100X Returns, 99% Losses, and a New View on Uranium Stocks | Tommy Humphreys

Tommy Humphreys is the founder of CEOca, a Canadian stock-focused website.

This was a conversation about making money, losing money, and learning how to stay away from bad deals & bad people in the junior mining stocks.

More specifically, I tried picking Tommy’s brain on how he invests the money that he made before, during, and after the sale of his website. He told me that the majority of his money is invested in real estate, and that only about 10% of his total net worth is invested in junior mining space. That is because he deems the space largely un-investable.

Tommy is currently holding about 20 stocks, but he thinks that’s too much. Ideally, he said he would like to keep that number around 10. Humphreys also told me that one shouldn’t diversify for the sake of diversification. “You should buy one thing at a time, with not too much capital, and watch that one thing very closely”.

According to Tommy, trying to beat the resource market is not an easy game, and should be approached seriously or not all. That is becacuse, he said, most of the wealth is made by:

– prospectors,
– promoters, and
– brokers.

Timestamps:
00:00 recap
01:10 what did Tommy do with the money from the sale?
07:40 how does Tommy “save” money?
09:10 what does Tommy consider “great returns”?
12:15 is timing the market a necessity in the junior space?
17:59 how much of Tommy’s portfolio is in the junior space?
19:20 can retail investors even compete in this market?
27:40 how do I get founders shares?
31:25 are private placements a necessity for retail investors?
34:30 how did Tommy’s 100 baggers work?
40:40 how can retail investors have an edge in this market?
43:25 how to know who to follow in the junior space?
52:49 what metrics does Tommy look at before buying something?
01:00:15 how does Tommy look at the geology on his companies?
01:03:15 how many stocks does Tommy own?
01:06:40 why is Tommy not invested in uranium?
01:21:20 who really makes the money in the junior space?
01:24:10 what are good vs bad newsletter writers?
01:34:20 what’s Tommy working on right now?

There’s also a bunch of bad deals in uranium though right now there’s going to be the number of that is going to starting probably the bad deals the bad deals can still make you a lot of money too in the short term you know everything should make sense you

Shouldn’t buy 20 names because you need diversification you you should buy one thing that makes sense at a time with not too much Capital that you’ll be W wiped out if things don’t work out I don’t want to poo poo anything most of the space is Untouchable like you don’t

Want to buy this is not where you inherit your family for and put it all into junior resource stocks they’re all they’re all serial serially diluting pigs for the most part with occasionally exceptional outcomes only three times a a resource stock is going up is one if

The commodity prices are rising two if the there’s a real Discovery or three if the Stock’s being promoted there’s not a secret that the greatest amount of wealth in the resource uh sector acres to Prospectors Brokers and um promoters right that’s just a fact that that’s the

Inside all right Tommy humph an aspiring amateur golfer professional caddy as far as I understand it some may say a micro influencer not his wife though h of you’s a founder of a few websites to our beautiful space mostly known for being the founder of um Coca so a message

Board for for addicted gamblers uh so to Gold spawn uh discoveries I believe cold Earth lamp today also a public company they own the northern Miner as well if I’m not mistaken he sold in 2021 for $17 million I believe it was sort of a 5050

Split in shares and cash but both ways that’s a lot of money for uh what a 35 36 year old man at the time what did you what did you do with the money Tommy well the the first thing is we I gave a generous chunk of it to morat the

My partner on and CTO who uh who was the Visionary behind the technology and and he deserved every penny it how much H you can ask him that but pretty good CH like I on the books on the books it was developed like it was a very

Modest thing we started with 2500 bucks and uh you know we um we had it it was owned by my company but uh we did a sort of a reorganization at the at the conclusion before we sold it and put it into a new company and created some

Ownership for mered and there were a couple of of people that helped him that were uh small shareholders as well but what I did with the money uh I’ve been spending it pretty good um I just got back from Disneyland and took my kids there I’ve been

Spending it it seems like man it seems like everything’s getting very expensive and um I don’t know if you feel this way but being on the road I was I just today’s my first day back in the office in two months and being on the road you know spending

You US Dollars it’s like a a dollar 1.4 Canadian and everything particularly at Disneyland is just so expensive and I feel like I saw psychologically I notice like when I see something that seems like it’s value I now feel like I should spend the money because it it just feels

Like inflation is is much greater in reality than it’s reported and that the velocity of money at least of myself it feels like it’s picking up I don’t see I feel like my the the money I have is is getting watered down and well what are you buying then I mean that’s because

You’re buying other stuff not only Disneyland trips well like I got this the sweater a couple days ago I really like it good sweater yeah know I uh I I like to like I I like to save I like to save money and um when Co sold I

Already had uh like this great bull market brief bull market in 2016 but I was like you making content before um in a bare market and and I remember I went around the New Orleans investment Conference in October or Halloween 2015 and there were like it there was nobody

There it was just me and the companies it seemed like and I was making investments in some of these issuers and when the market turned briefly in 16 um I was in the chips for the first time so I I’d been living modestly and created some value in that

16 rush and was involved with starting a few companies that got better and I I used to proud my pride myself and saving most of the money that I had made but um you fast forward uh you know start a family and have children and um you know

Expand your territory and all of a sudden I my yearly uh burn rate is now the monthly and uh it’s showing no signs of slowing down but um I like to enjoy the you know my favorite thing to explore John would probably be playing golf with friends and a golf trip

Somewhere fun um but I like to buy I like to buy real things like real estate or you know something like something like this you know not that this is Big Value but I I like tangible Investments I like um my my aim with most of the the

Value that I created was was just to preserve it the best I could it’s very difficult for uh um it’s been difficult in my experience to get a to get a great return on my conservative Investments so I’m just trying to preserve what I have through a bit of diversification and

Then continue to speculate um with a smaller more aggressive portion of my capital in the resource sector and in Penny Canadian stocks and and that that’s where I’m um that’s where I’m trying to create the return above the average and and um so I’m spending the

Money on uh some you know some some some speculations in small public companies and private companies and asset transfers like you know the the resource spaces like musical chairs these projects are always changing hands and new companies are starting and fading away and I’m I’m trying to pick my spots

With um probably 10% of the capital I have uh used to be 100 in that space But that’s where I’m focused that’s where I’m excited and and when I when I realize a great return there I will probably take it out of the space and

Put it into more real things um and just trying to you know trying to prove to myself that I can do it again and uh and so hope that answers the question if you have a followup I’ll be happy to answer yeah it’s also worth noting that you

Have uh three ladies in your life helping you well actually Four because your dogs feed em too so we and then soon to be F my mother as well and so we got a bunch of ladies helping you spend that money that’s always nice absolutely I have yeah two two daughters under four

And a third daughter on the way and a and a wife and a mom and a dog and everybody’s uh we’re all sharing it um but I’m very fortunate in the family Department yeah well good on you for for making enough to to have to Shear basically what is um what’s the saving

For you because you said you’re a saver and then you also mentioned a great return those are two things that I’m going to need you to Define for you what’s what saving for you is it is it saving like cash on a savings account or

Is it gold or is it what what is it I mean like I I don’t expect to beat the world with my you know with the majority of my Capital I just want to preserve it like I said so I um I originally looked at this website called tiger 21 and it

Was like a survey of of super rich people and I’m not saying I’m that but I found this site when I was growing co.ca I lik the content they were creating have always been obsessed with financial content and tiger 21 would publish a quarterly asset allocation guide of what

Their Super Rich investors were doing so like to join tiger 21 you needed to you have $30 million or something like that and then you’d you’d answer the survey and they would show you how the average rich person has invested of their money and it’s it’s not surprising it’s you

Know commercial real estate personal property big stocks um debt instruments precious metals little bit of Bitcoin um third party fund managers Venture Capital all kinds of stuff so I’m try I’ve tried to model that a little bit and just be Diversified and accept a modest return for the majority of of my

Capital and if you want to outstanding return you have to create a business or take excessive risk to do it so that’s that’s with the smaller uh amount of capital and also like that’s what I’m going to do with my sweat uh my time so what what is an great return for

You well a great return is like you know uh starting this giving Morad a $2,000 deposit check in in 2003 and selling it for $17 million um a great return is um I mean it if like if you I think it’s it’s difficult to expect more than six or 7%

With with safe capital and uh my expectations are low with that but what’s possible with risk taking is um really the sky of limit I mean there’s two different things there’s there’s wealth preservation and that’s what um you know that’s what I’m focused on with most of my savings but wealth creation

Is uh you know is is risk-taking and sweat equity and um you know there could be a a speculation on a on a resource stock that you could make um you know 3 or 400% return in a few months or it could be starting of a new company where

