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“L-2 Indicator: Best for Gold Stocks”

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, January 30, 2008

This teaser comes in from the folks at Stansberry’s Phase 1 Investor service, which is their uber-expensive $5,000 subscription newsletter that purports to find the best opportunities in the smallest stocks.

They have developed what they call the L-2 Indicator that tells them when to buy stocks, in this case gold stocks: “the ‘L-2 Indicator’ is the most accurate strategy we’ve developed to predict the moves of tiny natural resource stocks. And using it, you could’ve made up to 8,800% gains – in a matter of weeks…”

And, for the headline attention-grabber part of the teaser, “S&A’s secret “L-2 Indicator” predicts which tiny gold stocks will jump 80% or more in the next 30 days.”

We’ve run across part of this “L-2 Indicator” before, because Andrew Mickey at Breakaway Investor also apparently uses a piece of it: One of the reasons he picked Bayou Bend Petroleum a few months back was that it had a relationship with a “pair of legendary wildcatters.”

Those “legendary wildcatters” turned out to be the Lundin brothers, scions of the Lundin family and at the top of the Lundin Group, the massive interconnected family of natural resource companies started by Adolf Lundin, the Swedish mega-investor who passed away about a year and a half ago. The group includes several public companies, several private subsidiaries, various holding companies, etc. etc.

But anyway, the letter from S&A for Phase 1 tells us that these same Lundins are, in fact, one part of the L-2 indicator — you’ll probably hear, if you’re interested in natural resources and mining stocks, that “following the Lundins” is a fairly popular activity, sort of like the many value investors who follow Warren Buffett’s picks for Berkshire Hathaway and buy shares of everything he invests in (though on a much smaller scale, of course).

So this is slightly more complex: We know that we want to buy (according to this teaser) after the Lundins buy into a microcap mining or resource company. The teaser notes that these companies typically go up by at least 5-10% in the ensuing month or so.

But they say the real gain, over the long term, comes from buying after the second part of the L-2 Indicator is triggered. And they have a particular gold stock in mind which “recently” triggered this second part of the indicator.

Now, given the large number of companies that the Lundins invest in, it might be somewhat difficult to pin down the exact gold miner being teased here … or to tell you precisely what that second part of the L-2 Indicator might be. But the Gumshoe is game to try!

Here’s what we know:

They give a few examples of stocks that you could have picked with the “L-2 Indicator.” Some, like Tenke Mining, triggered the indicator simply by merging with Lundin companies (Lundin Mining, in this case). There doesn’t seem to have been a second part of the indicator for these guys.

A couple others, like Pearl Exploration, saw the Lundins buying big pieces, then the shares fairly rapidly shooting up (Pearl then spun off Bayou Bend, for whatever that’s worth). Or Valkyries Petroleum, now a wholly owned part of Lundin Petroleum. Not necessarily a second “trigger” there, either, at least not one that I can see in the news or the charts.

So what is this second part? From Matt Badiali, the S&A Analyst for this sector:

There’s one more thing you need to know before buying potentially explosive resource stocks… It involves a certain event in the business cycle of these companies.”


The way I see it, this is most likely to be one of two things:

  1. Actual mining or drilling results.
  2. Change in corporate structure.

Now, given the examples provided, a real answer might require cornering Matt at an investing conference somewhere … but here’s what I see — I’m blocking out this segment of text in case you want to ignore it, it’s long and complicated, and I’ll talk about what my guess is for the “next” L-2 company at the bottom:

They mention Lara Exploration, which had a 7.2% gain “within a month” after a press release, which I assume is the announcement that the Lundins are buying in to their private placement. That announcement was on September 17, so you bought the next day at $1.10. One month later it was at $1.18, which is indeed a 7.2% gain. So far so good.

But they also indicate that you could have gotten a return “almost 7-times as much” in 20 days if you had waited for the second part of the indicator to kick in. So what the heck is that?

I assume it must be after the first indicator, so we’re not dealing with much time. We need something like a 50% gain in 20 days, sometime last fall.

