I should probably confess, before I get into today’s teaser sleuthification, that I don’t like organized religion. Disorganized religions are fine, because they don’t get together and try to figure out how to enroll other people (like me) in their belief system, or grow so big that they lose sight of their beliefs entirely, but organized ones turn me off.
So I spent a fair amount of time cringing when I read through the transcript of this latest teaser pitch from Mitchell Clark — I have no idea whether he’s religious himself, but the first couple pages read like a cynical televangelist trying to get you to open your wallet, transparently pandering to those who believe that “America has lost its way” and that “good people” will get their just rewards from God (despite Obama… gotta throw in something about Obama) because of the “master plan” that’s in the Bible.
And yes, he throws a secret stock pick in there, too — more on that in a minute.
Here’s how Clark gets us started:
“Hi, my name is Mitchell Clark, and for the last several months, I’ve led a very unique research project—a search for a solution to America’s economic problems in the Bible.
“And what we uncovered was astonishing…
“It’s a prophecy hidden on page 638 of the King James Bible….”
And, of course, there’s a mysterious image of a piece of parchment that looks like it might be in Hebrew — which is odd, given that the King James Bible is, of course, the English version of that text, as approved and specified by King James (to make sure that the word of God was in line with what he wanted to say) and first published in 1611.
The page number is silly, of course — who knows what edition he’s using, or which printing, pretty much no one cites page numbers for biblical verses. So his secret “prophecy” could be anywhere in the book, but apparently it is a secret that is enriching people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, North Dakota and Texas.
[An actual quote from Clark is, “our Creator’s blessings are not confined to northeast Ohio. Small towns throughout America are experiencing similar miraculous results.” No offense to anyone in Youngstown, Cleveland, Akron or Canton, but I think this is the first time I’ve heard anyone imply that “our Creator’s blessings” might be focused specifically on that area]
So yes, I’m being snarky, but apparently the “prophecy” is something along the lines of: “Some of you own land under which shale oil and gas will be found, as God specifically intended, and you will therefore get rich.”
Frankly, it would fit well as a scene in The Book of Mormon (the play, not the sacred text — haven’t read the latter).
I don’t mean to be irreverent here, or at least not any more irreverent than I am on any other day, so I’ll skip over the long section of the ad citing all the people and towns who believe that these new energy discoveries are “divine intervention” and “a gift from God” (similar stuff from the towns impacted by investment in the Haynesville Shale, the Bakken Shale, etc.) Obviously, those are common phrases that some people spit out whenever anything shockingly good happens (God is also very active in the state lottery, I’m told).
We, on the other hand, know that God clearly intended for His oil riches to be discovered most voluminously under land controlled by caliphates, dictatorships and godless communists, and (ha ha on you!) under thousands of feet of ocean, and only after that to be found under the lands of the “true believers” in the United States. Oh, and (ha ha again!), the oil that goes to save the farms and towns of the “true believers” is way harder to extract than the stuff controlled by the folks who don’t so much adhere to the Anglican version of the Word of God.
Sorry.
The point is, Mitchell Clark, once he’s done offending both believers and non-believers with his pandering (as I’ve probably done with my snarkiness), goes on to tease a stock. Perhaps because God wants ownership of for-profit enterprises to be spread among individual investors.
Arg, sorry again!
I know I’ve already made a good number of you angry, so I’ll try to stop. If you want to read the rest of the ad, go right ahead.
Mitchell Clark is pitching a subscription to something he calls America’s Redemption, which I guess must be a newsletter dedicated to the shale oil revolution — it’s not really clear, but the folks at Lombardi Publishing will let you “start to try it” for $5 as a bargain basement entry level price compared to the $295 “normal” price. Oh, except wait a second, he’s charging $5 upfront and then if you don’t cancel after a month he’ll charge you $92.50 as the balance for your first six months (so it’s actually $195/year, I guess, and they’ll then renew you at that rate every year). Clever.
America’s Redemption is not listed on Lombardi’s website that I can find, though I do wonder if it will be going up against that other biblically-titled Lombardi newsletter, the Judgement Day Profit Letter, which is helmed by Clark’s colleague George Leong and “features stocks that we expect to profit as the American Ponzi scheme collapses.”
Anyway, moving on… this is just the last little excerpt before we get to specifics:
“The Anti-Obama Recovery
Are you getting our free Daily Update
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just click here...“The story begins six years ago, in the aftermath of the 2008 market crash…
“Some Americans turned to Obama for help.
“They saw him as their potential savior from economic doom.
“But not everybody did.
“Others looked to the Lord for His guidance, for it has been said that He guides in all matters.
