Still waiting to hear what the c£1m raised on 2nd November related to. If I recall correctly the reference to the purposes in the Chairman's Report was never explained properly apart from a nudge and a wink from AP in one of his interviews which a number of folk appeared to suggest related to Marange but could just have been the increased BPPM costs in BM's report.
Wouldn't quite say it's "great" but, personally, don't understand the apparent amount of shock / surprise on this board at the RNS or the contents. The 20th December Bridging Loan RNS confirmed VAST would seek approval from shareholders to allot the shares in relation to the second convertible and this would be sought no later than 31st January. Two weeks notice of the GM needed so this was always due around now; nothing has really changed since yesterday.
I could probably write a thesis on this subject but would say, in general terms, that it's like any industry: most will stay on the right side of the line; some will flirt with it and a minority will hop, skip and jump over it. Having worked for an investment firm and spoken to a couple of market makers, both were too wary of losing their careers to engage in the more nefarious side of things despite potential opportunities to do so; MMs will be making markets in 20-30+ stocks and most are happy to make their turn on the spread.
Not saying there is no scope for "dodginess" given the way AIM is set up but this can oftentimes be down to the Nomad, broker or private clients themselves e.g. whether that be the broker letting clients open naked shorts or piss-poor attempt at Chinese Walls leading to downward price action prior to raises.
Agree that the opining of "MM games" or "letting mates in" is often down to PIs needing someone / anyone to blame and, more often than not, comes down to a simplistic understanding of market mechanics. (The same people often firmly believe in market maker codes...) If the price moves against you it's usually the natural result of the supply and demand of a quote-driven market with the MMs' focus being predominantly on liquidity.
I could go on about how MiFID II has actually improved the landscape for the PI but I'm beginning to bore even myself now and I have gin calling me.
Mind me asking what percentage of your overall portfolio that initial £100k investment was Losetherest?
Bloody hell, is this really still going on?
Teacup64 - your argument seems largely a semantic one: FAHP posted last night at 8pm that "AP confirmed just today we will get news on both the Marange Diamonds and also T2 soon." - you seem to have interpreted this as T2 should be with us soon whereas most sane people would most likely have read that as "news on Marange and T2 soon", i.e. news on both. Not that T2 is coming but the news on it is.
This interpretation was reiterated in FAHP's post at 21:33 which copied his email and then the "We will do so shortly" after the "Kind Regards" appears to be AP's response to FAHP asking him to update the market on that.
And today news, albeit not the most positive news, has come.
Yes, FAHP can be annoyingly defensive on these boards and certainly overly optimistic but your constant categorisation of the above as misleading is completely asinine. For starters, if someone does invest solely based on comments made by an anonymous individual on a bulletin board then more fool them and they probably deserve to lose their money if they didn't conduct their own research and DD before investing their hard-earned.
People have "lost money" because of VAST's perennial funding issues rather than comments made by one individual poster so, for the sake of the 99% of people who think you're banging on and on and on about something which is largely irrelevant and pointless in the grand scheme of things, just give it a goshdarn rest please.
And, for what it's worth Teacup64, when you discussed the options point, you weren't "shot down" by everyone; some here, including myself, were willing to take your point and engage but, as is our right, decided it was not especially material at this juncture yet you subsequently decided to repeat the same point over and over goodness knows how many times. And you seem to continue this strange strategy with your last "valid point".
I'm not sure if you simply have a chip on your shoulder or have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder or are just trolling away like the ultimate keyboard warrior you appear to be. Either way, your supposed "valid point" has been made and suggest you take your own advice and leave this board in some sort of peace. At least until your next "valid point" which you'll post about hundreds of times no doubt.
Teacup64 - understand the point you're making regarding the potential size of the options rewards. I may be over-simplifying things here but, as far as I'm concerned, VAST wouldn't have the Romanian opportunities it does without Andrew Prelea and, as you indicate, the value of his options will go up if the VAST sp moves up sharply so, in that way at least, Management and shareholders' interests are aligned, regardless of the specific, potential quantum you note.
Having been invested in VAST for over four years, we have seen all manner of "interesting" financing throughout that time: Crede, Bracknor, Darwin, etc and, rightly or wrongly, I'm relatively relaxed about the options arrangements given where VAST has been and where we are (hopefully) going.
At least you didn't convince yourself to hang on to the bitter end here FAHP...
SolihullMike,
Whether Graham- Wales is being purposefully mendacious I am not at liberty to say but yes, he was indeed the main ramper (along with multibagger1) often with tens of posts a day saying very little and instantly denying any alternative views without giving due consideration.
Not sure would so easily label him a "snake"; I'm simply pointing out the irony of his more recent comments that people should have listened when he clearly didn't do the same himself for months on end. Equally not sure he's "secretly complicit"; if giving the benefit of the doubt, he's just another hapless PI whose own biases play tricks on him; there are a fair few on this and other boards after all.
Either way, with 35k+ posts it's no wonder he seems to confuse himself.
I thought it was rather odd too. Looked around at other pages here and didn't seem to be the case.
May well be wholly innocent reason; I did have offline discussion with someone who suggested more nefarious reasons for posts here being archived but will let people draw their own conclusions as the truth is we'll never know for sure.