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“Solar’s Quantum Leap” Pick from Nick Hodge

What's the "One Device Will Change Energy As We Know It" Stock teased by Early Advantage?

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, November 13, 2014

I very nearly didn’t write about this one for you today, even though I know the solution and the Thinkolator was able to make a 100% certain match to the clues.

Why? Because Nick Hodge shouldn’t be teasing individual stocks with no trading volume and $7 million market capitalizations to his email lists… and I didn’t want to compound that problem by telling a few thousand of my closest friends about it.

But, we’ve made a commitment to treat you like adults here at Stock Gumshoe… and I know you’re perfectly capable of making your own decisions, so I’m going to explain what the stock is that Hodge is teasing. I’m waiting until the market closes to post this article, just in case, but that won’t protect you from yourself for very long, so please don’t rush out and buy this stock without thinking it through very carefully.

So with that disclaimer, what are we being pitched here?

“A whistle-blower named George Howels just released a very sensitive report…

“One that’s catching almost every single solar manufacturer with its pants down, jaw open, and in a state of panic.

“It could also make you a boatload of money over the coming 17 months as the market’s hottest energy sector kicks into high gear.”

And the ad includes several little video snippets of Hodge’s conversations with “George Howels” … and he says that “industry CEOs across the planet are calling him ‘Solar’s Snowden'” because of this “very sensitive report.”

Sounds quite exciting, no?

And apparently this “George Howels” has done this before:

“Following him around to his various projects — no matter how boring or vanilla — in the past would have paid you more money than hotshot investment bankers, hedge fund managers, or risky day traders!”

Those other “projects” included stints at Honeywell and Norsat, and included a big buyout:

“Honeywell paid $600 million to acquire George’s quality control company for the paper industry, called Measurex.

“Of course, George wasn’t solely responsible for all those achievements. Breakthroughs like these involve teams of smart engineers and strong leadership….

“… his ability to make simple tweaks to the quality and consistency of products has helped to revolutionize industries!

“It’s how the share prices of companies like Norsat International launched to outer space… and how Honeywell nearly quadrupled!”

And then the big fat promise:

“If what he recently told me was correct… and the basic math behind it is right… this latest opportunity could be the BIGGEST grand slam that members of my Early Advantage stock advisory service have ever seen.

“The ultimate set-it-and-forget-it growth stock!

“Because of him, not only is the entire solar sector on the cusp of radical advancement, but…

“The one stock that will fuel it all could hand you 11.7 times your money over the coming months.

“Here, let me explain…

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“PVI Report Gives Solar Firms Two Options: Join Us… or Die!”

And he says that…

“This is the very first quality control report ever published in the 60-year history of the solar industry….

“… it’s his handy work that helped to transform the steel industry back in the late ’80s through the early ’90s, when his team at Dofasco came across a patented method to cut nearly 40% of the errors and waste from manufacturing lines.

“That led to Dofasco being sold to one of the largest steel companies in the world for over $5 billion.

“George knows what he’s doing when it comes to forming and exiting quality control companies for all sorts of industries…

“And when it comes to solar, he’s at it again!”

So the basic pitch is that this company has a “unique measurement device” to improve efficiency in manufacturing photovoltaic solar cells — primarily, it seems, because it can help weed out defective wafers earlier on in the process. Nick Hodge calls this machine the “QCM” … but what is it, really?

Well, the product they’re teasing, and that they show in action in the promo video, is the Decima CD, which is an inline measurement device that can be used on a solar cell manufacturing line to scan and monitor the quality of the wafers. (That’s probably not an entirely accurate description, but it’s the basic idea). That’s combined with a control system and software that monitors these sensors on a continuous basis, and they imply that this is substantially better than the existing testing processes that require pulling wafers off the line to test individually (is this true? I have no idea — I’m not going to become a process engineer in an afternoon).

And the company making this Decima CD? The stock being teased is called Aurora Control Technologies (ACU on the Venture Exchange in Canada, AACTF on the pink sheets).

And in case this didn’t sink in enough before, this is a stock trading at just about 30 cents but that doesn’t even fully describe the teensy-ness. The market capitalization of the entire company is $7 million. So it’s absurd, really, to be talking to you about this — people should not buy stock in $7 million companies that just hired investor relations consultants. They’re even tiny compared to the ridiculously small Natcore (the other solar stock Hodge has teased off and on for a few years and also references in his latest ad, that’s the one he calls the “absolute black” solar company), which has a market cap up near $25 million.