So what happened? Lundin put someone on the board of Lara — but that was October 16, and the stock actually went down for the subsequent 20 day period (though it did spike briefly on the news, it was only a few percent).

And actually, looking at the chart, it appears to me that to get a 50% gain in Lara at any point in 2007, you would have had to buy it at the recent low of 87 cents in early September (pre-Lundin announcement), and sell it 20 days later on October 1 for $1.30 (this is all Canadian, I’m not going to figure out how you could have improved it if you timed Canada/US exchange rate moves, but there weren’t any other stock swings of that magnitude in 2007).

So, in fact, the second part of the indicator must have predated the first if the numerical clues are accurate — what happened on or about September 10 to make you buy at that low, before the Lundins had announced their interest?

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There was no press release. They didn’t change the board or announce any operational results of note. The only thing they did during that time, as far as I can tell, is change auditors and change the name of the company. I don’t know why changing auditors would be significant, since it was a change between two big firms.

And unfortunately, the other company they mention as an example, didn’t have anything as exciting as a name change or a change of auditors on or about the date that they began a month-long 50% gain (or so).

Cornerstone Capital Resources, another Lundin company, is the other example worth examining. They are teased as having a 30 day return of 12.4% after “part one” of the L-2 indicator, which might have been buying the day after the private placement to Lundin was announced, September 18, and selling a month later on October 18 for almost exactly a 12% gain. I’ll accept that.

But they say you could have had a gain of almost four times as much by buying at the second indicator instead. The implication again is that the second indicator is after the first, but again it doesn’t work that way as far as I can tell. Cornerstone did have one period where you could have gotten roughly a 50% gain, a little less, but you would, again, have had to buy before the private placement to the Lundins, probably sometime in late August. Cornerstone did release some news around then, including some drilling results and an exploration deal with Phelps Dodge, but nothing that I can imagine you could have sorted out from the chaff to identify as an “indicator.”

So, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what the “second part” of the indicator might be. I also looked for any high volume days or similar technical indicators — there might be something to buying at the 52 week low, but of course buying at the 52 week low without the Lundins having bought shares yet simply narrows the search down to every unsuccessful mining company in the world.

It appears to me that to get gains like that from the common stock of these companies, you would have had to buy before it was announced that a Lundin-affiliated company was buying into them (in most cases, through a private placement). If any of the readers out there in Gumshoe Land, especially those with some expertise in mining stocks or in the Lundins, would like to respond with some more ideas … I’m all ears. And to the copywriter who put this one together, kudos — tough nut!

But, to throw in at least one guess as to the spoiler, let’s look at what they think is the next great “L-2” play for Phase 1 Investors, which they’ll be announcing on Thursday night.

I assume that it has to be a company that the Lundins have invested in, and the clues are:

It has mining operations in the caribbean and is a gold miner.

The Lundin family trust recently “subscribed for 1,500,000 units.”

Trades for less than $2 a share and has a market cap of about $30 million, so it’s definitely tiny.

The second part of the L-2 indicator was triggered “just recently.”

So what are we dealing with here?

Let me be perfectly clear, I don’t know this one for sure, it’s a guess. And this is a $30 million company, so that means that even the small cadre of Gumshoe faithful could conceivably run up the shares if many of you decided to buy it. Please beware, I am certainly not recommending anyone buy this.

But I think it’s Eurasian Minerals (EMX on the Toronto Venture Exchange, or ESMNF on the pink sheets)

Why? Well, the Lundin family did subscribe to a private placement of 1.5 million shares a couple months ago. The company is primarily Eurasian, but has expanded to mine in Haiti. Trades for something around $1.80 a share and, though the market cap is actually close to $45-50 million, there are 5 million shares in escrow, apparently, that put the “float quoted market cap” at under $40 million according to the Toronto Exchange. So, that part’s perhaps a bit of a stretch.

