ECU Silver Chairman and CEO Provides Letter to Shareholders (stock suppression issu)

[prophet]

Quote:
Dear Shareholders,

Gold and silver prices have surged since the beginning of 2011, despite a sharp correction this past week. However, most of the stocks in the mining sector, including both producers and explorers, have significantly underperformed the precious metal price escalation. Many analysts attribute this incongruity to an over-riding investment strategy implemented by many hedge funds in which they "hedge" the sector investment by collectively going long the metal and short the mining stocks.

Beyond this general sector underperformance, ECU's stock also appears to have received excessive pressure from trading patterns which appear designed to suppress the stock price. Management considers this to be a serious concern and is in discussions with legal counsel regarding the nature of this activity and potential recourse.

(...)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ECU-Si....html?x=0&.v=1

[anywoundedduck]

Finally, a CEO of a mining company ready to take action. I am going to send a copy to all of my mining stock's CEO's, urging them to take similar action, up to and including writing complaints to the regulatory agencies. Treading softly does no one any good unless you are willing to follow up with a big stick. (sounds familiar. Where did I hear that line?)

[earplugs]

Until the stock market rigging clears (high freq trades naked shortselling front-running etc) I see no reason to invest in stocks of any kind whatsoever including mining stocks. I know a lot/most people out there are in it for money but not me. **** money jmho

[Goldhedge]

Fortunately, there is Regulation SHO to the rescue!

What Does Regulation SHO Mean?
A regulation implemented on January 3, 2005 that
seeks to update legislations concerning short sale
practices. Regulation SHO established "locate" and
"close-out" standards that are primarily aimed at
preventing the opportunity for unethical traders to
engage in naked short selling practices.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/regsho.asp

[lhslancers3270]

Isn't this issue a favorite pick of Bill Murphy? The conspiracy nuts want to put 2 and 2 together.

[Aussie]

Isn't this issue a favorite pick of Bill Murphy? The conspiracy nuts want to put 2 and 2 together.

Correct. It's been a perennial under-performer for years. If $50 silver didn't lift this dog, I dunno what will . . .

[chris_is_here]

ECU is a dog, like many of the other junior miners, because of its horrible capital structure. These company CEO's fund their salaries with share sales, then inevitably blame the "shorts" for their subsequent lack of performance. I use the "shareholder letter" as a big, red flag for any investment. OTC companies have been using this tactic for years.

Buy the metal and short ECU is what the smart money does.

[Scorpio]

Let's be real,

Look at its financials, it is burning cash, and it lost money yet again last year,

and they are crying about the stock price?

http://www.ecu.ca/pressreleases/2010...0FS%202010.pdf

at the beginning of 2009, they had 242M shares out, which since has expanded to 308M shares

that is a very large number for a really small company,

this one is bound to be a underperformer for a long long time

For comparison, a good company with great production, AEM has 169M shares outstanding,

no conspiracy here, just poor management

S