Will Aurora Control become a viable company on the back of this Decima CD testing equipment? Will it become a “must have” piece of equipment in every solar cell manufacturing line? I have no idea, all I can say is that it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know much about the solar cell manufacturing process, but there are huge companies in semiconductor and solar cell equipment and testing — the notion that a little startup is going to develop the must-have testing device and sell it and make investors rich is not completely impossible, innovations hit high-tech industries all the time, but you’d have to be a real expert on the business to call the odds on it and make your guess about whether the company’s technology should be worth anything — the appeal of these little companies often diminishes when you understand the marketplace or the competing products, but I don’t have any of that understanding on this one.

There are a few articles out there from investment-minded bloggers to provide some perspective on the company — a SeekingAlpha contributor interviewed one of their executives here, and Discovery Investing posted this look at the company’s potential over the Summer.

In general getting into nanocap stocks when you have no particular expertise on the company and its sector is generally a terrible idea — these companies are hugely volatile, they go out of business all the time, their stock gets manipulated, and it’s important not to let the idea that it trades on an exchange give you any kind of certainty about your ability to trade the stock in any meaningful way or do anything cautious like protect yourself with stop loss orders.

But that said, who doesn’t love a startup and a dream? The “George Howels” who is quoted (and pictured) in the ad is, by the way, a guy named Michael Heaven — he was one of the founders of the company, intentionally following the model of Measurex (the measuring/quality control company where he was VP when it was sold to Honeywell a couple decades ago), and he’s the Executive Chairman at Aurora Control. And he did work at all the other places teased in the ad, in a variety of roles. Right now he’s also the COO of White Water West, a company that makes water park equipment.

And the company itself? Well, as you might suspect for a tiny little startup firm, they’re not making any money and they never have — they’ve been around in this iteration for about three years, since they introduced their first iteration of this Decima product in 2011 (it was covered by a trade magazine here if you want some background). Since that product was introduced they’ve reported about $175,000 in revenue, about $50,000 of it in the last quarter and, before that, nothing since 2012.

They run through something like $300-400,000 in cash most quarters, almost all of it in selling, general and administrative expenses, and they just raised $1.3 million in cash in August in a couple of private placements — so they should have enough cash to get them to the Spring if they keep up their current burn pace. They gave their investor relations consultants 280,000 incentive options at 38 cents in addition to the $90,000/year they’re paying that firm, so they’re probably motivated to get the attention level up — perhaps they even helped catch Nick Hodge’s attention, I don’t know.

I also don’t know whether the general Outsiders Club disclaimer is just overly permissive in saying that Nick Hodge might own the stocks he writes about, or whether he really trades these nanocap stocks while his readers are investing in them, with “secret” teaser picks they generally don’t divulge whether they own the stock because, well, they’re supposedly not telling you the name of the stock. With a stock this small the actual fundamentals of the company almost don’t matter — it’s going to be manipulated by any attention it receives. That doesn’t mean Aurora Control can’t build a meaningful business in testing equipment for solar cell manufacturers — presumably they have a chance, but I have no idea — but any guess as to whether this company should be worth $7 million or $100 million or should disappear into bankruptcy depends on knowing an awful lot about their product and their market… if you’re an expert, feel free to chime in with a comment below and illuminate us, but non-experts are generally not well-served by monkeying around with little companies like this that have no revenue and no particularly understandable timeline toward hitting any sales goals.

Aurora does have an investor presentation up on their website here and factsheet here which you can peruse if you like — the info in them is about a year old but, frankly, the company looks still more or less the same as it did then — they have shipped a few units to manufacturers and have a couple purchase orders, from what I can tell from scanning their press releases, and there is at least some revenue in Fiscal 2015 (no idea how much) that they say they expect from sales booked during the last couple quarter… but I have no idea how long it might take to reach real commercial scale if the initial testing and use of the equipment bears fruit.

So we’ll hand it over to you, gentle readers, to dig into this one, read those exciting SEDAR filings, dig around in your tea leaves to see whether you see a strong future for the Decima CD, and let us know what you think. Enjoy!

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HodgePodge
Guest
HodgePodge
November 13, 2014 5:20 pm

Nick Hodge should stop writing about solar and start examining his own soul. He’s a scammer.

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Allen B
Member
November 13, 2014 5:25 pm

Thanks, Travis, for reminding us that investing in these small companies is strictly speculative. I joined Nick in July believing his hype but nearly all his small companies are down in share price since then. It’s like throw money at them and pray something good will happen in the long term, which as you suggest, is not a good way to invest.