Anyone else want to take a gander at this one? Again, I don’t see what the “second indicator” is likely to have been, it was announced that the Lundin family bought in back in early September (and the shares did spike a bit on the news, though they remained well off their Summer highs). Since then, the news has been pretty much entirely composed of drilling results from their gold mines in Haiti, Turkey, and the Kyrgyz Republic. I don’t know enough to tell you whether those results have any particular significance.

On the plus side, though, EMX is still higher than it was when the Lundins bought in, if only by a bit. The other two examples have fallen way down since the brief highs following the Lundin buys, though, to be fair, this is supposed to be a “next 12 months” indicator.

So … anyone else have anything to add on this “L-2 Indicator?” Sorry I can’t provide a definitive result, but at least I’ve probably overwhelmed you with a voluminous amount of text, signifying nothing. I promise, I’ll send you a simpler one with a simple answer next time!

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Just a guy
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Just a guy
January 31, 2008 8:28 am

Interesting, I was also curious about the L-2 indicator. I get the Stansberry Research blurbs every day and was curious about the L-2.
Another publication put out by Stansberry Research is a gold newsletter that says that the best companies to own are “prospect generators” that don’t do the actual mining, they just prospect.

And the Lundins come up in this scenario, in fact, when I saw that they had dealings with Eurasian, I bought a small amount of shares.
And recently, after languishing for months, they have started coming to life, so you may well be right.

As for the L-2, I tried looking for Lundin fingerprints at insider trading sites, that track that activity, as well as another site that tracks “gurus” and their purchases, but didn’t come up with much.

As it is, Lundin Mining is just bouncing off its lows. As for Phaase I investor, I sleuthed out several of their ideas, one touted a stock that basically cured Alzheimers with a Chinese herb that the company is using to create a prescription drug.

I think that is a questionable strategy and in the case of the stock, doesn’t seem to have worked at least so far.

So these newsletters that charge $5000 or even $500 are no less fallible than anything esle. They can be a very profitable investment though–if you are the newsletter company that rakes in hundreds of thousands when people buy into them.

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Just a guy
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Just a guy
January 31, 2008 10:04 am

I just remembered that Lukas Lundin is also Chairman of Canadian Goldhunter, pink sheets CGHLF, and has a Canadian listing too which I don’t know. That stock has also been listless for quite awhile. I own shares in that one too, based on the Lundin name.
As for the L-2 indicator and its purported ability to indicate a quick runup in price, who knows? I am not very confident in such claims. Indeed. if Lundin is the Chairman of Canadian Goldhunter, why hasn’t the stock jumped? Well , it in fact did jump from 50 cents to over $2 but that was between 2005 and May 2007, and since then has drifted down. Well maybe the L-2 indicator is flashing and we just don’t know.

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Paul Autin
Guest
January 31, 2008 10:24 am

In the regular mail I have been getting a lot of advertisement about:
“CCW: A LOW-RISK CASH FLOW MONEY MACHINE.” The persons name is Terry Walker. The whole just is to order a book (title stated above) for $49 + $5 (psh) = a total of $54.

The whold just is the book offers the CCW system to have 9 out 0f 10 trades as winners, along with other items.

The offer is thru Tradewins, 375 Stewart Road, P.O. Box 1010, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18703-1010.

Seems TO GOOD TO BE TRUE………….
Usually is Not True

MANY THNAKS
Paul Autin
autintrader

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Rick Wilson
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Rick Wilson
January 31, 2008 10:30 am

ANY LINKS THAT YOU COULD PROVIDE TO TRACK lUNDIN BUYING ACTIVITY WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

brenda
brenda
January 31, 2008 10:55 am

Hi Rick. The Lundin’s don’t necessarily publicize their activity, and have a lot of public and private vehicles for making acquisitions, so it’s very hard to do this. Probably the easiest way is a search of a good news site for the keyword Lundin and sort your way through the chaff, but you’ll also get all the recommendations from a newsletter editor named Lundin (who is not related to the Lundin Group as far as I know). Generally the company that is placing shares with the Lundins will announce that a group affiliated with the Lundins has bought shares, but the Lundins themselves will not announce it. I usually use Factiva for this, but it’s not free.