You could get you know tens of thousands of percent returns possible um I’ve been fortunate to have uh a few I think maybe even like five over 100 times return Investments and um and I’ve even had the privilege of of selling some Investments that went on to return that much uh

Before they selling them before they moved so there’s there’s incredible wealth creation possible if you take risks and and you know that um it’s not easy well I know that it’s not easy I don’t know if it’s possible because I haven’t done it yet I’ve heard it’s

Simple but it’s not easy it’s simple but not easy you know well I’m I’m I’m still to see how how realistic it really is or how probable it is but I know that it’s possible sure what you said like you I was like you once like the first the

First five or six years of starting co.ca I had no idea like no no stocks doubled the my first I was 20 years or sorry 16 years of having bought my first stock before I realized my first double like 16 years and I was like pretty

Obsessed with it um and I didn’t know or or believe I kind of believed but then like the sector turns like a like a freight train it’s it’s it it it happens so quickly and so dramatically that um then once it happens to you which I’m certain it will

You’ll be like oh yeah it’s now I have the faith that it’s going to happen again um you’ve heard the quote before the you know the a resource bull market is like pouring a bottle of whiskey into a shot glass and the whiskey just flows all over the table and I think that’s

The case with money because there’s so few good opportunities here but but it it can happen have Fai um up to be there with you when it does it’s also timing right it’s it’s so far because because I’ve CAU well the the worst part for me

And I don’t know why we were talking about me we’re talk we here to talk about you but the wor part for me is that well like for example I caught the uranium bull market I was I was in a very small form in uranium since

2018 but when I really started uh when it when it really started moving and I saw it moving I was like oh this thing is is actually going to move let me just take all the that I have and I had a diversified portfolio at the time let me

Just take everything sell the car sell everything let me just buy into my smaller positions that I have right now on the way up in 2021 and that happened to be the bottom uh the top excuse me I wish it was the bottom it was the so I I

Top ticketed basically I’m still down uh so I caught a good market and I’m still down um so that’s painful and but it it it’s it’s teaching me that it’s mostly about timing and it’s probably going to be the same if I have a good hit it’s probably going to

Be the same on the upside as in selling at the right moment is probably important so I’m I see no that I’ve said on online before like that all all investors start as prey and gradually climb the food chain and every person like for me like I started ceo.ca or the

Sorry I started my career in the resource sector I had a Blog before just was like tommyh hump.com at the absolute height of the market in like January 2011 and um and I think we’re drawn into the space at the wrong time and then the question is if you’re young and

Persistent do you stick around till the miracle happens um I had one of my first um my first uh big bets in the space like it it was you know it was um a large percentage of my Capital more than I should have I was greedy and um and

Within a few months like I think I was down 85% on the position and I was just I got wiped out by it um so you’re not alone in doing that and um and it sort of makes you smarter and stronger and maybe a little bit more maybe you don’t

Sell the car next time and um and and just it’s normal I think yeah and and it’s just fomo uh is a big thing for me we when wife and I bought our first Bakery we overpay paid massively for it we could have paid half but we saw it

And we were like oh somebody else is going to buy it let’s just give them everything that we have right now we just literally gave them everything uh that we had at the time and we overpaid because we thought someone was going to buy it’s going to be gone there isn’t

Going to be any other opportunity like that one and so F bad deal for you what’s that was it a bad deal for you in the end right now it’s working out to like I’m not going to lose money in the end on it I’m actually going to have

Doubled the money that I put into it but really over when did I buy it 2019 to now so what four years a double it’s not horrible um but at least I’m noty you get some you get some income out of it in the meantime yeah for sure but I also

Work you know 12 hour shifts seven out of seven in the bakery and then doing this to the side uh and and oftentimes I’m thinking about what what could this online thing have been had I not done the bakery and had I worked you know instead of doing six hours on this and

12 hours on the bakery doing like 18 hours on this would it it would have been different uh but I have I have lots of those like hindsight theoretical and I don’t know you you will know intuitively what you should do to change if you need to and you can’t you can’t

Turn back and and that’s true yeah but what else you told me 10% Juniors what else is uh where’s the risk of that money we’re trying to track it down here I have like I own the office I’m in I have some uh I have a a I think it’s a

Cool commercial site not far from my office here which I collect some rent and um I am I have some uh larger cap stocks and preferred shares and um I have some investments in uh credit funds and um index funds and I have a another investment manager that I’ve

Allocated some money too I own um a healthy amount of bullion and uh paper and physical and a little bit of crypto and um personal property like that’s that’s my guilty pleasure is this uh houses and uh Renos and um so I have a you know house and a cabin and Whistler

The ski place that we don’t go get to and and uh what else they’re I’m kind of heard that you called Whistler keep la I was hoping you’re going to call it a for what it is a Whistler bike park but go on it’s it’s a great place year round

But I I hate to to report it’s been four months since I’ve been there and anyway uh my my eldest is starting ski school shortly so we’ll be up there every weekend starting uh soon after Christmas we haven’t got the big dump of snow yet

But I’m excited to ski and are you a skier um I I I am an aspiring skier uh but it’s it’s a financial question as well so no I’m not yeah well it’s it’s fun so you know combination of just like personal property the the boring stuff I

Read about on tiger 21 and and Venture businesses and um you know starting some of my own projects and yeah I guess that’s I think that’s where that’s where it all went you but so the bulk of it is real estate that’s what it comes down to yeah I would say um you

Know personal property is not really investment but um you know I’d say I’m fairly equally split between commercial property and and more conservative Securities I think conservative is such an oxymoron like you think you’re taking less risk with larger cap stuff but um returns are so marginal but you know I

Try to balance with um more liquid and less liquid and and you know there’s some real on treasuries now and have have some liquidity in case something comes up like a like the right bakery or something I’ll call you if I do because there’s nothing Pi up expert Insight

Right I’m not I’m just not GNA pick up it’s uh it’s tough no it’s not it’s not as nice as you think there’s a rule of thumb that we employees that for every for every 1,000 bucks in Revenue that you get you get to keep five bucks so margins are pretty

Thin um and and you have to well there’s a bunch of other questions that what we’re talking about I should start a podcast about bakeries um but so what I’m thinking about is obviously that 10% in the genius that’s what I’m I’m really interested in in learning about here and

But but so you’re well connected though and so I’d imagine that helps um especially given that like you’ve already started a uh you’ve co- started a venture with Frank dustra um those high blockchains if I’m not mistaken you you us just been to his house you visited otter billion P Porter Stanberry

Most recently and on and on and on so you know I’m sitting here a 20-some nobody in a forgotten City in a forgotten country like what what do I what do I do next if I if I want to improve my returns on that 10% Junior portfolio and

And like would it even be 10% for you if you were in in my shoes well I was I was exactly in your shoes I was 27 when I started co.ca and uh it was 100% in the resource sector and I and I knew I could

I didn’t have much to start with right I think I had four or 5,000 bucks when I started the site and paid 2,000 for the domain or three I can’t remember exactly um but but being all in in a in a space that’s like that with not a lot to lose

Is a beautiful place to be um the 10% now it’s like I don’t know exactly what it is it it it changes um you know like like it’s not like I have a hard rule but there are different times like right now intuitively I feel like I should be

Scaling up my speculations because I don’t know things are starting to get cheaper and like Commodities seem like they’re doing better Market’s kind of perking up generally I just feel like intuitively I should be leaning in a little bit so I’m I’m I’m more exposed

Than I was um a year ago or two years ago but um you know in 2021 when that market ripped that’s you know like my My Philosophy is generally I haven’t experienced all different Market Cycles but it’s like if if everybody’s rushing into the space that’s when I’m falling

Out a little bit and uh so in 2021 that’s you know that was a incredible shocking bull market where I went from thinking I would be selling everything from covid to what can I buy with the precious metals returns I experienced in that you know that late 2020 early 21 year

So I I think uh you know you plant your you plant your seeds in the depths of the bare markets and you you know you reap your Harvest when when people are interested in the space like that that has worked in the last 10 years um that wouldn’t have worked during the bull

Market of the 2000s because it just kept going and going and I and I have I haven’t experienced like a a persistent Commodities bull market I’ve still done very well everything you know I think you always have to change your approach but if I’m if I’m you I am you I I I

Have been in your shoes and and I had no Connections in Vancouver other than you know my you know my I knew people but not in the resource space I was a web designer but um Frank juer my grandparents lived on his street and they had this little cottage that was 80

Years old and nothing fancy and over a period of 25 years Robert Friedland built this house on there actually he bought one and Frank justra and and I’m I’m sitting there as a kind of a greedy kid and I’m like my God what are they doing for living because like I want

