies has raised suspicion
globeandmail.com
By BARRIE McKENNA
Saturday, January 24, 2004 - Page B3
WASHINGTON -- Investing guru Thom Calandra's enthusiastic endorsement of Canadian promoter Robert Friedland's high-flying energy and mining companies appears to be at the centre of a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Calandra, author of the on-line newsletter The Calandra Report, abruptly resigned Thursday as chief commentator for the CBS MarketWatch website after missing a deadline to hand over personal stock trading records to the company.
Dana Welch, his San Francisco-based lawyer, said the SEC has asked for records of his stock trades, copies of his newsletter and copies of e-mail alerts he sent to his subscribers.
The SEC opened an informal probe into his trading in December after Forbes Magazine raised questions about his enthusiasm for Mr. Friedland's Ivanhoe Energy Inc. and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., she said.
Although a letter he received from the SEC did not mention the Ivanhoe companies, she assumed that the Forbes article was the trigger, she said. "In my experience, that's the way the SEC works. They see something in the press and they look into it."
The article said that "no one applauds louder than Thom Calandra" for Ivanhoe Mines and Ivanhoe Energy, companies with substantial market capitalization but scant profit.
Ms. Welch said Mr. Calandra, 47, is co-operating fully with the SEC. John Heine, an SEC spokesman, refused all comment.
Officials of the Ivanhoe companies did not respond to questions about the inquiry. There was no indication that Canadian authorities were taking action.
"I won't be commenting on whether we're investigating that particular matter," said Ontario Securities Commission spokesman Eric Pelletier.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the SEC probe is focused on whether Mr. Calandra bought stock ahead of news about the companies he was writing about and then sold the stock after prices rose, a form of "pump and dump."
In a Nov. 10 issue of the paid-subscription newsletter, Mr. Calandra said Ivanhoe Energy shares, then trading at roughly $6 (U.S.) on the Nasdaq, would soon be propelled as high as $15 because of projects in Iraq and China.
In the same issue, he readily admitted that he had "exposure to Robert M. Friedland's Ivanhoe complex" and has flown for free to Mongolia, China and London aboard Ivanhoe Mines' corporate jet. He also acknowledged that he owns shares in Ivanhoe Energy and African Minerals, a privately held nickel and platinum stock controlled by Mr. Friedland.
"I paid full price for my shares in the open market, with no company-sponsored discounts of any type," he wrote. "When I sell them is my business because I have every right to profit from my intense research."
In a statement, he suggested that he resigned in part because of the stress of the SEC inquiry. "While it's been tremendously rewarding professionally, it has also been stressful," he said of his eight years at MarketWatch. "And the SEC's informal inquiry adds to this stress. So I've decided to take time off to focus on my family, who I adore. I look forward to the conclusion of the SEC's inquiry."
MarketWatch said it is looking into whether Mr. Calandra may have broken the company's employee stock trading policies. He was allowed to own stocks as long as he fully disclosed any potential conflicts to his subscribers and then waited at least 48 hours before making trades in any stocks that he mentioned.
"We are confident we have appropriate policies," MarketWatch chief executive officer Larry Kramer said in a report on its website. "What we don't know is whether they were followed, and that's what we're trying to find out." He added that the company ordered Mr. Calandra to stop trading entirely two days after he received the SEC letter inquiring about his activities. |
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| To: Wolff who wrote (151) | 1/26/2004 7:32:53 AM | | From: Pluvia | | | | "We are confident we have appropriate policies," MarketWatch chief executive officer Larry Kramer said in a report on its website.
yea, right... what a load of crap. talk about obvious cya... |
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| To: Pluvia who started this subject | 1/26/2004 1:15:35 PM | | From: Wolff | | | | TSC: Ivanhoe Has Nothing to Offer but a Broken Halo
biz.yahoo.com
Was there anything to Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq - commentary - research) besides sponsorship? Is there anything worth owning at $3, where the stock is trading now, that was worth owning at $7?
Ivanhoe Energy has been an investor favorite, trading about 12.6 million shares a day during its surge in fall 2003, a huge amount for a stock its size. When a small stock becomes a market favorite, it's a sure sign to investors that the stock needs more scrutiny.