“And since then, I believe He’s led the faithful forward to a whole new era of prosperity—one unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
“It’s like an era of ‘America’s Redemption.'”
‘Nuff said. On to investing. So that’s what I’ll spend the rest of my time looking for — what’s the stock he’s talking about?
“… certain states are seeing unusual rates of mass migration.
“These are places that have experienced what I call the ‘Biblical Wealth Event.’
“And they’re places with increasing employment rates….
“Everyday Americans are rushing to these areas to claim their share of riches.
“But you don’t have to move to these states, or even visit there, if you want to grab your rightful share.”
Well, that’s certainly true — workers are rushing to Williston, ND and Midland, Texas to take good-paying oil company jobs (and that’s throwing those economies out of whack, particularly in more remote areas like North Dakota, where stories of the high pay for pole dancers and Wal-mart checkers and the lack of affordable rent driving high rates of homelessness fill the newspapers). But which area is he talking about?
Oh, wait, brief interlude: Now he actually gives us the citation to the Bible verse — so I have to share that with you:
“I will shoot up to you deposits stored in valuable dungeon-type containers, so that you will know that I Am the Lord your God, who called you by name.”
(Isaiah Chapter 45, verse 3, on page 638 of the King James Bible.)
You can interpret that however you want — here are a bunch of different translations and commentaries on that verse if you’re curious. Clark’s quote is not from the King James translation, from what I can tell, it is a different translation (and it’s a verse that’s sometimes also used by folks talking about the Biblical guidance that will lead to large oil discoveries in Israel). The King James version of this verse mostly talks about how this was God’s deal with Cyrus the Great — Cyrus recognized the one true God, and God guided Cyrus and his armies to treasure. I think. You can dig through that on your own if you like, I won’t pretend to know the “back story” on this one.
OK, back to the stock.
“God Still Hasn’t Given Up on America…
“To tap into America’s blessed wealth, you just need to know where the next oil discovery is. And get in right from the beginning whenever they strike it.
“That brings me to… ‘The Next Bakken Discovery You Haven’t Heard About‘
“In a state you would never expect, not Texas or Oklahoma, the Oil & Gas Journal confirms there’s a massive amount of oil under the surface.
“7 billion recoverable barrels using current drilling techniques.
“The EIA considers it one of the top six shale oil fields in America.
“Next to the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian basins.
“But unlike these more well-known oil fields, this oil play is virtually untapped.
“That’s $700 billion sitting under the ground.”
So where is it? He’s talking about the Niobrara Shale in Colorado, where some big players have done well already, but says that the better-known companies (Noble Energy, Anadarko) aren’t the way to go. More from the pitch:
“Instead you’ll want to look to the smaller explorers.
“Ones with the same potential as the big oil players that were small before the Bakken took off.
“These are the new ‘Millionaire Makers.’
“And I’ve identified one ‘pure play’ on this oil field that could hand you 1,079% gains over the coming six months….
“Now, this isn’t ALL about getting rich.
“I doubt our Lord put the oil there so people can spend extravagantly.
“That’s why he’s blessing individuals who truly need the money.
“People who won’t blow it on expensive gadgets. Americans who save their money for a rainy day. They’re paying off tuition, their mortgages, and enjoying time with friends and family. They’re donating to their churches and charities.”
Well, crud. So I guess, if you were planning on getting rich from this so you can buy that new Camaro you’ve got your eye on, or get matching iPhones for all your grandchildren, well, you’re out of luck. This is only for people who make sensible and rational decisions. Like subscribing to investment newsletters that get their cues from God’s instructions to Cyrus the Great.
More from the ad:
“I’ve found a Colorado-based ‘pure play’ on this oil field.
“It’s hit a 100% success rate on the wells.
“Right now it holds only 19 million barrels proved reserves.
“But new drilling on its holdings could drive that up to over 224 million barrels.
“That’s a 1,079% jump!
“In short, this play has $20.5 billion in potential new oil wealth.
“And early investors can grab a piece of this for themselves.
“The best part…? You can buy into it for just over $10.
“But to be frank, that won’t last for long…
“Months ago, I recommended my readers buy it for $5….
“And while you haven’t missed out on the HUGE gains yet…
“If you want to grab a slice of this oil wealth for yourself, you’ll need to act today.”
OK, so finally we can just look at a stock — one that he says has the same potential as Continental Resources or Kodiak Oil & Gas (Bakken), or Pioneer Resources (Eagle Ford), all of which went up more than 1,000% over some undetermined time period — so who is he teasing to be the big winner from the Niobrara?