Want one of those and and I certainly can’t afford one of those houses but um that gave me some exposure to it I I think um you know I think you have a hugely powerful platform and and access to people and and a reason to be in the

Space through media because I know because that’s what I did too and YouTube is such a phenomenal distribution channel it’s the biggest platform in the world uh you say you wish you didn’t buy the bakery I say like I I’ve done interviews since 2011 and 2010 and I don’t have one home for

Them the way that you do and I I wish I could go back and put all them in one YouTube channel and one podcast and how big it could have been today could have should have would have but um the reality is I knew nothing and nobody and

I came in and I started making content like you are and it opened every door possible look how many times have you had Rick rule on like people want to people want to share people want to people want an outlet it’s such a niche messed up uh little sector that people

Are desperate for an audience and so you have enormous leverage through making interviews and you know if you if you add value to people like like Tyron for example who’s like incredible this is Tyron Brighton bought from Aris he you know he has been a research analyst and

A he’s a geologist and he’s been an investment banker and you’re giving him a platform do you don’t think he’s going to take your call with an idea or or a question about something that he can give you expertise on and that’s like triangulating relationships and and context about projects through the

Network you’re building that’s that’s that’s why content creation is a superpower in our sector right and I think you know you just keep doubling down on it because uh it’s it’s really valuable like I actually wish I had your channel you know uh but I’m starting I’m

Starting again even though I have uh you know realized the financial um goals that I started out with I I am writing again because this is at The Bigs score.com please uh subscribe you’ll you’ll love the stories um I’m writing again because it gives me a reason to be

Tuned in if you’re like focused on the sector every day as you are then you see everything and you’ve got um a desire to know what’s trending and what’s breaking out and who’s who and so like the more I write the more my phone rings the more

I’m plugged into the space and I think I would be doing exactly what you’re doing I think now moving up the food scale a bit uh or food chain a bit when you know all these people and you know that that um you know relationships and projects like what a

Mining Pro a mining issuer is people projects and capital I didn’t come up with that it’s that’s from Norm keville the founder of founder of tech resources people projects and capital that’s the three things and you know there’s so many issuers that have forgotten projects that that just aren’t getting

Any value and and particularly in larger cap companies um there’s there’s great Advanced projects that everybody’s forgotten about that if they were in a junior would be really interesting I think that’s what Frank guster’s career has shown is like pulling pulling development assets out of like larger companies and building and building

Momentum around developing them I think that’s you know that’s been a his sweet spot but the trading of projects the the expertise that your network can give you and the starting of New Deals like they they I tweeted this morning like up on mystery down on history but you know it

Seems like a lot of speculators rush into new um mysterious deals and like old more advanced known ones struggle in the market but I think a lot of money is made in in this in the formation of new new companies and new ideas and there’s only three things that go into to doing

That and so you know how do you use your your network and your knowledge to to see something to see a pattern or an opportunity that um that others Miss I think that’s that’s where magic lies and you you can do it well so so yes I I

Agree and I’m that’s what I’m hoping for that’s why I’m I’m doing this of course to to for for a bunch of other reasons but of course that that’s you’re attracted you’re attracted to difficult business models exactly yeah you might might need to rethink this I like

Hurting myself that’s why I’m in this space but it’s um that’s not everybody right and I mean not everybody can start create well there’s maybe a wrong statement I mean if you look at the number of channels that have literally started copying that whole model youie the same people have the same titles

Have the same questions or whatever it’s it’s all the same thing so people can copy it but at a certain point you know it kind of gets tiring who will have the staying power right yeah but but what I’m I’m also thinking about regular folks here and like YouTube disappears

Tomorrow and I don’t have it and and and I don’t have any leverage or anything like that can desktop investors even compete though against people you know people getting founder shares that say a millionth of a penny and then listing at a dollar for example like how am I supposed to compete with

People like that uh you can’t beat them join them right like um like the the the the greatest wealth creation in the world is starting a business with people and if you start a business you have founder shares right or that that’s the way it’s structured so um there’s nothing stopping anybody

From starting a business and the returns that acre to those people who start a business are much greater than somebody who’s going to be a passive investor in the public and it’s just a different thing right it’s not a bad thing that somebody founded business and created

Value for themselves um but it it’s just a as a regular investor it’s just a piece of the due diligence of like how’s your alignment with the with the people behind who who started the company like the guys that created coinbase and Uber and everything they had founder shares

And like that doesn’t that doesn’t mean that Amazon shareholders didn’t get rich despite the fact that Jeff Bezos didn’t pay anything for his stock now I’m talking about some real outlier technology businesses but um I created ceo.ca for uh regular investors to have better access to information and I think

It’s the coolest tool for speculators in Canadian Market um we have you know pulse of the message boards and also the insider trading data and the cedar data and the stock charts and we’ve tried to democratize access to information in that space it’s it’s a different um it’s

A different risk profile it’s it’s a different story if you want to be you know the the there’s not a secret that the greatest amount of wealth in the resource uh sector acres to Prospectors Brokers and um promoters right that’s just a fact that that’s the inside of

The business and in in the book fleecing of the Lamb which came out in 1987 it’s it’s very negative but um there’s some great stories in it um I think it was something like 50% of every dollar is Flowing to prosper spectors Brokers and promoters okay so um so like the the if

You want the greatest returns in that space then then you probably want to be one of those people and uh if you if you are an investor in this space then you need to know why why would you suspend you know skepticism for for a specific

Idea or project and you know often it could be like the project or the company is so forgotten it’s so beaten up that um you know you see value in a restart or you see uh leverage in the the price that it’s offered at or the terms you

Can get U you can purchase into it um and and then if there’s a simple Discovery you know you that’s where the great wealth is created in the space Not The Insider harvesting of wealth but the you know the creation of it is when something is found or discovered the the

Only two times um I guess three times a uh resource stock is going up is one if the commodity prices are rising two if the there’s a real discovery or three if the Stock’s being promoted well and um the best returns probably in the middle

Of all three of those right but um well so that’s that’s the whole point that’s it’s about people who are you know doctors lawyers a sawmill operator and they have you know normal jobs real jobs is I like calling them as opposed to podcasting like what do they can they

Compete do they have to participate in private placements for example like is that a must that’s something I talked to someone about today like got our private placement a must in your opinion you haven’t had Nick Germaine on your podcast have you I don’t think so he’s

Mining book guy on Twitter and he’s got a great win this morning osino got taken out it’s like he was blogging about this thing relentlessly at and he’s made five times his money and told everyone about it and Nick won’t buy private placements he’s like no I want to be in the market

With everybody else and so I would say it’s harder but it’s possible and um you know like I’ve been home Minds was like it was given away when I was visiting in 2014 they had huge assets and it was no secret that that you know there was a

Ton of um fundamental value there but the stock was like 80 cents or 70 cents within it was even 65 cents at one point and now it’s 13 or $14 nextg traded for years that it was 22 cents I remember it closed before its Discovery it was

Trading at 40 cents for two years and 50 and 60 now it’s $10 so the s is yes but if you if you um you know want uh great the greater leverage unfortunately these Junior companies are delution machines they’re just constantly issing issuing new shares to fund their development and

It’s very hard to get Capital when there’s U not a lot of interest in the space like right now and so to attract investors they have to give incentive induction to the in private placement investors to give them money so so you know like your average private placement

Investor is is at an advantage to the public market investor because um you know they’re maybe they’re like I think the I think the uh TSX Venture exchange permits a 20% discount to the market price in a private placement maybe it’s 15 um but so you can get a discount in

The market you could get a warrant which give you an additional the right to purchase an additional share if something good happened it’s obviously it’s it’s it’s a big advantage to be in the private license but then you get the disadvantage of there’s a four-month hold uh maybe if it’s a different type

Of financing it can be U life financings now are free trading now but um terms are typically better in the public market but if you’re if the company is preserving its share capital and or has cash and doesn’t need to raise money then Public Market investors can be an

Advantage and they don’t have to um do the private placement process but my typically my my um if I’m being honest my you know most of my allocation to the space is in private placements I think um it’s it’s just difficult to get you know to get a reasonable size uh of investment

Deployed in the market without moving the price and so you know maybe the terms can be better or it’s easier to buy it and um you know I’ve been I’ve been buying into private places recently that’s how I’m like more scaling into the space when did you start though

Because you mentioned that you’ve had five or so uh 100x returns basically did you start exaggerating what’s that I might be exaggerating like there’s three three to five yeah they might be close to it sure but were were the like was that private placement or did you just buy in the

