Relikwie, keep in mind that there are TWO reasons why we spread out our holdings among a number of these junior miners.

Reason #1 obviously is that it reduces the INDIVIDUAL risk of any one company because any one company only represents a part of your holdings - and thus if you're forced to "bail out" the loss is spread over a number of holdings.

However, don't forget that there is a SECOND reason for spreading out our buying: it gives us the luxury of WAITING longer on any particular company - if results don't immediately live up to explanations.

Certainly there are times when "bailing" is the right way to go, and I've been too slow "on the trigger" in that respect myself, in the past.

Sometimes changes occur which make us decide this is NOT the company we thought it was when we bought in. Either:

1) operational results disappoint
2) some sort of internal "storm clouds" loom on the horizon
3) or perhaps the company makes a sale or acquisition which we don't agree with

There are also EXTERNAL conditions which can cause us to have "second thoughts".

Even so, I always encourage people to think very carefully before locking-in a loss - especially in PARTICULARLY volatile periods like the present. We have to work SO HARD to make our gains that I hate to "give back" any of that.

So before "bailing" on any particular company, take one last minute to OBJECTIVELY ask yourself TWO questions:

1) Are you reasonably convinced there has been some "material change" affecting the company?
2) Is the possibility of encountering a BETTER "selling opportunity" large or small?

Note that with sectors bouncing around like crazy that even with "bad news", merely waiting a day or two MIGHT provide a MUCH better selling window.

This is certainly not always the case. Sometimes a stock will simply KEEP GOING LOWER when it starts to sell-off. In that case, you might just be creating a bigger loss for yourself.

If you look at the "probabilities": if you hang on and the stock goes UP you're better off - while if it merely goes sideways then you are no worse off. So there will be many situations where simply "sitting and thinking" about a particular holding rather than immediately dumping it might be a better strategy.

Note that whenever I pay "Devil's Advocate" (or "back-seat driver" - lol) in these situations I am NOT attempting or implying any criticism of other peoples' buying and selling decisions. We TELL people here to "be their own bosses" on their investments - because no one has a better understanding of YOUR FINANCES than you do.

When I offer this feedback it's intended to provide a different PERSPECTIVE, both for the person whose example is being used, and the MANY MORE people who read these posts, but don't post things themselves. In other words, it's not about "criticizing" what is already HISTORY. Instead, it's simply generating discussion, in order to make these examples the best "learning experiences" possible for everyone.

Earl wrote:
relikwie,

Thank You, for sharing.

That is how we can learn and hopefully be prosperous "together", bye sharing what we learn.

I recently took a 80% hit on a non-PM. I have to drive some income from these decisions.
I could'nt dollar cost down any more so I took a hit. About three weeks pay and Earl can't play no more. I limped in and bought a Jr.-miner that has the results and summer lag. I will be OK and so will you.

I personally, have never learned when people "brag", but you do learn from listening about success and what successful people see. I personally feel if we can share and learn from each others mistakes/success, it's a "lesson".

Again, "Thank You", for posting. I don't know anything about this company, but I do know the feeling of a loss you don't have to lose.

Earl


To Earl, Relikwie and all other "mining investors" (which includes Chad, Brian and myself), I'm going to steal a quote from the new "Batman" movies.

"Alfred" is asking a young "Bruce Wayne" a rhetorical question after he suffers an accident:

"Why do we fall down? So we can learn to get back up again."

This is a TOUGH time to be "learning to be a mining investor". However, my own (secret) worry is not for people who are just starting off RIGHT NOW. My bigger worries are for the people who first started buying these companies DURING the last, big rally.

For an investor there are few CURSES worse than "beginners' luck". Not only do we NEED some early "stumbles" to cure us from making the WORST mistakes, but when people have INITIAL SUCCESS doing something there is a tendency to become "more impressed" with ourselves than we ought to be.

There is nothing more dangerously self-destructive than a SELF-DESCRIBED "smart investor". Becoming convinced of one's own "infallibility" as an investor tends to lead to one (or both) of two forms of financial suicide: getting LAZY in doing our "due diligence", or taking TOO MUCH RISK - either by getting over-concentrated in one or two holdings, or being INSANE ENOUGH to use "margin".

So while I presume to offer "advice" here on a regular basis (LOL!), any time that advice is NOT accompanied by some acknowledgement of my OWN past blunders I hope people will IMMEDIATELY note my own descent into hubris. Indeed, much of the "wisdom" I produce for others is merely RECITING the previous mistakes I've made myself.

Suffering losses is NOT 'the end of the world'. However failing to LEARN FROM OUR LOSSES is one of the worst forms of "missed opportunity". So we ALWAYS appreciate it when people discuss the times when they did NOT have success - as this is not only PART of their own learning process, but also gives OTHERS the opportunity of learning from your experiences.

Best of luck to ALL of us "mining investors"!

Jeff,

I'm "learning" from the forum and trying to support the "sharing".

