Proper Perspective & Self-Deception

Yesterday's financial summit on OEGY began with a toast to old friendships and the new year. It ended in a free-for-all wrestling match, Captain JB eventually taking the upper hand and returning calm to Clooney's wall-of-windows bar area. Nothing was decided, but Beej, Corkface, and Baha did make some interesting points.

First, the problem. We have a big loss. We started buying Open Energy Corp. (OTCBB) at 72 cents a share. Average cost, just over 66 cents. It's now worth about half that, 35 or 36 cents.

As you can see by the top chart, things have been straight downhill lately. But things look even worse if you check out THIS chart of OEGY's past 12 months:



See that second tallest peak? That's the day we made our first purchase.

Nice tip. I didn't check his timing, but the chairman's been selling some shares. "Open Energy Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive David Saltman today addressed shareholder questions concerning his recent sales of securities. Mr. Saltman noted that quarterly stock grants awarded to him under his original employment contract with the Company created a significant...."

Blah, blah, blah. He sold some of his shares to pay income taxes on the gain he made from earlier stock options. Uncle Sam wants his share of those gains. I'm not blaming Mr. S.

But here's the chart that still gave our unnamed tipster hope. It goes back five years:



The Tipster says OEGY is going to be a $2.00 stock again. Certain stockholders sold out recently because they needed tax-losses. That is, gains in other investments made 2007 yearend a wonderful time to clean their portfolio of dogs. OEGY should start coming back this month.

CONFERENCE RESULT: I can't believe it, but this tipster conned me again. We're holding on for another week or two, see if OEGY actually begins to move back up from yearend tax-loss selling.

A WORD OF EXTREME WARNING: Penny stocks are no place to put your money. Go to the horsetrack. Better odds. And while OEGY is a real company, Austin Carr (that's me!) is not a real stockbroker. He's not even a real person! I'm a character in a series of mystery novels, and anyone who would take my advice on stock purchases should have his entire estate confiscated for felony ignorance! How's that for a disclaimer?