Alternatively, you could track all the filings from some of the Lundin companies, like Lundin Mining, through SEDAR (the Canadian version of EDGAR for public company filings) — again, time intensive and this particular one, Eurasian, would not have come up because the purchase was by a Lundin family-owned private group, not by one of their public entities. If the Lundin watchers out there have better ideas, I’m sure we’d all be happy to hear them.

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G IMBURG
Guest
G IMBURG
January 31, 2008 11:47 am

I notice that newsletters join a market bandwagon after a particular sector has recently made a big upside move. I personaly am skeptical of making trades based upon insider connected knowledge. In the case of gold which I recently posted, its my belief that global inflation and dollar deflation is driving the price action and as hedge funds and other pros seek protections against a percieved recession,the market psycology will lead to more gold upside. Historically, the dollar has been the universal reserve currency by the central banks,but as the dollar seeks new lows,banks start increasing their gold reserves and stop selling it. This and other factors affect supply and demand. Gold is often referred to as the only true currency and this concept is as old as time. Most commodities are dollar denominated.In times of severe inflation,the dollar weakens as countries print more money to combat related problems like lowering interest rates and provide liquidity to a floundering banking system to keep banks and business alive. The problem is acute at this time in the U.S. Moreover,the rapid growth of BRIC nations may lead to severe inflation worldwide. If these problems accelerate,gold will go well over $1000 an ounce. Just thought I would put the current gold rush into perspective.

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donk.kon
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donk.kon
January 31, 2008 5:24 pm

Is this the same Lundin Mining with the heavy 01.31.08 news ?

• UPDATE – Lundin to restate profit lower, shares sink
at Reuters (Thu 11:20am)
• Lundin Mining to Restate Financial Statements
Marketwire (Thu 2:30am)

Just a guy
Guest
Just a guy
January 31, 2008 10:19 pm

I just notice that Eurasian Minerals is up over 12% in yesterday’s trading. That is another sign of newsletter induced buying pressure.
The L-2 indicator may well refer to Lukas Lundin, who is the key person in the Lundin group.

But as pointed out, I didn’t see them listed as involved with insider activity, so how they newsletter being touted is able to do so is a very good question.

Cramerica
Guest
Cramerica
February 1, 2008 8:46 am

It would appear that GlobeStar Mining is the answer to the query

brenda
brenda
February 1, 2008 9:51 am

Hi Cramerica — thanks for the idea. I haven’t seen any indication that the Lundins are invested in GlobeStar, but they are definitely in the Caribbean (Dominican Republic). If you’ve got more info, please share.

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ResourcesTrader
Guest
ResourcesTrader
February 2, 2008 1:26 pm

OK, Maybe this one was just too obvious for everyone, but the L-2 part of the equation is

Lundin Secret #1: Know everything
Lundin Secret #2: Know everyone

The indicator is “follow the Lundins”. There are not 2 indicators to look for.

But as a warning, I heard Phase 1 did not do so well last year, so this is probably the main reason for the special price. However this might be their year, if EMX (or Globestar) uncovers an elephant.

brenda
brenda
February 2, 2008 1:37 pm

Here’s part of a quote from the ad that indicates that Badiali has some secondary trigger event that he uses:

“If you had simply bought the stock the day after the Lundin family announced their interest in the company, you would have made a respectable 12.7% gain over the next 30 days.

However, our in-house geologist and gold analyst Matt Badiali was aware of something else going on with the company…

Bottom line: If you had bought after the second part of the “L-2″ was triggered, you could have made nearly 4-times the profit… in less time”

Clearly, the main idea is “follow the Lundins” but they believe they have some indicator of the best time to buy after the Lundins buy — of course, whether they’re right or not we won’t know for quite some time. And the Lundins often have to be very patient with their investments, too.