I took a long, hard look at Ivanhoe last week because I like the oil and gas sector and because I saw it get crushed by guilt-by-association: Thom Calandra, late of MarketWatch.com (MKTW:Nasdaq - commentary - research), had taken to touting the stock, albeit with full disclosure that he owned shares in the company.
Unfortunately, I have come away from my due diligence with a conclusion that won't shock the many vocal shorts of Ivanhoe: There was nothing to this company to loft its shares except Calandra's sponsorship. It's hard to argue that the move wasn't in large part due to Calandra's recommendation.
In my research on the company, I was looking for substance, but came up with nothing but frequent press releases. The company has no revenue and no real prospects, nothing proprietary it could build into a business worthy of the stock's sudden rise. Nothing, that is, except the promoter's halo.
What's amazing about Ivanhoe is that every time Calandra talked it up, the stock miraculously went higher. That is, until Forbes questioned the tie-in between Calandra and Ivanhoe in a Nov. 24, 2003 article, and a determined message-boarder demanded that the MarketWatch general counsel and the SEC do something to stop the reckless touting of a company that seemed more like a press release than a living, breathing entity.
What's so disturbing about Ivanhoe is that the company seems to be run like one of those Munder outfits, rushing to whatever is hot at the moment: synthetic fuels, Iraq and China being the latest themes hyped by the firm.
To me, now that the Calandra-Ivanhoe link has come asunder, this stock is a candidate to go right back to where Calandra found it and began sponsoring it: $1.
But this time, I'm talking $1 Canadian. |
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| To: Pluvia who started this subject | 1/26/2004 1:35:32 PM | | From: Jack Hartmann | | | | Cramer gets his jab in on IVAN.
Ivanhoe Has Nothing to Offer but a Broken Halo
By James J. Cramer
RealMoney Columnist
01/26/2004 12:53 PM EST
URL: thestreet.com
Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq) BEARISH
Price: $3.13 | 52-Week Range: $0.32-$7.55
The company was crushed last week.
Nothing about this company would fuel the gains it has seen.
It's headed back to a dollar, or lower.
Position: None
Was there anything to Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq) besides sponsorship? Is there anything worth owning at $3, where the stock is trading now, that was worth owning at $7?
Ivanhoe Energy has been an investor favorite, trading about 12.6 million shares a day during its surge in fall 2003, a huge amount for a stock its size. When a small stock becomes a market favorite, it's a sure sign to investors that the stock needs more scrutiny.
I took a long, hard look at Ivanhoe last week because I like the oil and gas sector and because I saw it get crushed by guilt-by-association: Thom Calandra, late of MarketWatch.com (MKTW:Nasdaq) , had taken to touting the stock, albeit with full disclosure that he owned shares in the company.
Unfortunately, I have come away from my due diligence with a conclusion that won't shock the many vocal shorts of Ivanhoe: There was nothing to this company to loft its shares except Calandra's sponsorship. It's hard to argue that the move wasn't in large part due to Calandra's recommendation.
In my research on the company, I was looking for substance, but came up with nothing but frequent press releases. The company has no revenue and no real prospects, nothing proprietary it could build into a business worthy of the stock's sudden rise. Nothing, that is, except the promoter's halo.
What's amazing about Ivanhoe is that every time Calandra talked it up, the stock miraculously went higher. That is, until Forbes questioned the tie-in between Calandra and Ivanhoe in a Nov. 24, 2003 article, and a determined message-boarder demanded that the MarketWatch general counsel and the SEC do something to stop the reckless touting of a company that seemed more like a press release than a living, breathing entity.
What's so disturbing about Ivanhoe is that the company seems to be run like one of those Munder outfits, rushing to whatever is hot at the moment: synthetic fuels, Iraq and China being the latest themes hyped by the firm.
To me, now that the Calandra-Ivanhoe link has come asunder, this stock is a candidate to go right back to where Calandra found it and began sponsoring it: $1.
But this time, I'm talking $1 Canadian.
*************
Of course none of his DD was public. LOL.