Market never spoke to a CEO just silently in the background those were those were um those were all those were well okay one of them one of them was was the you know the my B starting the business that I did right and so that was my

Sweat another one was called NEX opic um just I sold early but it was a it was a very big idea it was a private placement I think it was a 5-cent share with a full warrant at 10 cents and they had a big idea of developing flat lens

Technology and I really like the people involved it’s not a resource deal but um I put in a small investment I wrote it off I thought I was going to zero and like they got that deal to like four bucks a share and if you had five-cent

Chair with a full warrant at 10 it was like a I don’t know more than 100 bger at the peak um that was a private placement in friends of mine that were starting a business um in the case of like starting Hive which was my biggest commercial success probably we you know

I had I was building ceo.ca I knew the M Junior mining Playbook is like it’s people projects in capital and these little penny stocks and I was like well I think people want to do speculation in in um the crypto space why can’t we do like a junior Mining stock but for

Crypto mining that was the idea and we started that business and um you know that was like a 200 bagger from the that was like a 300 bagger from the bottom to the top and and um you know so that was again was like more of a commercial thing

Um that’s Founders founder I mean Founders shers that’s not like that’s not just not doable for me unless I start something okay it it is doable for you it is you just have to be you know at the ground you have to use your relationships to be at the ground floor

With something new or come up with the idea yourself right but that next opic thing I was talking about like it was it was um it was not my deal I was just a I just was a a friend who was investing in it um so there there have been a couple others

You know like lithium X again my friend started a deal and I was supporting him and that was a you know that was a 260 bger and but I don’t have scale returns like that from being a passive investor but I do think five and 10 times your

Money is POS totally possible like look at ivanho was I’m sure I bought ivanho under 80 cents is $13 I know I bought nextg in the 30s and it’s 950 today so those are very hard to hold I mean I I I’m I think maybe you’ve seen the

Story I tell like Doug ramshaw sent me this piece of great Bears drill Corp and this is this is from the Dixie gold find they sold for $2 billion do well I had Great Bear stock at 10 cents and I sold it for 10 cents right and it went to $33

A share there was nothing precluding the public from buying into that it was 50 cents it was a dollar it was two it was three it kept kept going and kept returning so what thing one thing that I I guess I want to share with you is that

Um in the ’90s all these guys that were building these fancy houses on my grandma Street as she was this little old lady everybody all the rich people moved in um they were involved with one deal there were like a couple deals it was Diamond Fields the Robert Friedland

Voise Bay nickel Discovery and there was also like lion or which came like 15 years later ironically both nickel plays but um if you were in the big deals you had the big outcomes and so I guess I I thought about this like if you were if you’re early investor in Diamond Fields

Like like Frank juicer retired in 1996 and you know the Public’s story is that you know he was since the market was at the top I’m sure there was part of that but it was also because he had just made hundreds and hundreds of times on his

Money on a deal that he he didn’t expect that return and he was absolutely flushed with money and so if you’re you’re in the right deals this sort of cycle defining discoveries and the big stories you get the big outcomes and so how do how does

That happen it’s originally I was like I don’t know how do I make sure that I’m in the next Diamond Fields like how how does that happen because there’s obviously hundreds of deals that don’t work but I I I’m just telling you like I’m um uh very average IQ person who

Doesn’t have a technical background in the mining sector and I wasn’t born with special privileges into these brokerage firms and relationships like my parents had nothing to do with this business and I found myself on I was in NextGen when it was a binder I was beside the company

I was it was created I I had in investment in the deal before they had their Discovery I had the 10 cent stock in in Great Bear I had you know the the lithium X and the hive I had like it it it’s incredible if you’re tuned into the

Space that you will get you will get a in you’ll get a ticket to all these trains and I I I I don’t mean to brag like I like I’m not trying to brag I’m just saying like it can be done if you’re focused on the space and like

Ivanho was hidden in plain sight and uh you know I think I missed the uh filo Del Soul um or the vuna mining District last few years but I’m I mean I I remember Lucas lundine banging the table on thing to me 10 years ago and

It’s if you’re tuned into it you will you will find yourself in the right place in these stories and uh especially if you’re taking small bets and gambling and so if if you’re a regular investor how do you how do you have an edge I think you probably have to you probably

Have to do um it’s I think it’s rare that people that don’t make a commitment to knowledge and uh passion for it it’s probably rare that they get a great outcome I I don’t think like it’s a great place for dabblers um but there’s a million different investor demographics some

People you know some people much smarter than me they are coming into the trend they see this uranium thesis they you know they put size on for for different reasons that I do I’m I’m more like trying to plant seeds when no one cares and support good people and and see

Things see patterns see projects and try to you know like like think about like this like if if you’re talking to one guy and he has a project that’s not getting any value and you know you’re you’re you interview like I just use this this Paul matistic analogy of um he

Was a lithium X executive chairman and he had sold like five or six companies in a row right and the same asset in in the previous company’s hands was worth $2 million but in Paul’s hands it was worth $ 265 and so like the same project in different hands can have dramatically

Different value and knowing who the stronger hands are and having access to them you know you can put these things together and I think that’s where um that’s one place where you know there’s lots of money so I like the the ramsha story by the way I I recently

Interviewed Doug believe he must have been the last video I’ve uploaded something like that but and why I like it is because it shows that even even still you know even getting a deal from a broker or a friend or whoever it might be it’s no excuse for not doing your own

Work your own research right so um well but you can’t do a lot of research like to buy a great bear at 10 cents there’s there was no fundamental reason to do it other than the good it was good people sorry I should say good people in price

It was a bare market and um there were a lot of good people at good prices but but that was yeah that was Doug you know he he reached out to me he said you know do you want to do this and I I had the attitude of like I I’ll I’ll back

Anybody good at an early stage and because it was small ball money it was like I didn’t have any kids I didn’t have any risks and I was just like let’s let’s I’ll try anything I want to if the if it’s an early opportunity at the right price

Like and and I think great Bear’s first funding round was like two or three million market cap but how do you even know I mean you say you would B good people and how how do you choose who to follow in in the sect like I mean let’s

Let’s take Frank juer for example right clearly a very successful entrepreneur he started think from a a movie studio to a blockchain to a bunch of gold miners whatever he’s all over the place he’s giving talks he’s a billionaire what right but you open up Twitter you

Open up even ceoa you’re GNA see all sorts of arguments and accusations against whatever that he they’re all they’re all they’re all well they’re all they’re all true right there are there’s a great there’s great arguments against you know there’s a lot of uh failures in the past of all the icons

In the business and Robert friedland’s have no energy whatever for example or like they’re the resource business is full ofi of past failures and and and that’s why it’s better for for someone that doesn’t have much to lose because once you’re investing size into the

Space is it what it can give it can take away too um no but how do I know that’s the point because if Eric’s spra comes to me in 2021 and he tells me I’ve got this great deal it’s called Red Lake do I follow him uh okay well so West Red Lake

Gold like he was on a podcast in 2020 with the CEO or not the CEO the the chairman Marco day who I think he’s a great guy and I think Sprout’s really cool too and they were on a podcast Meb fa show and it was it was three bucks a

Share and it was a billion market cap and they were singing its Praises because that’s their job is the corporate and the investors is they’re you know they’re they believe it Eric had hundreds of millions of dollars invested in it and um so if you’re around the space you know that the

Management’s always bullish that’s their job right so discount that but what I would have thought about that story is like okay great I mean I I wish you guys well I like these people but it’s a billion market cap like I I I don’t you

Know it’s it’s hard to get a huge return on a potential 100,000 ounce mine that’s already valued at a billion dollars I know that because I’ve looked at all the other small mining operations but when Frank juer bought that mine for $6 million in shares two years

Later uh it’s like yeah I want to try to do I want to try to go on this even though the mine failed it failed for u a number of reasons that hopefully are are going to be able to be overcome um but buying it at on the

Restart um that was more sensible to me because it was it was a pre-money value of30 million bucks or something like that and it had 300 so there there’s just a basic reference point for me it had 350 million doll approximately of of sunk costs in a new Mill and all this

Work that had been done and is trading at 30 million it’s 10 cents it’s a mind for 10 cents on the dollar at the time right um I like buying I like I like I I like when the historical investment is much greater than the current market valuation it may suggest that the

Project didn’t work of course it suggests that the project didn’t work but like Sabina gold and silver I was I was a big supporter of it in um 20145 and you know they had spent 500 million and had a 50 million market cap and they ended up selling it for a

Billion one or something like that um last year or ear early this year it took a lot of time and it took a lot of dilution but this is this is the um you know a project that has a lot of historical knowledge and historical investment that may make sense at a

