Mining Alliance Of Trust: Naked Short Selling, Silver Squeeze And Gold Manipulation - "Regulators To Take Steps Against Short Selling".

Finally, our Mining Alliance Of Trust movement against Predatory Naked Short Selling and Kamikaze Pilots In Junior Mining is getting some support from regulators in Canada. Amplified by Reddit and Twitter investment communities Silver Squeeze movement can open the doors to the Gold Manipulation pandora box next. 

"The Ontario taskforce didn’t recommend bringing back the tick test, but it did propose other substantial changes, including requiring shorters to confirm they can borrow the securities they’re attempting to short, and be subject to a mandatory buy-in if a sale fails to settle two days after the settlement date, or four days after the trading date.

 

The change would effectively end a practice known as naked shorting. Currently, short sellers are only required to have a “reasonable expectation” of settling a short trade, meaning they can short without actually having borrowed the stock – something that can be disruptive if the shorter cannot locate stock to buy back, creating more shares than actually exist in the market. Transactions must be settled in two days, but investors can have up to 10 days in exceptional circumstances." CIM Magazine.

A legally enforced ban on illegal Naked Short Selling must be implemented by all banks, brokerage houses and platforms providing apps-based trading facilities. It will bring a life-changing opportunity for junior mining companies. Dirty banksters are not only stealing our money, they are stealing our future. 

"Avoid flying with kamikaze pilots at all costs. The entry point in any investment will define your success. Always start with people. There are people building business in mining and there are banksters who are "stealing money in mining" and sucking the life out of business. The last thing any real owner would do is to build pyramids of convertible debentures sucking all money out of the company to insiders with a death spiral left for all other shareholders like banksters do. "Drilling through the pockets of shareholders" is the well-known practice, but granting themselves 50 million-plus "bonus warrants" used to be a "no go territory" even for wildest characters from the west who are minting shell companies based in Vancouver, but times have changed. "Life in a big city". 

 

Always Do Your Own Research. Avoid flying with Kamikaze Pilots at all costs. Everything hot, crypto and decentralised will attract scammers like honey attracts flies. Below you can find our Mining Alliance Of Trust 101 Rules on how to cut through all BS (Banking Slang) and separate all flies from your hamburgers. CIM Magazine article provides further update on the situation with Predatory Short Selling and response from regulators in Canada. Do your homework, stay safe and prosper. 

Silver Short Squeeze And Mining Alliance Of Trust: Eric Sprott - Save Canadian Mining, Stop Predatory Short Sellers.

Silver short squeeze idea is gaining momentum and, finally, we have the chance to channel a lot of positive energy and give some real power to the people. We can make the market a better place. The system is rigged, "The Efficient Market" is nothing more than the grand casino served by bought and paid academics and politicians talking on Bubble TV. A lot of very smart people are writing about it already. I would like to return today to our Mining Alliance of Trust movement that started many years ago. Now we have the real chance to change junior mining space and give hard-working people a chance to build their business and prosper. 

It seems to be very logical that you cannot sell what you do not own, as Elon Musk explains to millions in one single tweet. But there are always other rules for banksters. Maybe now it's time for them to face the music and angry people from whom they have been stealing for so many years? Even worse than stealing money they are stealing our future. Numerous companies have been run into the ground just because banksters can do it. We all know when it's stolen, not all of us have enough money and years to spend in courts to prove that life is unjust and unfair for so many. 

Gold and Silver market manipulations have been considered "conspiracy theories" for years until they become the trials in the courtrooms. But not a lot of things changed for real so far. The same banks which paid billions in fines for markets manipulations made billions back manipulating the same markets and continue to master their dirty deeds. Blowing up hedge funds that are facing the Robinhood brave souls can be the louder message this time. 

Even in our small Lithium Universe banksters try to rule and steal everything they can. Our shareholder NovaGold was under attack this year from short-sellers and this saga deserves your separate attention. Our partner Rob McEwen has suffered a lot and McEwen Mining was among the most shorted mining companies. Recent fireworks in the market show the power of real assets value, the strength of solid management and that the tide has changed. We all put our money where our mouth is, we are major owners of our Companies and we all are building businesses. People realise it and, finally, Mr Market gives us all some respect as well.