Walter Starck
November 13, 2014 6:11 pm

If every silicon solar cell manufacturer decided this was a must have device for quality control, how many units might they sell? A few hundred would seem likely, a few thousand at most.

Also, how much longer will it be before thin film technology displaces silicon wafers?

Lon Henderson
Irregular
Lon Henderson
November 13, 2014 6:18 pm

Funny thing happened on Street Signs on CNBC today…..they mentioned CAPL and it spiked as the trader herd stampeded. I appreciate you waiting until market close to mention this dinker penny stock, but let us hope that your readers are among the herders instead of members of the herd.
With solar starting to loose some of its glow, the solars should be treated as trades, imho, rather than investments.

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Myron Martin
Irregular
November 13, 2014 6:51 pm

Ironic in a way. I had not read this latest Nick Hodge pitch, but I did receive a notice to-day from Angel Publishing that “I had let my Energy Advantage subscription lapse.” It was phrased in a rather snarky way, but there is no way I would pay $249. for his hyperbole.
I don’t remember the special price deal I originally got, but since they are offering renewal for $59. I suspect it was somewhere in that vicinity.

I agree, Nick Hodge is primarily a “speculator” and tends to exaggerate with poor attention to time frames. However, he also digs deep to find promising stocks and quite a few of his energy stocks have done quite well, but to be fair, when a market rolls over as in the past couple of years the most competent analyst can have egg on his face temporarily. May I suggest that a lot of new or unsophisticated investors are too trusting, lack a feel for the market and do not do their own “due diligence” to be sure that are buying low, they simply “blame the analyst” for their own buying decisions if they do not live up to expectations.?

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Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
November 14, 2014 4:45 am
Reply to  Myron Martin

Wow Myron…..its been so long, I thought you’d retired. Whens your next thread. Weve missed you.

Carbon Bigfoot
Guest
Carbon Bigfoot
November 13, 2014 7:25 pm

Without a change in Thermodynamics, the solar industry is a politician’s payback . Like the bird mashers of wind, the panels are a maintenance nightmare and only work because of the gas generators used to back them.

bobstoe
bobstoe
November 14, 2014 2:53 pm
Reply to  Carbon Bigfoot

From what experience, Carbon Bigfoot, do you state that “the panels are a maintenance nightmare”? I live too far from the nearest power line, so I’ve had solar panels on my roof for nearly 30 years. Maintenance during that entire time, zero. They just sit there and make electricity. I don’t even wash the dust off of them. Rain does that. As for your claim that they “only work because of the gas generators used to back them”, the vast majority of photovoltaic installations these days are grid tie systems. No generators or batteries required. They simply reduce the load on the power grid (and the power bill) whenever the sun shines.

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hipockets
November 14, 2014 5:38 pm
Reply to  bobstoe

Watch what you say, Robert. Carbon might ask for your C.V. 🙂

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sdmaley
December 1, 2014 2:25 pm
Reply to  bobstoe

Any idea how much the power output has degraded over 30 yr. A high-end solar cell mfgr has claimed that everyone else’s degrade more quickly. The following has something along those lines: http://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media-library/white-papers/wp-sunpower-module-degradation-rate.pdf

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Corey
Guest
Corey
November 13, 2014 7:26 pm

It is pretty bad when the newsletter subscription earns these so called analysts more than their trades. I think the money is in the selling suckers on the reports, more than in the stocks themselves.

rogerweske
Member
rogerweske
November 13, 2014 9:07 pm

can u inform your readers about oxford resourses exp on natural gas transformed into gasoline

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REP
Guest
REP
November 14, 2014 12:00 am

This is preposterous. Shouldn’t it ring some kind of bell when a company spends more than half of its annual revenue (plus issuing options) to hire promoters to tout the company’s already-outstanding stock to small investors, none of whose purchase money will go to the company itself, instead of using that money instead to hire salesmen to market and sell actual products to actual customers? Or even hiring marketers to raise further money for the company in private placements? What good can it possibly do the company to spend most of its remaining dollars to pump up the price of already-issued stock, other than to prepare a market of buyers for the insiders and promoters to dump their own stock into?

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Dr Lindsay Sherriff
Member
Dr Lindsay Sherriff
November 14, 2014 1:09 am

If Dyesol(DYE-ASX) follow through successfully on their promise of solar pigment film on glass and metal surfaces,with increased efficiency and capacity in low light compared to the silica based panels,there will be no market for panels let alone a quality control step in their manufacture.They hope to be commercial by 2016-17 so investors like myself have had to be patient!

