Grains of Sand
A lot of the time, it appears that timing the purchase of small caps is like trying to catch and hold onto grains of sand in your hand. I was reminded of this during the week by an article in The Telegraph: “I turned £126,000 into £1m – this is how I did it” by Lord Lee of Trafford.
One’s first reaction to this is, of course, “What a jammy so-and-so.” The second, more rational reaction is that there is very little difference between this headline and “How I won Wimbledon seven times” or “How I ran the 100m in less than 10 seconds.” The key here is talent, and most of us do not have enough of it. Socialism has a problem with this, as it negates its basic principle of equality. Hence, it rewards failure and taxes success in a way that is actually nothing to do with welfare.
The 10 Most Popular Funds Held by ISA Millionaires
- Legal & General Global Technology Index Trust
- Legal & General US Index
- Legal & General International Index Trust
- Jupiter India
- Artemis Income
- WS Blue Whale Growth
- Rathbone Global Opportunities
- Legal & General UK 100 Index Trust
- Legal & General European Index
- Fidelity Index World
Source: The Telegraph
Of course, we are promised that if we get the degree, sign up for the courses, services, and books, we will make money. But at the end of the day, it is still just talent. After all, if Lord Lee managed to get a peerage, he must have a talent—they do not just give them away. Normally. The other point to note for bitter and twisted non-ISA millionaires is that when our friend John first became a tax-free hero in 2003, the AIM market was on fire and would continue to be so until the 2008 crash when the authorities moved to kill the market. Seventeen years later, they have succeeded in their goal to remove risk. If you remove risk, you remove reward. Hence, the move to all things crypto and, of course, away from the London market. Let’s see whether any changes to ISAs, especially the lowering of the cash ISA allowance, make a positive difference. For what it is worth, Lord Lee’s current ISA favourites are Anpario, Christie, Cerillion, Concurrent Technologies, and Vianet. And he was generous enough to mention some of the horrors: Dawson Holdings, HMV, Litho, and William Sinclair.
Prime Target
The binge-watching of series has become a modern-day thing, and now that Prime Target has run its eight episodes, I decided to dip in, if only on the basis that it seemed rather more “intellectual” than most thrillers. It centres around a Cambridge graduate’s mission to find a pattern in prime numbers that would allow all computers to be hacked/accessed. What was interesting here is that the lead character, Edward Brooks, could just look at numbers and see a pattern, perhaps something like looking at share price charts and being able to predict them. This is something that I have been working on for over 35 years. I have noticed an improvement in the process, partly from experience (the 10,000 hours) and partly from narrowing down the criteria for a chart buy to as few unrelated triggers as possible. For instance, a bear trap island reversal or an RSI 50 rebound. While placings and profit warnings can always spoil the party, even judging by this week’s stock risers, progress is being made. The problem is that I may not have another 35 years to keep perfecting the process, even though money management is as important as prediction.
Agronomics
Although one limits normally limits one’s reaching out to companies to the virtual domain, the lure of Peterhouse Capital’s legendary hospitality and an interest in Agronomics (ANIC), another successful charting call from last month, meant that I made it to a boardroom presentation at Friday 2pm. This was despite realising that the 2pm time had been set to avoid a platter from Pret A Manger for all. That said, it was pleasing to note how much ANIC has progressed since the last presentation I attended a couple of years back, especially with regard to Meatly, which launched its cultivated pet food last month. Indeed, it would appear that this pet food is purer and more contaminant free than what us humans eat. In terms of the hospitality at the presentation readers will be delighted that one could have consumed as many Agronomics branded biscuits as one liked. I demured, and must say by the end of the presentation was hungry enough to head off to Brentford where apparently the Platinum Dog Food is selling like hot cakes.
Harena Resources
At the end of last month it was announced that Harena Resources (HREE) was coming to market following a RTO with Citius Resources. Harena owns a 75% stake in the Ampasindava Rare Earths Project in northwest Madagascar, and a chunky JORC Resource of 606,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides. While the stock market remains to be fully educated on the merits and used of rare earths, the current drive to build up defence against Russia and China, means that this vital minerals, especially a currently soaring Antimony, will be on the radar. We look forward to the IPO on March 21, and welcome all newcomers to the London market.
This Week’s Risers
It is always easy to highlight companies with strong cash flow, balance sheets, management, and general appreciation, as opposed to those with quite the opposite, and on the back foot. This rather aligns with Warren Buffett’s saying about being greedy when others are fearful. In keeping with the technical triggers described above, Metals One (MET1) was not looking like flavour of the month at 0.2p a few weeks ago. That said, it appeared to be at the floor of a trend channel, and even though it was at a new low, the RSI was higher than before the sharp drop in the wake of a fundraise. Fast forward to Friday, and the shares peaked at 1.14p. It does not get better than this.
A stock that was also successfully picked out recently was Great Southern Copper (GSCU). It has always caught the eye as appearing to be a cut above most of London’s explorers, and this has so far proved to be the case. High copper grades and securing £1.5m in funding have been the result over the past couple of weeks, along with another 42% share price rise this week. I also chatted with CEO Sam Garratt, who clearly knows his onions.
For Andrada (ATM), there have been many false dawns for the company and its share price, not helped by a rather strange approach to communications with the market. However, it should be the case that the stock is finally on its way, helped along by a combination of stake-building announced on Friday from ACAM, the thumbs-up for an earn-in agreement with SQM, and $2.5m funding secured for a tin processing plant last month. The shares celebrated with a 36% rise over the past five days.
Stocks Rising on No News
There has actually been no news from Phoenix Copper (PXC) in 2025, something which has certainly kept shareholders on the edge of their seats, given that we are all waiting on “the big one” as far as funding news is concerned. Given that the shares closed up 31% on Friday, it may be one of those situations where the smoke of a sharp share price rise could lead to the fire of an appropriate RNS.
A technical call in the Bulletin Board Heroes charting video on the rather obscure Catenai (CTAI) on Thursday was followed by a rather pleasing 50% rise on Friday. The best-case scenario target was seen as being 0.32p by the end of next month versus the original 0.17p zone level. It could be the case that CTAI could hit the target even by the end of this month.
Galantas Gold (GAL) has also had no news so far this year. Indeed, we have to go back to the end of November when the group cut losses. Presumably, the shares are squeezing higher—38% off the back of a possible improved update.
Interviews
Although one must really get around to doing those in-vogue TikTok-style videos with flashing lights, jump cuts, and generic pictures of whatever the speaker (like a mountain, or copper, or a test tube) is referring to as they stare meaningfully into the camera like a rabbit in the headlights. One can only imagine how much small cap companies are paying to make them look as though they have stars in their eyes and / or are Kim Kardashian. It is a shame that these vanity projects hardly every translate into people buying the shares. Subtitles are more than enough in general.
This week witnessed three “traditional” journalistic interviews on Zaks Traders Café. All three companies were ones that I have interviewed several times before, and I think this makes a difference as opposed to the usual “tell me about your company” from an interviewer with no knowledge or interest in the stock market. With Zenith (ZEN) we have a massive arbitration play, which for a change has a defined time window.
As far as Blackbird (BIRD), the company is clearly making progress on its SaaS model products, with elevate.io particularly pleasing.
Finally, Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech (CTL) was keen to underline all the heavy lifting the company has done of late, and the drivers for the share price over the near term.
Walk and Talk
Speaking of trendy videos, I am revving up to do those “walk and talk” videos on my life and thoughts, although I am not quite sure whether I am one of only three people in the country interesting enough to pull this off. But then again, this does not put off most people…
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest:
The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