Higher commodity price if you can buy that right um and the management is protect is committed to marketing the story and preserving the share Capital to the best of their ability then like that can be a sensible speculation historical investment now fast forward Red Lake has gone from 35 cents to 7

Cents and the share account is increased by four times because they had to issue shares to acquire the project they’ve raised $50 million now it’s 100 the stock has doubled but the valuation up four time or the market Cap’s up four times which suggests that as the value

Is growing the shares are growing faster so that’s that’s a you know that’s a concern now it’s 130 million market cap still a long way from when spra no day were promoting at a billion market cap but it’s a different it’s a different investment now than it was at like 6

Million going into it uh 8 months ago I still you know I’m still uh fairly big holder of that story but they they need they need to they need to get the capital that they need to restart the mine and they’re you know on a treadmill of

Um they rised 47 odd million dollars in seven months it’s expensive to keep that concern going and to address the risks of the past and get that mind turned on it’s now it’s in the show me uh show me stage and I think like it was it was

Seemed like Easy Money buying it at 35 and and now I you know I still see a ton of upside in it but it’s that mine has bankrupt practically every company that’s touched it um and most most mines have right it’s also not it’s not a massive mine um

You know like you you’ve had Rick on your program saying like the the big Returns come from the big mines but I think it can be a a good profitable mine and I think if they can prove that if they can prove that what’s on paper in the feasibility studies can translate to

You know a couple quarters of earnings I’m I’m sure it’s undervalued now just getting from here to there um that’s the hard work and they’ve got good people to do it um but it’s complicated and Sabina you know it it it it was 50 million

Market cap when I bought it and it sold for a billion one but the stock was only up like five times and the market cap was up 20 times because there’s delution and that’s a winning story but all the the biggest risk for all these deals is

How much of the company are they going to have to sell to finance its progress and if the Market’s bad the delution is really bad and if the Market’s good access to Capital eases up then you know then the promoters and entrepreneurs behind the deals can thread the needle

But it’s very difficult to be a Buy and Hold investor in the junior space because of delution and um you know I know all the all the company people they want long-term shareholders but the history has shown that it’s not smart to be a long-term shareholder unless you’ve got

One of the one in a hundred Discovery stories that we never know what we’re going to have that case still there’s a lot of dilution but I I want to go back to who to listen to how to know who to listen to not specific names I mean if

You want to throw specific names in there go ahead but and maybe also talk about how much importance to put on that person on that promoter because again we can go back to the Sawmill operator the doctor the lawyer the accountant whoever it might be uh they come back home from

Work they watch an interview or they read a newsletter that they paid for they just want to do something with their money they don’t necessarily have the time to think about the specific deal is it overpriced do the Rock makes sense is the geophysics right the drill

Target’s good is this a VMS or not what is a VMS in the first place I mean who wants to deal with that this there’s not many people who want to deal with that um and they just want to follow someone and sometimes it works out uh but

Sometimes it doesn’t so how do I increase the odds for it working out um for for the odds to be my favor it’s you’re you’re asking like who to follow how to notall I I don’t blindly Take A Tout from a industry person at face

Value I I like I said like a minute ago all insiders and corporate people have a conflict of interest and so we have to Discount their opinion for the fact that they have you know they’re they’re trying to build the business so I’m not going to take any promoter’s message at

That face value I have to discount it and put it together with the other information such as uh what’s the price I don’t mean the share price I mean what’s the market cap how much cash does it have I put it in context with other companies that are like it do they have

A plan to lower their cost of capital to market the story and to you know can they raise money do they have options to raise money with selling a royalty or are there you know wealthy influential investors that will support the company at higher prices I I I have to generate

My own ideas I’m not taking them blindly from other people there are there are a few guys that I you know I do think are super smart and that I will happy to run with what they think is a good idea um but I’m generating my own ideas for

The most part and I take I take each I take each piece of information that I receive and I put it in a in a matrix I mean this is making it sound prettier more more impressive than it is but I I just put them all together in a form of

Decision right what are those uh what are those metrics what else do you look at well like I said I said okay um price is the most important thing right how much is this is the is the stock worth today and and what could it could

Or should it be worth like if it’s pure gold at 100 or pure gold at a billion or west Red Lake at 30 million same assets more knowledge in the west Red Lake thing it’s only two years apart so the price the entry point gives you the most

Leverage right if you pay uh it’s a lot easier to get a 100 bger from a 2 million market cap going to 200 then a 200 million market cap going to 20 billion right it’s like it’s very more realistic that the lower the price the greater return however at the lower the

Price the higher the risk because it’s probably has less work done to it and so number one is price and two is is um is people and do the people have access to Capital and plan and to grow the Share value and do they have um you know do

They have uh alignment of interests are they you know the there’s if you look in management information circulars on on Cedar plus you can see there there’s issuers that sometimes that the CEO will get more money to be fired than he will if he sells the company at the current

Price change of control provision could be greater than the equity incentive so you know alignment of interests um okay so good price good people alignment of interests do they have a plan to market the story because like one thing that’s really changed in the 10 years that I’ve

Been around and I’m obviously biased because uh I you know I’m marketing person but institutional investors now want the companies to Market in the past I was like oh promotion’s bad but it’s like if these companies don’t create awareness for themselves they’re pre-revenue stocks they don’t have um

They don’t have analyst coverage for the most part if the companies don’t create awareness for themselves there’s no market for the shares if there’s no market for the shares they have way more expensive cost of capital the share price goes down and they have to dilute themselves more to raise money so now

You see institutional investors ask the management ask the CEOs what is the plan to market the story so like I want to know that this this company has a story that can spread that’s incredibly important like does the story resonate does the CEO there’s no better story than Ross Speedy’s track record there’s

No better story right so anything Ross is involved with has a message that could spread and you know like if there isn’t a story can the CEO make one that’s compelling enough is he smart on his feet does he have Charisma does he have the desire or she um to get the

Message out credibly and to do it without ruining the share Capital so I I like you know I like to think is this is their story worth spreading and do they have a plan and an ability to to get this story in front of um you know broad

Markets like there there’s so few people that are focused on our business like this is why I really like it is because it’s easy to be a big fish in this Pond there’s I don’t know Luka kav and I were discussing there’s like 10,000 or less people who are paying attention to this

Space like I don’t know how many is coo co.ca covers all stocks and there are millions of people using that site but I don’t think there are 10,000 people focused on the junior space like so do you want to be you know one of 10 million guys buying you know tech stocks

Or 100 million guys or one of 10,000 in this space I think it’s easier to be have Edge because there’s less competition I think that’s that’s fair is also less upside compared to Tech space but um you know that asset quality what’s the history of the a past investment

What are the Fatal flaws how are they addressing them and you know but it all comes back to do I like the people and does it fit in with the price and is there a plan to you know to communicate the story so the reason I was saying the

Reason I said there’s only 10,000 people focused on the space like I just picked that number out of my head it might be blessed but there are a billion plus investors out there right and and if if if an issuer like for example this week last week there was a deal called like

Neotech or Max Tech or something like that my friends run defense medals it’s incredible rarest deposit in BC it has a 40 million market cap they’re not focused on promoting the stock and it’s to their detriment okay but that’s the it there is an area play that’s like near it

That’s now got an 80 million market cap and it doesn’t have the history of work the capability of the team the people that’s not done the development they’ve just got better promotion they’re promoting the story to people that are on the thesis of Rish they’re doing a

Better job of promoting the story than the real deposit next door and this just goes to show like there are billions of investors out there and most issuers don’t know how to reach them and don’t try and it makes a huge difference to your market price whether you can reach

Those investors and now this is like you know this doesn’t last forever ultimately defense is the real one and I unless there’s new discoveries on their ground I don’t know I’m not trying to knock it but I think at some point these things will even out and defense will be

The the mine and I don’t know enough about the other story it’s super early stage but the fact is if a company can tap investors outside of those thousands or 10,000 people that are focused on the junior space every day we’re all tired beat up we don’t want to buy another

Stock but if you can capture the imagination of all the other investors out there your Stock’s going to rip you know and so companies that can do that that’s that’s exciting and that fits into my promotion people price project formula that I’m not inventing I’m just

You know um I’m just uh paring what others have it pioneered before me so right so people asset price access to Capital and then at a reasonable price all of that um so if I come to you with a a billion dollar Explorer no resource yet you’re not immedi say

No I’ll say congratulations there is very unlikely that I would buy it you know but there there are other there’s everybody’s got their own investment criteria and you know um it was smart to buy nextg at a billion market cap now it’s five right and what’s the bill what’s a billion