Chart by NorthStar

I cannot complain, "it just made us stronger". And today I would like to thank all our shareholders for your trust and thank all those who helped our Company to stay the course and survive during the very hard years. On your behalf, I would like to thank our very talented TNR Gold GEM Royalty Team for making this magic happen. 

The Internet has decentralised information, Energy rEVolution is decentralising production, storage and application of the most efficient form of energy known to humans - electricity. Decentralised, free-market access to the fair and transparent trading space without frontrunning, spoofing and other manipulations can not only realise the true market value of Gold and Silver but can totally change the game. Those who work hard and have brilliant ideas can deserve your vote of confidence and your money to invest it into the business to build it and grow. We all need solid values in uncertain times, like Gold and Silver. We need to supply The Switch and rEVolution with Copper and Lithium. 

Everything "free and decentralised" will attract scammers from all the corners of the earth, as usual. Crypto space learned "1000 and 1" ways to scam with a lightning speed of electrons running the show.  Always keep your eyes on the ball. Nobody will make you money. You must be in charge and making your own decisions. Below you can find my contribution with a few simple rules in mining on how to separate flies from your hamburgers.

Avoid flying with kamikaze pilots at all costs. The entry point in any investment will define your success. Always start with people. There are people building business in mining and there are banksters who are "stealing money in mining" and sucking the life out of business. The last thing any real owner would do is to build pyramids of convertible debentures sucking all money out of the company to insiders with a death spiral left for all other shareholders like banksters do. "Drilling through the pockets of shareholders" is the well-known practice, but granting themselves 50 million-plus "bonus warrants" used to be a "no go territory" even for wildest characters from the west who are minting shell companies based in Vancouver, but times have changed.  "Life in a big city".

 

Elon Musk and Eric Sprott amplified by Reddit and Twitter in fighting the cancel culture and going against short-sellers can change the world literally. Gold at $5,000 and Silver at $50 will give a generational life-changing opportunity to the best junior mining companies. The real fortunes will be made. The new secure supply lines for Energy rEVolution will be built. The future is already here, not everybody can see it yet, but megatrends are manifesting themselves. Learn, donate your retweet and share. Do your own research, join The Switch and rEVolution. Buckle up and stay safe. 

The Mining Alliance Of Trust: Eric Sprott - Save Canadian Mining, Stop Predatory Short Sellers.

As you already know, the best game requires the fare rules and strict enforcement of them for the benefit of all parties participating in the market place. Thank you, everybody, who started this extremely important action. Thank you, Eric Sprott, for your support of junior mining investors and companies. We need strong powerful leaders to build Canada into a modern investment hub for real economic growth in the 21st century. 

Return to solid values during uncertain times makes Gold shining bright and Energy rEVolution will power the rebuilding of the sustainable mining industry. We just cannot allow to miss this chance for all the hardworking people involved in our industry. Mining builds. Naked short selling is cancer killing our junior mining space and I am happy to join all these voices to stop it and build a healthy market in order not only to regain the trust of the investors but nurture the new generations of them.

The Mining Alliance Of Trust: Do Your Own Research - Avoid At All Costs Flying With Kamikaze Pilots.

It is time to return to our conversation about The Mining Alliance Of Trust. We have a lot of regulators in place who are helping to police and organise the market place in Canada. You can find them on my Twitter feed. Among others are the British Columbia Securities Commission, Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation of Canada and Ontario Securities Commission. Every investor in junior mining must follow them and subscribe to their e-news. Every junior mining company must follow them and invest in a professional Corporate Secretary in order to avoid costly mistakes and not to build fortunes for lawyers instead of their company.

All regulators in Canada are doing a great job and sometimes they are catching bad actors who are too sloppy, but how many still manage to muddy the waters of junior mining for years? We cannot restore the trust and build up the new generation of investors with the existing system. The hard-working geologists who became Executives of Junior Mining Companies in order to pursue their dream do not have a relevant legal and business education and just words IIROC and BCSC on the letterhead can bring them a heart attack. 

On another hand "smooth criminals" wearing expensive ties continue to find their ways to separate investors and their money with "1000 and one" "relatively innocent scams" - buyer beware. This system is not perfect: the good hardworking guys are spending literally millions of dollars on compliance, lawyers and other red tape requirements while "smooth criminals" are gaming the system and still walking from one company to another in the Bay Street jungle. Retail investors are running in herds from one hot tip to another and losing all their money in the process. 