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Buffalo
Guest
Buffalo
February 6, 2008 5:36 pm

I also think that this is Eurasian Mining. (ESMNF OTC or EMX Toronto Stock Exchange). I bought some last June and July following a recomendation of Stansberry and Associates Gold Prospectors report. I closed my position in early December with a modest profit, primarily because the stock was hard to follow. I bought ESMNF on the OTC but had to go to the TSX to check on any mid-day activity. (If anyone knows how to follow it’s activity during the day as ESMNF please post the information). After getting the L-2 teaser from numerous sources I did a lot of Googeling and it sounded like ESMNF to me and Stock Gumshoe confirmed it. So I have re-established my position and am hoping to see a lot of positive movement after the big presentation on Thursday, 2/7. Time will tell. Buffalo

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Just a guy
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Just a guy
February 6, 2008 6:11 pm

This link spells it out http://www.laraexploration.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=264198&_Type=News-Releases&_Title=Lara-Completes-1275000-Private-Placement
I did a google search for Lundin Family Trust, and several items came up but Lara says in its announcment that a private placement of the Lundin Family Trust.

Vancouver, British Columbia, October 2, 2007 (TSX Venture: LRA) – Lara Exploration Ltd. (“Lara” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it is has completed the previously announced non-brokered private placement financing (the “Private Placement”) of $1,275,000 by the issuance of 1,500,000 units at $0.85 per unit to Global NR Holding NA, a Luxembourg based holding company which is controlled by the Lundin Family.

OF course maybe they have another private placement, but the key is to google Lundin family trust.

One google search came up with another announcement from Miranda Gold, that said that it was mentioned favorably by Matt Bialli (not sure of spelling), who did a teaser on Prospect Generators. So although the teaser says it has projects in the Caribbean, and I don’t see any projects in the Caribbean for this company, I think doing a search for Lundin Family trust will generate some good possibilities.

In fact, Miranda also said that Rick Rule, another noteworthy gold mine investor invested in them, along with the Lundin Family trust. Miranda is hitting new lows, so according to the teaser, the L-2 factor hasn’t done what it was supposed to do, it would seem.

As for the $5000 Phase I investor, they did a blurb on a company that has a Chinese herbal cure for Alzheimers disease, and I managed to track that one down, but guess what, it finished its clinical trials with less than enthralling results and the stock crashed about 80% below the recommended price. So it is fair to say that when it comes to these teasers, you don’t always get what you pay for. $5000 for the newsletter and an 80% loss. I think Stansberry has had some good calls (China stocks like CHL in 2003), but he has had his share of total dogs, which he cannot ever seem to remember when discussing his “stellar” record.

The main advantage of his teasers is that they give some ideas, but buyer beware of the newsletters as well as the ideas themselves.

Maybe the best thing to do for Gumshoe-ers, is to track them and use technical analysis to decide whether or not or when to buy.

The best indicator that a stock is going up is whe n the stock is going up.

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mining man
mining man
February 13, 2008 10:34 am

I think the L-2 part of the indicator is announcing a joint venture or exploration agreement with a mojor mining company.

Joe Murphy
Guest
Joe Murphy
February 29, 2008 12:43 pm

I suspect the second part of L-2 is a technical report issued by an independent geologist, a requirement of the Canadian government if a company wants to make claims about reserves. Go to http://www.minemappers.com and scroll down to the link “43-101 Reporting Page” and click and read.

Jason
Guest
Jason
March 14, 2008 10:54 pm

I think this has something to do with their S-1 letter they just sent me tonight, also based on gold mining penny stocks. S-1 is what you file for registrations, and for the life of me I cannot figure out what the S-1 could mean since that means an upcoming IPO. They said in this letter you won’t have to deal with IPOS or pinksheets. So I am at a loss. They call these stocks “S-1” approved. Gumshoe, I emailed this letter to you tonight.

the only thing I can think of is an uplisting from OTCBB or OTC to AMEX or NYSE. Any thoughts?

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