The "forum", is sociology, psychology, economy and a great field of study.

The vision you all shared when starting this "site", was.... like nothing else I've ever been apart of.

The people that contribute, are "bulldozers", while I'm sitting here with a "shovel".

I marvel (no batman pun intended), at the forums "content".



"There is also the potential for mercy. Forgiveness. Tolerance. These also, everyone has potential." - DALAI LAMA

Thank You
Earl

Hi Earl, yes the feeling sets you back for a minute. But been there before and luckily also made some good gains. I totally agree with you that one learns more from those being honest and do not brag, the markets shift money from person A to B and where one wins the other loses. I believe that anyone how good and well playing the market loses some a great deal once in a while.

I know this company for a while (almost a year), early this year when it was trading 20 cents I set my crosshair on it, almost bought if it wasn't for another biopharma company I followed for a while. I made an educated guess, thinking the bio company would run first. The next 3 weeks CGP started to run and kept running nearing 80 cents, while I got caught in that bio company (dropped). Eventually the bio one ran and took some good profits there. My mistake with CGP (looking back) is that I jumped to buy just before preliminary results were released on this gama prospect (at 40 cents). Anticipation was somewhat priced it. The results came and were mediocre, the SP started to decline back to 20 cents. I've had a chance to get out with a small loss as it once again went to 37 cents, but I kept believing that the upper part of the prospect being an epithermal system would show much better results. This for two reasons (and as a newbie to the juniors world a mistake easily made). 1. Outcropped vuggy breccia matrix showed good Au grades over reasonable cuts and the company said to believe this is sourced from a stratigraphy epithermal system below the plateau. 2. The company in the mediocre and preliminary NR said they expected better results from the remaining targets. I should have listened to the market and at least got out when I had the best chance. I gambled and I lost

If I had the money I could take a gamble, but I am just a poor moron and should really avoid uncertainties when common sense expose them. Which they did several times with this company.

Thank you for your post,
rel.

Jeff, I really appreciate your feedback and lectures here, seriously. The diversification you hammer on, I totally have that and see it's importance. To be honest, I think I seek a "home run" first and then think about a strategy later. Some weird stubborn bug in my head lol. I pay 20 euro's a transaction (40 round trip) for the Canadian stocks, nibbling and spreading the money I trade with won't keep me on the game that long (it's not really that small money I use - lost a small 6k euro's today).

I think wise trading/investing come with the years. Keeping going while learning from mistakes and avoiding them makes one successful over the years.

Btw, I'm amazed at the amount and speed you type away on this forum

rel.

relikwie wrote:
Jeff...I'm amazed at the amount and speed you type away on this forum



Several decades ago I did actually learn to type PROPERLY - if not very quickly. However, I managed to "forget" all of that by the time the "computer" generation had arrived.

Thanks to the "magic" of the "electronic page" (and the back-space key), I was quite happy for many years to just peck-away with two fingers. After all, it was STILL a lot less problematic than dealing with REAL ink and PAPER (and "white-out" - lol).

Then I decided to try my hand at writing some fiction, and two things happened. First of all I once again became very familiar with the keyboard. The second thing I started to discover is that the more I got "into" my writing, the more I would suddenly discover myself typing more quickly and accurately - and using MOST of my fingers (lol).

Then when I started doing THIS stuff I discovered I had an endless amount of things to say (being one of the world's TRULY prodigious "wind-bags"). So I had to get even faster (and more accurate) with my typing.

Today I'm about a "one and a half hand" typist, occasionally going up to 1 3/4 hands. "Lefty" is totally professional: all five fingers get used. "Righty" still can't stop itself from "freelancing", but because "Righty" has to operate the frequently-used back-space key it needs to do a lot more MOVING.

On the "plus" side, I can now strike that back-space key with the same speed and precision as your average COBRA.

The "moral of the story" is that IF you're going to be an Internet Big-mouth, then your fingers MUST be able to keep up with your MOUTH...

Well, I bought into CGP for the long term and although I am not very impressed with the recent drill results I'm going to stick to my plan and hold. It is a little difficult and I wonder if I'm being foolish and going to watch my investment evaporate? Call it stubbornness, but I told myself I would ONLY buy stocks during this downturn. I might sell CGP later down the road if they continue to disappoint, but for now it's buy and hold for me with any of my positions. That said, I certainly won't increase my position with this particular company at this time.

Navderek it's always a difficult "call" when you're holding an exploration company which produces underwhelming drill results.

Generally I don't get too discouraged by a single set of bad numbers. However, if/when a company disappoints a couple of times that's when we have to ask ourselves IF a particular project will EVER pan-out.

Here, note that some geological formations make it much easier to find mineralization than other formations. Thus it's VERY helpful to have some basic understanding of the geology, as it will allow us to INTERPRET results with more accuracy.

For those who haven't looked at the "Ore Deposit" clips posted by Relikwie, I highly recommend them...