We can and must improve our market place altogether by amplifying this discussion which we started as our initiative as The Mining Alliance Of Trust. On one side, all regulators must be open to the market participants and help them first and advise how to organise efficiently the trustworthy business in junior mining. They should not just seek to punish those who get caught the first time in the crossroads of some innocent mistakes. On another side, companies must really embrace regulations. Here I must say, that from my personal experience, I have only very positive encounters with all regulators, they are all very open and ready to help. We have to make a few improvements just to make it more user-friendly.

The very simple and helpful idea can be the systematic friendly review of the Companies by the regulators in order not just to find what to punish for, but to help these companies properly present their projects and avoid any innocent mistakes. This system is already in place for news releases with IIROC and I do recommend all companies to use it by sending news releases always to IIROC first.

Another very important step can be done with the new industry standard for Corporate Secretaries in Canada. BRE-X scandal has brought us Qualified Person certifications and NI 43-101. But we will not be able to rebuild the trust of the junior mining industry in Canada and bring the new generation of investors if Vancouver will remain The Wild West of mining. I believe that in order to solve this situation Corporate Secretary must be licenced as Auditors and Lawyers. They must be signing every news release on Corporate Material Information Disclosure as QPs do when it is necessary on technical disclosure.

For example, TNR Gold has our Continuous Disclosure, Confidentiality and Insider Trading Policy approved by the Board and Communication Protocols in place when all our news releases are prepared and approved by Corporate Secretary, signed by QP when required and can be released only by Corporate Secretary after being approved by Executive Chairman. But companies and regulators can do only so much to protect investors. Investing is a job and must be taken seriously, it requires very specific skills, discipline and making your homework every day. Respect your money.

Everybody is talking super-smart during the cocktail parties about investing in mining but many are salivating about speculation and investing in the drill holes not in the companies in junior mining. Respect your money. #DYOR. Do Your Own Research and start with people and their history - avoid at all cost flying with kamikaze pilots. You have very different goals. The Same Boat must be the concept that is checked out first - should you even spend more time on your Due Diligence? 

You can find a lot of very important questions for your DD of the mining companies on the charts on this blog. The first and most important: Who are the principals and major shareholders? Are they miners, entrepreneurs or banksters? How long have they been in the mining business? Are they building the junior mining company or financial pyramid where the average investor is lost in the amount of the different debt instruments and "ticking time bomb of delayed dilution"? How management is treating shareholders? Has the company become the candy store for the "super smart" executives syphoning all money back to them as interest payments, fees and commissions? Is the company diluting existing shareholders like there is no tomorrow just to keep it "as going concern"? What is a business plan? What is the burn rate in order to reach the milestones of this business plan? Have the company become a "drilling paradise" when naive investors are waiting for a golden dream intersection while management is drilling through shareholders pockets - spending all the raised money on the drilling by owned by them geological services or drilling company? 

Does It look like a lot of questions? But we are talking here about your money - does it deserve your respect? The entry point in any new investment will define the success of your investment. Start with people in order to weed out all the ones where you should not waste your time anymore. As Warren Buffett has brilliantly put it: "You can't make a good deal with a bad person", I think that we can Trust him on this one. 

 

CIM Magazine

Regulators to take steps against short selling

Canada is making changes to curb the practice of predatory short selling, a thorn in the side of junior mining companies

By Kelsey Rolfe

April 23, 2021

In the wake of growing concern from public companies, Canadian regulators have turned their attention to tightening the rules that govern short selling. 

Short sellers – investors who bet against public companies by borrowing shares and immediately selling them with the expectation the price will drop so they can repurchase at a lower value – serve an important price-discovery role in the public market and have even unearthed cases of fraud and corporate malfeasance. But experts say Canada’s lax regulations around the practice have allowed “short and distort” campaigns (spreading negative rumours about a company to artificially drive its value down) and other abusive forms of short selling to flourish in the country.