Alan Harris
Guest
Alan Harris
November 14, 2014 5:00 am

Do they have the patent?

baygreen
November 14, 2014 4:30 am

Does Nick go golfing like someone else when the sun don’t shine, the real winners are the sub pennies kind of like when they lowered the grade of copper in a penny. Sure glad the Gumshoe is not the teaser but the tease finder which has paid off many more times letting us know where the sun rises so we can see if it sets, that’s a compliment Travis and the mighty Thinkolater deserve, much I have learned by just reading and the kicker is when the irregulars do not need that paragraph about loose at your own risk, I have had my share of dreaming at how early I could retire off a penny stock, many times! Kind of like the old finding the acorn not, where else can I give a confession and not get laughed at “Thanks Gumshoe”. I will say that I did get on a penny player last month and it seems to be doing okay but I also sold enough shares to be on the houses money and now it is just hold the breath time but if what I saw was correct that Google and Uncle Sam got involved was my only reasoning and if it does go somewhere it won’t be overnight just yet EKSO if anyone wants to throw rocks in the pond and see how far the ripple goes, Gumshoe and Irregulars are a good team!

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hullevad
November 14, 2014 6:58 am

I agree that solar is only driven by politics. Thorium will disrupt the energy market with kwh price of usd 0,02-0,03 IF “the powers that be” will allow it. There is too much money to be made for both politicians and not least the oil industry. It will come, but not in my lifetime!

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Richard K. Pruett
Guest
Richard K. Pruett
November 14, 2014 7:21 am

As with so many penny stocks, this sounds like a trade that’s highly susceptible to the ole “pump and dump.” I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here, but I’m also not saying it isn’t.

I suppose a temptation with such stocks is to buy them for the initial pump ride up but with trailing stops in order to dump them as soon as the trade turns south. The problem with that strategy is that the stock is so thinly traded in the first place that there’s a strong chance you’ll meet no buyers on the way down, which is often a headlong plunge. I’m wondering if a better strategy is just to wait a few days and then take a short position. Not knowing, I think I’ll just sit this one out.

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ron schumacher
Irregular
November 14, 2014 9:37 am

Thanks Travis for being the most current “mind reader”. I had just read through the pitch from Hodges when I received yesterday’s email from Gumshoe expelling all. Keep it up!!!!

Franklin Wells
Guest
Franklin Wells
November 15, 2014 4:51 pm

Yet another reprehensible and reckless illiquid stock pump by Hodge and the Angel spammers… Buyer beware, as always with these guys. SEC should shut them down pronto.

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Duane
Member
Duane
November 15, 2014 7:16 pm

A QCM is a Quartz Crystal Microbalance and is used to monitor the quality of the vacuum in a vacuum chamber. We have used them for years to monitor the vacuum in the vacuum vessels that we put IR instruments in for launch into orbit. There are a few (not sure exactly how many) companies that make them. They have been around long enough that most people who have vacuum systems (like semiconductor companies) are likely already familiar with them and probably even already use them. This company may have a better one or better software, but a QCM is nothing new.
It is basically a crystal that is vibrated with an electrical signal and when enough atoms or molecules land on them, the added mass changes the frequency of vibration. They are very sensitive, but IIRC, don’t provide any info on WHAT landed there, just how much. Most of the ones we use are called CQCMs, because they are intended for use at cryogenic temperatures, like liquid Nitrogen or colder.

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Duane
Member
Duane
November 15, 2014 8:16 pm
Reply to  Duane

After re-reading the article, maybe they have invented something else they call a QCM.

Brendan
Guest
Brendan
November 17, 2014 8:51 am

I know of another major company (not a small one like this) that has QC methodologies that pick for the longest life and best performance overall of the solar panel. Unfortunately, as panels have dropped in price, big companies who are purchasing them have been unwilling to sacrifice panels as part of a QC statistical sample (once a panel has been pulled for test, the Feds consider it “used” and require it not to be resold again). That has hurt the company’s efforts in this area, as the number of buyers willing to go this route have diminished. They are more willing just to sell as is and reduce the warranty.

Since I know of this information from a good friend, and I myself have never acted on it, I’m unwilling to state their name. But I should state that the cheap price of solar, and the fact that there is a lot of unsold inventory that was produced at higher prices than current panels are being made for, has created a market glut. One big Chinese manufacturer even went belly up (as much as a Chinese company can).

Bottom line – even if there is a device that tests the cell during the manufacturing process (and there are many types of such devices) the industry is in such flux that this new QCM may not be useful for at least a few years. It will probably result in the development of panels that have different warranty periods.

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