Market C Explorer today I think it’s like new found gold and you know there’s a big market for it every day because people think it’s worth it’s a lot bigger but like I want to I I I’m more interested in for example Earth Labs not that I’m

Like buying the stock right now I have a lot of shares but um they’ve got a royalty on part of it they’re trading at cash and at a 22 million market cap it’s like that’s a little bit more interesting not that new found isn’t great and could you know do a lot better

But I just like I want to you know I want to be in an earlier stage greater leverage situation and let other larger investors take on right those different how do you deal with the how do you deal with the geology though because I mean you’re not a geologist I’m not a

Geologist titer so I think it’s an advantage that we’re not like I’m I’m just kidding you don’t need to be a technical expert in our space and Technical experts oftentimes um preclude themselves they poo poo things that do work like I we had geologists like real geologists tell

Us that lithium X was a scam and it was sold for $270 million and it’s like one of the most valuable glyi Assets in the world today and like just because one goo says no doesn’t mean it can’t work just because one says yes doesn’t mean

It will so so like I have enormous respect for for technical talent and I call them for feedback on ideas all the time like I want to know about a methane gas project I’m going to call the methane gas guy I want to know about a

VMS like that’s the biggest value of a network is being able to get relevant expert Insight from people but again it’s like I’m taking those into the Matrix of okay does this perspective fit with my thesis but I’m not taking anybody’s word at as God I’m I’m I’m

Making my own call and one thing that’s so valuable about having technical friends is that is that they can just they can give you a nudge about a project like I I had you know Rob McLoud I was like contemplating um doing um the K92 mining deal at 35 cents with the

Full warrant at 45 cents and I was like I don’t know I think like I I was like I think these guys are going to get eaten alive and popping Guinea and and Rob’s like just in one sentence said no that’s a very good project and that was all it

Took for me to write the to do the deal and like it’s a 50 bagger or something like that it was just like one line that I was on the fence about and he said yes I’ve also heard Rob say you know uh there’s a project of interest in that

Portfolio that’s not valuable that’s involved in creation of a new company and I wrote a story about John Mark stouty at a conference once told me oh that asset which was trading at a 700,000 market cap that’s a real project that like just those little tidbits you

I put that into the Matrix I come back and six months later I’m able to participate in that asset and you know I should I should be ma mailing royalty checks to the technical people that gave me those little insights but I find would do you end up with a portfolio

With like 50 stocks in it then in the end no I don’t know exactly how many I have like maybe 30 or so 20 30 maybe less I’d be happy for it to be less but like I’m taking small bets and like like where where where could this thing where

Could something Blossom I am not you know I’m not like you don’t want to advertise like I’m not like that loyal if if I make the money in the stock I’m I want to turn it into cash and pay tax and buy something safe I do so you know you think it’s a

Good number like you said you want it to be less how how how much is how many is a good number uh I don’t know I think 10 10 is probably sensible I like that 10 or 20 like ultimately like the longer end the more files

You’re going to have and you start you know everything should make sense you shouldn’t buy 20o 20 names because you need diversification you you should buy one thing that makes sense at a time with not too much Capital that you’ll be W wiped out if things don’t work out and

You know you have to sort of stay on top of it but um you how long do you normally hold your stocks for uh it depends like you know Meridian mining I’m in this thing for like three or four years and AOS I’ve been in it for three

Or four years uh those are my two biggest Mining stock positions and I like I like them um that’s why I haven’t sold them I in hindsight I mean Meridian ran to a buck and a quarter and I didn’t sell it and now it’s 35 cents and so you

Know I make mistakes all the time and in that case I was close with the management I really like them and so you know the the old you know disloyal sell the stock and move on thing I didn’t do it cuz I like them so much and you know

It might have hurt my objectivity a little bit but um I still think there’s value in it and um sometimes it’s two weeks right sometimes it’s two weeks sometimes it’s four months in a day like I’d like to hold something as long I want to be

At risk I hate being at risk I’d like it to be at at risk for the shortest amount of time possible right um so i’ I’ve got a few exciting things like I I put a post on X a few months ago about uh blue pearl like one thing I

Love reading histories about the junior mining sector and you know there was this story Blue Pearl that was a I wrote a story called like how to get rich in mining without discovering anything and it was about how blue pearl played the mbum bull market and the stock went from

10 cents to like 35 bucks and it was like capturing all the headlines they ended up buying a producing company and they just pushed and kept growing and growing growing and um you know it put me in writing the story which I didn’t know anybody but it put me in touch with

The people who are starting the deal start who started that deal that I’ve never heard of they’re like Legends to me and now I have talked to both of them on the phone the founders and like they have a you a new deal like it they’re

Starting again and like I you know I made that story I met some people I got to P participate in their in their new opportunity and it looks on paper like it’s like a four or five beggar already and I’m super excited about it this is

Just like the power of like writing and making content and seeing more opportunities and meeting more people U but I I have dog dogs all the time too you know newsletter writers don’t really tell you know like to dwell on their stinkers but I I have uh I have made lots of

Mistakes it’s the only thing I’ve ever meet so I’m not I’m not hearing anything about you making your channel wasn’t a mistake building the relationships wasn’t a mistake and there are some things that are intangible yeah it’s a good point and again I agree with that as well um again

Not hearing much about uranium in your deals is that it sounds to me first of all it sounds to me like you have sort of a a bottomup perspective like you don’t start at the commodity level and then spread your portfolio you start with the people asset Capital uh at at a

Reasonable price but I’m not hearing anything about uranium why is it because they’re not at a reasonable price so you not seeing good projects here’s the reason why um I I was uh there’s it’s it’s a long story and it’s to my detriment but um I I was very good my

First picks in co.ca like the site grew on the back of choosing like I was writing about haor exploration before it was taken out and I remember I was like prospecting in the bush in Tim’s Ontario when the take out news came and I was like dancing for Glee even though I had

$5,000 of stock but I had great pulse in aabas Basin that’s the Persian Gulf of uranium and um and when Alpha minerals and fision made the PLS Discovery like my site had co.ca had 10 really cool exclusive articles about what was happening there and the background and

Co.ca was like the place that Mar NextGen was marketed in its first two or three years and I like I remember next gen was a binder and I was really close to that story um there are two things that happened um one the uranium bull market is like you know what what’s that

Phrase about like you know it it’s it it was so it was predicted so much before it happened like we spent eight years listening to you know people call the coming uranium bull market that it was like there was a bit of fatigue like I had interviews about the coming uranium

Bull market in 2011 and 12 13 14 15 16 70 like it’s kind of boring right and and there was so there was a bit of that I was like I’m tired of hearing the same pitch and and then you know I had I had um when you don’t have any Val when

You don’t have any money and you’re totally invested in something like there was there was I had I had some conflicts with people in that business where I was uh fearful uh resentful um uh unfair and and found myself in personal conflicts with some people in that that sounds

Like a story I was just like burnt out of like aabas Basin is a place for Sharp elbows like every we talking about just give me names well the aabas Bas look at the largest market caps in the athabaska Basin right like I don’t I don’t want to

Gossip because I I I feel feel now as a older wiser person like I was foolish but the reality is like when I showed up in the Basin there was like Dev randawa had his Empire and and then like these next gen guys were upstarts and there

Was these these Fathers and Sons that were really cool like the drama there was great but but people were cutting each other down behind their backs and I was like I was part of it I was agitating some of the conflicts in my coverage I had expectations that were

Maybe un fair with with um some of the issuers there but we were so close to the story and I you know I had um I had uh NextGen which was just such a such a great story of this business but um you know Lee career the CEO he he had a

Vision of building a uranium major from day one and he was going to do it through exploration which is absolutely bad but he’s pulled it off and he’s pulling it off and they’ve just done a at the market financing to pay for their Equity component and they’ve got like a

A tier one deposit in a better market fully funded and it’s it’s incredible how far it’s come in the 12 years um but I like I remember when it was just a binder and I met him you know the first time he was in town and I you know I was

I was so invested in that story and I was Marketing in it we went to the site when they had their Discovery I remember like you know stopping Lucas lundine on the on the street on house Street saying good hear about the next gen results and

Like I was so invested in it and what a guy who was uh was very close with me and was working with me went to you know they were they were as they were transitioning into a larger company we were in a position of like give some

Advice to the management and we told um you know my this guy Travis who was working with me we said you know go go work there and he’s you know he’s made a huge Fortune for himself in um in being still there yeah chief Chief commercial officer whatever there but that that