Mining companies have been frequent targets. In the past decade, Silvercorp Metals, Pretium Resources, Asanko Gold and Northern Dynasty Minerals have been caught in particularly high-profile campaigns. Most recently, Novagold Resources sued J Capital Research for defamation in a New York court over the firm’s May 2020 report that questioned the viability of the company’s Donlin gold project in Alaska, a joint venture with Barrick Gold. The miner’s stock took a tumble from roughly $16 to $10.75 in the 10 days following the report and is trading around $11 as of press time.

In January, the Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce recommended the provincial regulator create a new prohibition against “misleading or untrue statements” about public companies to prevent both short and distort campaigns and “pump and dump” (investors try to build up cheaply purchased stocks by spreading positive rumours) schemes. The prohibition, similar to legislation recently enacted in British Columbia, would require the Ontario Securities Commission only to prove intent, rather than causation.

According to capital markets lawyers, regulators already have the tools they need to crack down on short and distort campaigns through existing prohibitions against market manipulation, fraud and misleading statements. But these typically have not been well enforced, and there is no specific prohibition on third parties making false or misleading statements, other than defamation laws.

Paul Davis, a partner in McMillan LLP’s capital markets and securities practice, said companies and shareholders who have been victims of short and distort campaigns lack statutory recourse. The firm plans to advocate for a private right of action that would allow issuers and shareholders to enforce damages against malicious campaigners. While companies can pursue civil action, Davis said, it is “pretty difficult to be successful.” 

While activist campaigns tend to grab headlines, some of Canada’s junior miners are calling out what they call “predatory short selling” that they said flies under the radar, but uniquely affects them. 

Jaguar Mining chief financial officer Hashim Ahmed said the company has been the target of predatory shorting for years. After reporting unscheduled repairs at a mill at its Turmalina mine in Brazil in December 2015, prompting a share-price decline, the company has faced a “cloud of short sellers setting up on our stock.” He reported suspicious trading activity to the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada numerous times but got no traction.

“You’ve got somebody who’s just blocking your share price from appreciating naturally,” he said. “Every time we released good news, our stock price went up a little bit, but it never got appreciation because we knew our short positions were high. A few days later, the momentum of that good news [would] fade away because of that short seller blocking your shares from going up.”

Short selling has not yet directly impacted Jaguar’s ability to raise capital, but Ahmed believes it could be a detriment. “If your actual performance is improving but the stock is being depressed, your investors will have a hard time understanding. You can always tell them… but they may be afraid [that] if they get into that stock they could suffer.” 

Junior miners are particularly vulnerable, he said. The companies are typically tightly held by a few large investors with only some of the stock publicly traded, making it easier to cause price fluctuations.

Terry Lynch, chief executive officer of Chilean Metals and founder of the advocacy group Save Canadian Mining, agreed. Save Canadian Mining has called for reinstating the tick test, a rule repealed in 2012 that prevented short selling on stock that was already in decline. 

The Ontario taskforce didn’t recommend bringing back the tick test, but it did propose other substantial changes, including requiring shorters to confirm they can borrow the securities they’re attempting to short, and be subject to a mandatory buy-in if a sale fails to settle two days after the settlement date, or four days after the trading date.

The change would effectively end a practice known as naked shorting. Currently, short sellers are only required to have a “reasonable expectation” of settling a short trade, meaning they can short without actually having borrowed the stock – something that can be disruptive if the shorter cannot locate stock to buy back, creating more shares than actually exist in the market. Transactions must be settled in two days, but investors can have up to 10 days in exceptional circumstances. 

According to Lynch, hedge funds have exploited the current loopholes by shifting uncovered bets to another company on day 11, extending their time to short. The taskforce proposal, he said, “would eliminate kiting and that would be helpful to stop predatory shorts. If those [recommendations] are put in, we’ll have a good correction in the marketplace.” 

The taskforce also recommended a prohibition on short selling in connection with a prospectus offering or private placement, something that Lynch said is sorely needed.

“What happens when people use their financial muscle to push a stock down that’s unwarranted based on company news, it’s just scaring away other buyers,” he said. “Often these guys will do this in advance of a company’s financing, in particular mining companies, because it’s easy to identify when they need capital. Typically, they’ll know that their drilling program was successful and they’re going to go and raise money, and then they start to sell.” 

Lynch said he is optimistic about the taskforce’s recommendations, but added that the implementation will be key. “Soft implementation won’t be any good. Implementation with teeth would require some skill, but it could be very effective.”