Jack |
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| To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (154) | 1/26/2004 1:45:20 PM | | From: Jack Hartmann | | | | Some Realmoneyt.com writers thought IVAN was hype before the resignation.
Then there's Crazy IVAN, a Canadian oil and gas driller with negative cash flow and a clouded outlook. Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq - commentary - research) was trading under a half-million shares a day in early June before the hype machine revved into high gear. Within two months, this 45-cent stock was racing higher on more than 15 times its average daily volume.
Once Again, Don't Believe the Hype
By Alan Farley
Special to RealMoney.com
12/01/2003 11:56 AM
Then there's Crazy IVAN, a Canadian oil and gas driller with negative cash flow and a clouded outlook. Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq - commentary - research) was trading under a half-million shares a day in early June before the hype machine revved into high gear. Within two months, this 45-cent stock was racing higher on more than 15 times its average daily volume. One source for the move comes way too close to home: a swing trading newsletter for another publication. Seriously, I don't know enough to judge the wisdom or motives in pushing a sub-dollar stock to a broad and gullible public readership. I do know it's something I would never do because it would seriously undermine my credibility.
Hal Uy
IVAN
11/17/03 03:22 PM ET
I have received several emails about my Ivanhoe (IVAN:Nasdaq) short. This is a fundamental short for me not technical. I am short because of my concerns about company management. I am aware that IVAN is a long stock pick of one of the hottest newsletter writers.
IVAN
11/17/03 11:40 AM ET
I'm looking to add to my short in Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN:Nasdaq). Im planning to average into this over a wide range.
Jack |
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| To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (154) | 1/26/2004 5:46:17 PM | | From: tradermike_1999 | | | | | There is more than meets the eye here. There has been a personal beef between Cramer and CBS Marketwatch for years so I can imagine he gloated a little when he first heard the news of Calandra's resignation. To me this news is no surprise. I've been hearing that the Ivanhoe companies are pump and dumps for several months from people in the mining industry and as time goes on I believe that this scandal is going to get bigger and a lot of other big name gold newsletter writers are going to get sucked into it. If you are a subscriber to Calandra's newsletter and have bought some of the stocks that he has recommended then you need to look at them very carefully. If they are gold exploration companies without any revenues at all you should seriously consider selling them. It may take a few months, but I believe that more dots are going to get connected. The SEC opened up an office in Vancouver during this past summer. A lot of pump and dump stocks trade on the Vancouver stock exchange. Stuff is going to come out. It is just a matter of time. And people are going to get taken down. Don't go down with them. What is going on is huge and I'm going to prepare a large article that explains the current developments over the course of this week and may follow on with an in-depth research report into some of his other stocks picks later. |
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| To: Pluvia who started this subject | 1/28/2004 11:46:42 AM | | From: Wolff | | | | Next Scandal: Reporters?
maxfunds.com
Has the pot been calling the kettle black?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Jonas Max Ferris 01/27/2004
The last few years have been boom times for financial reporters. Finally some consistently front page grade news has hit the dull world of investments.
The golden age of financial scandals started with the collapse of Enron, and has continued with little pause to engulf companies from the energy, telecom, cable, investment banking, mutual fund, and biotech industries, among others. As the widening Parmalat fraud shows, cooking the books is not just a U.S. phenomenon.
Martha Stewart, the celebrity pimp of perfection, has guaranteed financial reporters mass market readership with her alleged insider trading and subsequent cover-up. The media coverage has shifted into overdrive as her trial begins this week.
Sure Martha’s scheme was fairly low on the towering totem poll of recent white collar crime, but then Winona Ryder wasn’t exactly the thief of the century either. People love it when a celebrity screws up, and a reporter’s job is to write words people want to read.
Has the pot been calling the kettle black? The Thomas Calandra Affair.
Late last week Thom Calandra, chief commentator and former editor-in-chief for CBS MarketWatch, quit after refusing to hand over his personal stock trading history to his employer – a company he founded.
The information request was the result of an informal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. An article that appeared last November in Forbes tipped off the SEC to possible conflicts of interest between Calandra and some of the small-cap companies recommended in his now-discontinued newsletter, The Calandra Report.