One more clue:
“It’s an early pioneer on the emerging shale oil play in its own state.
“It’s rapidly expanding its production and reserves.
“And it holds incredible acreage on this future Bakken.
“In the past three years, it’s ramped up production by 811%.”
So… hoodat? Thinkolator sez we are almost certainly looking at… Synergy Resources (SYRG)
The oil resources in Northern Colorado are cited using lots of different names, depending on what part of the area you’re in and what depth you’re targeting, so don’t be confused to see references to the Niobrara shale or formation, the DJ Basin, the Wattenberg Field or any variation on those. It’s pretty much all about the same land.
And Synergy does have growing production from that area, what they call the “core Wattenberg,” and they’re planning drilling in the “NE Wattenberg extension” nearby, as well as some exploration going on in Southwest Nebraska aimed at the Upper Pennsylvanian layer.
So why is it our match? Well, production going from 452 to 8,120 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from 2011 to the third quarter 2014 is indeed an increase of 811% (if you round a little bit). So that’s a nice match. And it is “just over $10” (actually almost $12 at the moment) and was around $5 “months ago” (almost two years ago, actually, but within the realm of possibility for Clark’s recommendation period).
And they did report roughly 19 million barrels of proved reserves (19.7 million, actually) in their April update. And they have reported a 100% success rate on their wells. And they are headquartered locally, near the wells in Colorado.
So I suppose I can’t say the Thinkolator is 100% certain on this one — but we’re pretty close. I’ve been sniffing about a bit and didn’t run into any other near-$10 Niobrara/Wattenberg stocks that have doubled during any reasonable time frame (most of them are nowhere near that price), so there are plenty of other Niobrara plays that investors might want to consider, from PDC Energy (PDCE) to Bonanza Creek (BCEI) to Carrizo (CRZO)… or, of course, the larger oil companies in the area like EnCana (ECA), Noble Energy (NBL), or Anadarko (APC), and they may all be better stocks for all I know but none of them that I’ve been able to find are a better match for Clark’s teaser than Synergy Resources. And for what it’s worth, Clark did mention them in a public article back in the Summer of 2013, so he at least liked them at one point.
Of course, whether or not SYRG is going to be a great investment, or will continue the pattern of “blessings” that shale oil producers have received and will in turn pass those on to you, well, that’s a question you’ll have to answer yourself. You can see Syngergy’s latest investor presentation here for a decent overview of their properties and prospects, or their quarterly report for the full details. They have been profitable for a couple years, they have grown production quickly, and they have issued a fair number of new shares along the way, presumably to fund expansion, but nothing that jumps out as shocking for a junior oil producer — they are now approaching a $1 billion market cap, so the bets are in on continued drilling success and increases to the reserves. I don’t know enough to place a bet on this one, myself, but if you’d like to chime in with a comment below, well, I’d be delighted to hear what you think.
P.S. I checked, Synergy Resources is not mentioned in the Bible.
I’m no Bible thumper, but 14% of the world’s oil reserves lie in (Christian) God-fearing Canada. But the Lord gave Americans only 2% of the world’s reserves.
My 70+ years of experience here in Canada is that this is neither a Christian nor a God-fearing nation. If anything, we are a bunch of “apatheists” – a portmanteau of apathy and atheist. Don’t know and don’t care. A lot of the “believers” are just paying lip service to the concept, seems to me from my vantage point.
I’m with Travis on this one. The less-organized the religion, the better to me.
Rusty I like that word of your,s apatheist,,,,,I may steal that for my own.
For years I have been saying that “Some say the problem with politics is ignorance and apathy,,,,,I don’t know and I don’t care.
Thanks, Arch1. I wish I could say I created it, but I didn’t.
After electing Obama the second time, the half of the U.S. that voted for him don’t even deserve the 2%.
Is the President responsible for that which occurs on his watch? If so, I have to be pretty happy with my portfolio’s steady climb (as well as that of the DJI) every year since our President took office.
DESPITE Os BEST efforts!!!
Whatever, do you believe he’s the Manchurian Candidate from Keyna as well? Or that his mind in controlled by a telepathic connection to his late father?
At the very least he should be recognized as the top gun and ammo salesman of all time.
Thanks, Travis — Got several great chuckles out of your snarks. On a different but maybe related note, there are lots of newsletter writers out there whose whole pitch is based on provoking readers’ fears. Some of these may be justified, and it’s not always easy to sort the reasonable warnings from the purely exploitation pitches.
That’s been a big driver of the newsletter world for decades, the “world is crashing” stuff. It is always easier to sound smart when you say the world is about to go to Hell in a handbasket.