Process of of like I had I just had a lot of baggage in the in the infighting between different companies in the space and I had I had I was doing things for I was marketing the story with expectations that were unfounded I had I ran into some personal conflicts at the

Time with with um you know my expectations with with Trav and Lee which at you know the benefit of hindsight like I I fully understand um you know why that happened and um it’s very cool that it’s such a great success and I you know a lot of value’s been created and

Stocks gone from 20 cents to 10 bucks um and it’s a five billion market cap that could be 10 but that process for me like I was I was burnt out by conflicts and drama and burnt out by people talking about the coming uranium boom and I just

Stopped caring right I stopped I stopped caring and and so I I’ve been underexposed to that sector and uh you know to my detriment I think um you know I I had I had sold some nextg stock at 260 and it’s 10 bucks right and that was

Just because I was like I was just done with the base and I was done with all the people I I I’ve contributed there was a time when I was fearful and I was more um I was more of an and I I um I um I I created some conflicts with

People there which I wouldn’t have done today and um but at the same time it’s like wow it’s so it’s beautiful that you can be there at the ground floor of A5 billion dollar company and it was it was a binder I keep saying it was literally a binder before mean this this

Um there was a property that was a binder that was being marketed in a binder and uh they originally found one group to take over the property then that group reneged and then Lee showed up from Australia and he took the binder and then then Lee brilliantly merged with mega uranium’s

Portfolio and and oh man I got to see I got to go with Warren Irwin and Sheldon innos who is the Mega uranium chairman I guess we were at Arrow the when right after the discovery happened for NextGen and like Sheldon was a co-founder of

That story I mean he had the ground that The Rook one Discovery was and sold it to NextGen because he saw Neil Lee had a bigger vision and other assets and just the way this thing evolved from a binder to one failed deal to merging with a

Shell and taking on megga assets to you know the luck that the the luck that happened was that the Patterson Lake South Discovery was on its border and that happened just as NextGen acquired the ground from Mega there’s a discovery right next door and all of a sudden nextgen’s huge portfolio became very

Easy to focus in on let’s go right next door to where there’s a monster Discovery it turns out it’s even better on nextgen’s ground and uh it’s been amazing to watch that Evolution but at the same time like I you know I I got a little burnt out by everything on it I

Haven’t told you all the gritty details because I just don’t want to I don’t want to dwell and I am I am I am uh what’s what’s the word I am glad to have been there and seen it all um there’s a bunch of new comp there’s always a new

Train Le in the station right well exactly there’s a bunch of new companies though in the in the Basin right now some of them have been started by people who like you left some of the company you’re mentioning here uh because they weren’t happy with the way they were

Treated or the way everything came down there’s a bunch of new companies that have me started so what you’re not seeing any uranium companies that sort of fit your people Capital project at a reasonable price type of strategy no it’s not that um you know I I I I guess

I have a couple like little positions but I I just haven’t I haven’t got size in anything that I’m excited about there are a ton of known projects um out there um there’s yeah there’s a lot of uranium out there and a lot of the projects

Won’t get developed it comes back to the the beasts and the Basin are the biggest priority and that’s what’s going to get developed first and uh I noticed you had Stephen Roman on your podcast he’s a super guy have you ever heard about the story about his dad of course yeah he

Started Dennison his dad’s uranium deals to like they’re just legendary I need to write about it because like it’s just so incredible how like he you know personally controlled Denison and he cut the deal with the government of Ontario to buy the uranium at the price of

Uranium was like 40 bucks in 1972 and now I mean I don’t know was 60 something now um but the price of uranium it’s it’s it’s it’s a weird little commodity it’s not lme traded it’s not like you know copper gold or something that’s just super liquid it’s it’s almost like

The end users are insensitive to the price to some extent and sentiment is is uh changing so like it uranium could have a huge run but I I just listened to people talk about oh uranium boom is coming for eight years and got a little tired of it and you know they’re they’re

I there’s this saying which I promote all the time which is like as the as long as there’s no find the noble Brotherhood shall last but as the piles of gold begin to grow that’s when the trouble starts here now it’s here it’s here but the best assets are already known and

Own unless there’s going to be a new discovery and you know like the people have been fighting in the Basin for for decades and particularly it it’s been contentious and Fierce and um things aren’t I just haven’t seen the right opportunity for me yet and and that

Doesn’t mean I’ve I haven’t been that focused on it because I kind of feel like you know like the best of the best are are known and valuable and um maybe NextGen buys Vision at some point um maybe nextg is sold for some huge number

To you know some oil and gas company or I don’t know I kind of feel like they’re going to they’re going to they’re going to build the mine but um all the other little deposits like what is what is Warren saying recently about it Warren kind of poos the space isn’t

He he he’s got an interesting uh an interesting couple of months in his space because he basically went on a couple of podcasts right around iranium was it around 50 bucks and right after he said that he’s not as bullish uranium took off um so that’s what he’s saying still got

Uranium promote though Warren made a100 million on nextg and if he kept it he would would have been almost 300 right so do do you cry about the 100 you made because it wasn’t three but you know we can one opinion doesn’t make the trade wrong or the that’s the thing was like

Cosos would get so pissed about like a bad comment on co. this guy but like one comment doesn’t make the story one perspective there’s there’s a million perspectives doesn’t take that many buyers to drive a story higher I’ve had CEOs email me after an interview saying

There’s a bad comment on your video do you need to remove it so I mean it happens I obviously don’t remove it but you send you send them the price sheet for the removal that’s a business in and of itself I mean you can joke about that

But you know pay me and I’ll never talk to you or about you and you stay safe there’s probably easier ways there’s probably easier ways to make money you know you to yeah of course I’m joking of course there’s also a bunch of bad deals in uranium though right now and there’s

Goingon to be the number of that is gonna starting probably the bad deals the bad deals are can still make you a lot of money too in the short term is there anything blankly wrong that you’re seeing right now something that you say oh I wouldn’t touch that with a 39 and a

Half foot pole I I like I want to I keep a lot of relationships out here and if you’re too hard on people it creates conflicts and it’s Christmas I want everybody to be happy and um make money um I mentioned the you know that the the defense medals

Is trading at half the area play right next to it like that’s super obvious defense medals is a stronger story fundamentally than the area play that’s twice as expensive but you know the the the the power of marketing can last longer and be stronger and they could end up buying defense if there’s

Currency strong enough I don’t have no idea and they can evolve into new discovery so I don’t want to like I don’t want to poo poo anything most of the space is Untouchable like you don’t want to buy the this is not where you inherit your family fortune and put it

All into junior resource stocks they’re all they’re all serial serially diluting pigs for the most part with occasionally exceptional outcomes um but I I’m a I’m a no to to all stocks mostly in this space like I’m a no to everything and you know it’s like maybe suspend disbelief at certain occasions

But just assume that I would have something negative to say about every stock as would you right it’s true you know you um when we were talking earlier I don’t want to hold you all the uh sound like I’m dripping through topics but when we were talking earlier you

Told me that you’ve got some ho treat secrets uh what was that all about secret I got a lot of house Street Secrets man uh house street is Vancouver equivalent of Wall Street the Vancouver Stock Exchange was on house Street and a lot of mining companies there’s hundreds of mining stocks that

Are within a two block radius of house Street and Pender if there was a Giani kovasovic my buddy used to say like if there was a bomb went off in the in the middle of the junior mining business would be at the intersection of how and

Pender um but you know what is the secret of this space it’s it’s really what we talked about earlier it’s like the pro Brokers Prospectors and promoter are the ones that are you know making the most returns and that’s obvious it’s it’s a business of uh a lot of wealth

Has created starting new companies not finishing old ones um you know there’s um you know there’s a lot of uh uh different interests where you know if if broker promoter property vendor’s objective is to get a large share position in a deal for free or close to

It and that puts them at odds with the you know investing public and you know you you you I encourage people to become industry insiders because it’s a great way to make money but if you’re just a passive investor you just have to know that uh it’s a very

Inefficient um difficult space and uh you’re gambling and um if you are lucky enough to get a nice profit it’s on you to turned into cash I think um you know the business for for Vancouver people is about getting new share positions in promising deals and then selling them into Cash

Turning them into money so finding a management team that you know have uh alignment of interests and you know Integrity like somebody like Zach flood from kerland I think kenland shareholders of which I am one are very lucky to have Zach because he could be enriching him self more so doing the

Deals he’s doing for Kenan but for himself and he doesn’t because he’s a principled person that um I love that guy and you know some some sometimes scams make a fortune for people sometimes scams turn into real businesses um but it’s a yeah it’s a it’s a difficult place and