According to reports and his own disclosures, Calandra owned shares in thinly traded mining stocks he touted. The SEC wants to know if Calandra violated any disclosure requirements or securities regulations with his personal trading.
Every media outlet has their own polices related to stock ownership by reporters and employees, which range from disclosure rules related specifically to stocks they cover to flat out bans on any stock or bond ownership by the reporter and their families.
The reason for these policies is that reporters can move stock prices just as effectively as analysts can. The power (and value) of the pen was made clear in an early 1980s scandal where a Wall Street Journal reporter sold the names of stocks he was about to feature in the “Heard on the Street” column, before publication.
We don’t know what MarketWatch policies, if any, Thom Calandra violated. More of a concern to Mr. Calandra is whether he violated securities regulations by either pumping and dumping stock or trading on inside information.
Pump and dump is the practice of buying (or otherwise acquiring rights to by grant or derivative) stock shortly before touting to the public (generally with a questionable basis for recommendation), only to sell in the ensuing hysteria and upward price movement for a quick gain.
Although rare, it is possible a financial journalist’s own word can be considered inside information based on how past recommendations have moved stocks, and that a journalist trading their own recommendation could be violation securities laws.
Financial media’s stock-trading rules for employees are often stricter that actual securities regulations. These higher standards are to prevent conflicts of interest, both real and imagined, from swaying reporter’s coverage. Such rules, if followed, will also prevent embarrassing SEC actions against employees which reflect poorly on the media that publishes the information.
While most readers want conflict-free reporting, some also want reporters who trade stocks and are active investors, as that brings a certain level of expertise and interest to the table. These can be conflicting goals for readers.
Some media outlets, notably MarketWatch, SmartMoney.com, and TheStreet.com, allow certain commentators and writers to own stock they write about as long as those writers disclose ownership. These media generally do not classify these writers as “reporters”, but as “analysts” or “insiders” or even just “part time help”. Thom Calandra was not held to the same rules as most MarketWatch reporters.
On January 12th CNBC announced changes to longstanding policy regarding stock ownership by employees. In recent years the financial network has made more of a point of disclosing biases and potential conflicts of interest, both by guests and reporters. This is why, for example, Maria Bartiromo mentioned she owned 1,000 shares of Citigroup during a recent interview with Chairman Sandy Weill. The new policy, when effective, would prevent Maria from owning the stock at all.
Those who already accuse reporters of softballing A-list executives to ensure future interviews were not happy to find out reporters sometimes have large stakes in the company and presume interview questions will take a positive tone, “Mr. Weill, how can other banks compete with you in the future given your company’s clear advantages and your own managerial genius, and what do you have to say about the baseless claims by certain fringe elements about conflicts of interest at your world-renowned investment banking operations?”
What are reporters as allowed to invest in as media companies crack down on potential conflicts of interest, both real and imagined? Mutual funds. The newly revamped CNBC trading policy requires employees to get out of individual stocks by January 2005, but mutual funds are perfectly acceptable.
Traditional open-end mutual funds issue and redeem shares each day to meet shareholder demand. This means a reporter can’t significantly influence the price of a fund even if the reporter’s comments drive new money into (or out of) the fund. The fund would issue more fund shares and the manager would take in the new money and buy more stock in potentially dozens of different names. The fund’s new asset value, or NAV, would hardly budge, except in certain rare instances where the inflows were tens of millions and the funds holdings were less-liquid stocks.
Moreover, mutual fund opaqueness over their own holdings makes them almost a blind trust for shareholders – we rarely even know the exact holdings (except for index funds) so it would be difficult for someone to target certain stocks that wanted to own through indirect fund ownership. Diversification rules mean funds rarely own large stakes in any one stock, making any actions to profit from inside information about a fund holding difficult. |
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| To: Wolff who wrote (158) | 2/2/2004 11:26:04 AM | | From: tradermike_1999 | | | | | HUGO is collapsing today on huge volume after a pump press release about their properties...HUGO is Ivanhoe Mines - interesting.... |
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