May I suggest not investing a huge sum into SYRG. It could result in your financial disaster of “biblical proportions”. Their daily production is about 40 minutes worth of one major refinery run…just a bit more than the daily spillage. (I, too, love snarky.)
Why not include your first name, John?
Travis, thank you ever so much for your expose of Mitchell Clark’s appropriation of religion for the dubious purpose of getting people to throw good money after bad into fossil fuels. OK ,I’ll concede it’s not exactly a Ponzi scheme and the music might continue playing another 2 decades or so. Nevertheless it is refreshing to know you are a fellow religious sceptic and you’re cool with at least one of your readers not being a dyed in the wool Obama hater. If I was a “religious nut” I would certainly believe Mitchell Clark has literally dammed himself.
“. . . not being a dyed in the wool Obama hater. . . ”
OMG! There are three of us! 🙂
So I take it you think all but three people on this site hate Obama?????
Do I detect a bit of bigotry? Or are you just attempting humor? I for one have hate for no one.
Who said you did hate anyone?:-)
For Vivian Lewis (re comment 12 above): Lewis and Clark . . . . Lewis and Clark. Catchy – and sounds familiar.
John Lennon, may have said it best. in the lyrics to “Imagine.”
Though he doesn’t spell it out in the lyrics, (and please feel free to correct me,) I think we were also meant to “Imagine no god.”
Blasphemous I know, but as we seem to do with most unanswered questions, which is to say, “assign it an answer, until proven otherwise.” no matter how stupid. (Think Flat Earth, etc.)
We came from oblivion, “and my recollection of it (oblivion) is not particularly frightening or terrible” and that’s where wer’e all heading in the end.
The rest is the stuff of fairy tales, just because humans everywhere love happy endings, can’t bring themselves to believe that this is all there is and fear the unknown.
“Imagine”
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one
Great post, goldnutz. You deserve at least 100 “likes”!
Lennon said this song is “virtually the Communist Manifesto.”
Did JL give ANY of his wealth to the poor?!
Travis–Nothing in your commentary would offend most Christians. Good discussion above as well.
Jonathan
Travis et al. I have a King James partial Bible Verse as my answer to Mr. Clark’s thesis: “I will accept no bull from thy house.”
I doubt that quoting a bible verse will cow Mr. Clark.
OMG…I HAVE to have the scripture & verse for that one…PLEASE!!
What a fun read, even if minimal on the stock being touted. Nevertheless, if I were to add my 2 cents, I’d have to say that I don’t understand at least 2 things about “God.”
1) If he is all powerful and knowing, you’d think that he could hire the best investment bankers, CPA, tax attorneys, etc. So why is he so dam poor at managing his money that he needs constantly and in copious amounts? And, what the heck, why bother with any of that since he could simply create money!!!
2) If she is, in fact, all powerful (which she is having smitten numerous tribes and even inundated the entire planet and drowned everyone and everything that wasn’t on the ark – by the way, how did the trees, grass, flowers and miscellaneous plants survive 40 days of being underwater?), then why does she anyone to defend her?
Snark away as far as I’m concerned, Jean-Pierre
You do know that the problem for atheists is that if there is a God they don’t have a prayer?
I have always heard it stated that those who do not have a belief in something do not believe
nothing but rather they can be led to believe anything.
My concern is more that those who have a strong belief in a particular ideology are more easily sucked in by promoters and marketers who prey on that belief, from televangelists to the glad-handing “financial advisor” met at church to the big marketing machines that put out cynical stuff like this Mitchell Clark ad.
Travis not every one who goes to church falls in the traps you played out.We don’t pass the plate at our church.there is a box you drop money in if your so minded to do so,and the pastor is the only paid person we have. His wife is a school teacher or the man would starve on what we pay him.In the three years I have gone ther there has been only one sermon on the matters of money and giving.I have been to some churchs that has a sermon on money matters at least every month.I didn’t go the very long. So i’ll pray for you and you can beleave what you want,but not all of use who go to church or dumb as a rock.
I hope I didn’t imply that you were dumb, or that I have any problem with anyone else’s faith or belief of any kind — it’s religious organizations and, particularly, proselytizing and abuse of faith that I don’t much like. Thanks for praying for me, I’m absolutely certain that it can’t hurt.
Well, that doesn’t include you, since you can’t spell.
Travis I think we have no disagreement,,in my view somebody caught up in ideology or “ism”
of any sort has already to an extent been “sucked in”. True faith is based on evidence and experience,,,I have faith the earth will keep on turning consistently and sunrise/sunset will regularly occur. Hope is often just wishful thinking. I believe that many that claim belief in God disown that expression by their actions.