Um I like it just because I feel like I’m not that bright and it’s a easier place to compete um I have more thoughts on the subject which I’ll talk to you about in a forthcoming interview sure that might interview in and off itself a bunch of

Other things you just like Secrets uh and you said that you have newsletter writer secrets too um yeah I mean I had a newsletter writer friend who I love and won’t him but uh him or her I won’t see who it is it’s it’s him well you’re not giving me many

Names here well there’s there’s um I don’t want to I don’t want to draw negative attention to people but friend of mine told me like okay like a the business of a newsletter writer is is is to create a storefront for cheap stock so like they the a newsletter writer in

The broad sense of Finance is like is trying to create investment recommendations for um the subscribers that grow value for subscribers and but in Vancouver and and Junior resour ource a newsletter is an excuse to get bribed to promote something at a higher price so if if if a newsletter for a

Nefarious person is a storefront for cheap stock it’s like a it’s a it’s a magnet for opportunity like because we all want to get opportunities at the earliest stages at the cheapest prices and you know a newsletter is a is a magnet for opportunities that that may

Mean that a newsletter has a conflict of interest when they’re writing about the deal to subscribers at7 cents maybe they’re in it at 20 or five and so that’s something to look for is just like have is in the disclaimer have they just communicated what price they

Acquired their shares and um if it’s missing maybe you know maybe you can make that assumption because typically deals are started at one or two cents and funded at five and 10 by close Hands and you you’re going to the promoters are going to invite people that can

Support the distribution of the story and help grow the company and so if there’s a problem with alignment of Interest sometimes it’s not transparent another secret of newsletter writers is they you know they there are a lot of great ones that I love but um you know a

Newsletter has to promote its track record and newsletter writers um it’s easy to get lucky in a penny stock right it’s not it’s not like you have to be a genius to pick a five bagger in a penny stock sometimes you just get the market right and it works

But newsletter writers justify their existence by talking about their winners and you know the best label for promotion is research not promotion and you know so these these some newsletter writers are always telling about how great they are how amazing their track record are and they gloss over the you

Know million you know mistakes they’ve made or bad calls they’ve made so just like a management team I you know discount everybody’s opinion and you know I do find that there are principled good people like I I like I like Eric coffin and Gwen Preston I like getting

Information from um as many sources as possible and um putting it into the filter you know well well you mention two news literator and and you should but you should have you should look at the totality of their returns um and and again of the good and the bad deals not

Many not many of them just have a like for examp someone who I interviewed a lot Lobo TIG on here he independent Speculator docomo with broker receipts and all that starting a given point I don’t I don’t know exactly what it was he’s got it all

On the website you can see the winners you can see the losers he has a great track record too right yeah yeah not he’s not a geologist I don’t think or is he no no um but he’s a he’s amazing writer he’s done all the work and deserves it and he’s transparent I

Love his brand and I think he’s a good person um but the point was that now many of them do it so he’s got it um not many of them have a full track record of everything they’ve ever done over the last he his track record here starts in

Let’s see joar Joe maamar does yeah it’s right expiration insights I agree and expiration insights are to probably the the most technically competent people but they’re they’re when they’re technically competent they’re more risk averse and they do miss things because they are and so their actual average return is probably lower than Louie

James’s but they’re they’re they’re going for a more R risk adjusted approach but like there’s things that that Brent cook wouldn’t have touched that I made a fortune on and you know he wouldn’t write up withthi MX in his newsletter but he bought it and did

Really good on it because it you know it has things that make it to their letter have to have more Tech thorough technical due diligence and often times if the technical questions have been answered the price has gone up already so uh again no one’s voice is God in our space and the

Takeaway is like you have to have your own you have to have your own voice and your own opinions and use other information as input SI of the newsletter I find matters too because you’re mentioning um the deal with Joe maum there from exploration insights and

And the thing is that if a newsletter has too much influence sometimes they cannot enter into a deal without you know front running themselves and it seems like I’m promoting Lobo I’m not being paid to do it or anything like that what he does is he would um he would announce uh

Whatever he wants to be buying like a week or two weeks or whatever before he starts buying it so that he can he lets himself be front run by his audience as opposed to the other way around because when you have a big newsletter if you

Say I’m going to be buying that at let’s say a150 you’re basically giving level two data of a whale to to someone and they can see they can basically front run you right and it becomes tricky if it’s a low volume stock the stock is going to well is the newsletter writer

Really an independent analyst or are they a stock promoter right and I think globo is trying to be an independent analyst and he’s trying to make money from his subscribers and his track record is is his skin in the game um but like if I’m you know if I’m a promoter I

Want to buy and I’m calling myself a newsletter writer I’m going to buy it first and then tell the world about it um that’s unique lobo’s unique in that sense it’s a very tough business for a newsletter writer because it’s it’s so cyclical and has his booms and bus and

It’s not scalable it’s easy to show 20 people the opportunity but trying to get 500 or a thousand or 2,000 subscribers it’s impossible to pay the same price because they’re going to affect the price if they’re buying that deal and is if you’re writing it up at $150 if it

Moves to three on the back of your newsletter is it still a buy well it’s a very different fundamental so that’s why real big newsletter firms are not focused on our space anymore because it’s just too risky and not scalable they want to sell Tech newsletter that

400,000 people can buy not this little thing and that’s that’s why it’s inefficient and hard and um that’s why a lot of the newslet writers are promoters yeah that’s a very good point we’ve gone through a bunch of topics I was even thinking about what to

What to name this I have a bunch of bunch of titles for it so it’s been uh it’s been F we should do this again what do you is this something that you came here hoping to talk about but I’m failing to bring up I would I would just

Like to tell people that like I’m very passionate about writing stories about um you know small cap wealth creation on the bigs score.com and I would encourage anybody listening to subscribe to the bigc score.com it’s free there is a premium subscription I’m not doing a ton

On it but I’m I’m not trying to be um a big newsletter writer I just I love like synthesizing Discovery and wealth creation stories from history and telling them in a fun compelling way because it just puts me in the flow of information and everything that I learn

I I write and share and you can have it for free um I’m on Twitter Tommy hump and you know welcome to engage with anybody there and I like you know I like what you’re doing I hope sitick around the space I want to prove that you know

We can win again and hopefully do it together um and any time you want to chat uh again let me know you see You’ write it for free but nothing nothing’s really free they say right um what do you what do you get out of it I mean

What do you do it for your own pleasure or no I I I’m very I mean to be honest like I do it because when I when I sold ceo.ca I I had you know we had hundreds of thousands of people a month on this website I was a center of influence in

The market everybody wanted to I shouldn’t say I’m over saying this but like I had I got a call on a lot of early stage stuff and I was in the flow of information but when I sold the website two years ago you know I didn’t

Have an excuse to be in the business and I um I you know I just felt like I want you know like Porter Sansbury said an interview like I only know one way to work it’s Full Tilt and if I’m if I’m out I’m either going towards my next 10

Bagger or away from it and by writing it’s putting me it’s putting me in front of all my peers it’s it’s it’s forcing me to become a better writer it’s it’s getting me more pattern recognition Okay this is what happened this worked here this project over here this Boom Town

This people you can see stuff from history and bring it to the present and it’s it’s it just it gets me in front of the space it gets me in the knowledge of how these things worked in the past and it makes my phone ring with opportunities it’s like completely self-

Serving and I’m I’m I’m obsessed with it and I I wish I had 35 hours a day to do it because like it’s super fun for me to unpack these old stories not that many people care and uh I want to evolve it I

Want to I you know I want to be a improve my ability to communicate and um I got to practice by doing that but if I don’t write what’s you know what’s my what’s my reason to be right I I would I can you can still you can still make

Money but I wouldn’t be working as hard and it just forces me to be in you know that’s well said it’s a good point so what’s what’s next for for Tommy Humphrey or any anything secret and we’re talking about Secrets here so anything that you’re doing in the background new

Startup I don’t I mean I have I always have uh hairbrain things moving forward testing hypothesis working on new interviews trying to get things off the ground um I what’s what’s more of the same more more storytelling hopefully more compelling early stage Investments I want to create

Content that people value uh and make some money for myself or have another child on the way I want to you know just uh I want to succeed in the space save my soul and have some fun with my friends and peers for the Next Generation or so because um I’m 38 now

And would like to you know it’s fun to work it’s no fun being retired semi-retired I tried it I went to Palm Springs and played golf with the Boomers and got bored very quickly and I I love this space and just you know want to

Find a sustainable way to be in it and benefit when the market gets really good and I sort of my intuition is telling me it’s it’s getting better so there well appreciate you stopping by and we’ll catch up we’ll catch up soon my pleasure thank you Antonio