Fwiw, the K.J. Version was actually not ever officially “approved” by King James or his successors. In the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), the K.J. Version is our “authorized” version.
Interesting, didn’t know the Mormon Church followed the Anglicans on the text. Thanks.
I would like to know how anyone can tell the book of Mormon follows the Anglican text. According to my brother in law who is the born again in the family, once considered converting to Mormonisn and being from western Colorodo knows lots of Mormons no less a literary luminary than Mark Twain pronounced the book of Mormon unreadable for its poor imitation Elizabethan
To be fair, that’s not what he said — he said the King James is the authoritative translation of the bible that’s used by the Mormon Church, though perhaps they incorporate some of the Joseph Smith translation as well now, too, I don’t know. That’s separate from the Book of Mormon, which is an additional collection of scripture that was translated by Smith from the golden tablets he was directed to in Cumora (Manchester, NY) into something like the English used in the 1600s era King James translation. Can’t say I’ve ever read the original King James Bible (I’ve read a modern translation) or the Book of Mormon, personally.
It wasn’t God’s doing to flood the earth. More likely a gigantic blob of melting comet ice that hit the earth, filling what are ocean basins. Just like oil similarly being deposited from space from something one of Saturn’s moons. Planetary-like collisions misshaping earth’s sphere, creating tectonic plates.
There is reasonably good evidence that much of earths abundance of water has come through comet impacts…..Just like a huge dirty snowball of rock and ice.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071107-russia-crater.html
Link is evidence of a relatively small strike and there is a 70% plus probability that other strikes may have occurred in areas now covered by oceans.
Now to be sure much helpful investment advice awaits those who read the bible. Check out Matthew 25. I think MMVX (mutual fund) is based on Matthew 25. Matthew 24 helpful as well. But then Matthew was a tax collector and knew finances and apparently knew a good financial parable when he heard it. I also like the one about serving two masters. Reminds me of many fund managers. The warning against false prophets!
Now Cyrus had an interesting way of conquering. He ruled better and more justly and was quite tolerant as well. He got inside the walls of Babylon because its citizens were disgusted with their own ruler. He “conquered” the Medes the same way. He is not called the Great for nothing. Too bad modern “conquerors” have not learned the “easy” way to enlarge your territory. Just Rule and Tolerance of the Unimportant politically.
The guys not only a fininancial advisor but has studied Theology as well. Must be fundamentally sound. I know Jesus has given the the power to heal lepers and cast out demons and such to his believers from reading the gospels myself. I missed the part about the treasures stored beneath thee. And God is using this one company to save the impoverished from economic strife? That part I didnt find either. The one guy gave up his fishing business to be a believer. Is treasure still stored in Heaven? Seeing its only $5 that must mean its true also.
FYI, was just scanning through some Doug Casey pitches and ran across an interesting screed from one of their new partners about the Military-Industrial Complex co-opting American Christianity. Interesting take: http://www.caseyresearch.com/freeman/eisenhower-was-right-the-military-industrial-complex-has-deformed-american
now stop being snarky travis! while the good lord did place large oil deposits in various geographical locations, it was always clear who the owner of ALL the oil in the world was. otherwise, why would the country blessed by the good lord bravely mount numerous invasions into far off lands; spill much blood; destroy everything in sight; especially if the far off lands happened to be small and weak. why??
Geez, Travis. I wish that my memory was better, but I don’t think that the company being promoted here is the one that you think. I got one of those “pump and dump” mailings in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and I read it cover to cover, but now, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the company being “promoted.” Basically, they had all of this land locked up (50,000 plus acres it seems to me), and the stock price was less than $2 per share. The guy who wrote this claimed that it was one of his greatest forecasts ever, and people would be talking about it in the future. Sorry, but I threw it out (actually, I threw it into the recycling bin) after reading it, and I have no way of retrieving it.
I think you’re remembering a real “pump and dump” — those are the ones who send out big
Glossy ads, usually real penny stock junk like VOIL. There are other “biblical” oil stocks that have been promoted in the past, too, but I’ve seen none that match Clark’s clues like this one.
This Clark guy has about as much religious validity as “i have sinned” Jimmy Swaggart. However, Gumshoe was masterful with his, as usual, insightful analysis.
On page 666 of the King Tut Bible, it tells you cat mummies are a good investment.
Travis…….the money changers run the organized churches.
See Acts 17.24 KJV
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
Galatians 4.26 KJV
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Eddie Imperial