Organigram Provides Shareholder Update
OrganiGram Holdings Inc. (ACB:CSE) has provided an update to shareholders while reviewing milestones of 2014 and looking at the growth and goals of 2015.
Since the inception of OrganiGram in April, 2014, the company has been growing and developing at a very fast pace. Through this growth, there have been some tremendous achievements, which include receiving its organic certification, producing its first crops, listing of shares on the TSX Venture Exchange and completing three phases of construction. OrganiGram is excited to capitalize on these achievements and execute on the business plan.
Moving forward, the company’s shareholders, patients and partners will begin to see the results from the foundation laid in 2014. To date, the company has been extremely focused on expanding the production facility while, at the same time, working to increase production levels. These efforts will begin to provide significant product to the market in March of this year. Thereafter, the utilization of the company’s existing rooms and rooms under construction will ensure that OrganiGram is poised to meet its financial goals in 2015.
OrganiGram would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Trauma Healing Centers on the opening of its first clinic, in Halifax, N.S. OrganiGram is proud to be partnered with Trauma Healing Centers on research initiatives to assist veterans and others suffering with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
OrganiGram’s chief executive officer, Denis Arsenault, states: “Over the past few months, OrganiGram has moved into a best-in-class manufacturing facility. Our processes and systems have been developed to a point where we produce high-quality products, in an organic form, which has and will continue to exceed the requirements of our clients. While we continue to evolve and improve, our facility will begin to supply the market with an established source of product on a consistent basis. We have a superior management team in place that is not only focused on supply but also quality, efficiency and product development. The results of our efforts will not only be very profitable for the company and shareholders but most importantly will provide a rapidly increasing client base with a medicinal product that assists in a much-improved quality of life for many. The developments of the next few weeks and months will be both exciting and fruitful for our company.”
We seek Safe Harbor.
- Published in Blog
122 Things Everyone Should Know About Investing And The Economy
Written by Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool
A year ago I started writing what I hoped would be a book called 500 Things you Need to know About Investing. I wanted to outline my favorite quotes, stats, and lessons about investing.
I failed. I quickly realized the idea was long on ambition, short on planning.
But I made it to 122, and figured it would be better in article form. Here it is.
1. Saying “I’ll be greedy when others are fearful” is easier than actually doing it.
2. When most people say they want to be a millionaire, what they really mean is “I want to spend $1 million,” which is literally the opposite of being a millionaire.
3. “Some stuff happened” should replace 99{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of references to “it’s a perfect storm.”
4. Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow begins, “The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than your own.” This should be every market commentator’s motto.
5. Blogger Jesse Livermore writes, “My main life lesson from investing: self-interest is the most powerful force on earth, and can get people to embrace and defend almost anything.”
6. As Erik Falkenstein says: “In expert tennis, 80{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of the points are won, while in amateur tennis, 80{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} are lost. The same is true for wrestling, chess, and investing: Beginners should focus on avoiding mistakes, experts on making great moves.”
7. There is a difference between, “He predicted the crash of 2008,” and “He predicted crashes, one of which happened to occur in 2008.” It’s important to know the difference when praising investors.
8. Investor Dean Williams once wrote, “Confidence in a forecast rises with the amount of information that goes into it. But the accuracy of the forecast stays the same.”
9. Wealth is relative. As comedian Chris Rock said, “If Bill Gates woke up with Oprah’s money he’d jump out the window.”
10. Only 7{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of Americans know stocks rose 32{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} last year, according to Gallup. One-third believe the market either fell or stayed the same. Everyone is aware when markets fall; bull markets can go unnoticed.
11. Dean Williams once noted that “Expertise is great, but it has a bad side effect: It tends to create the inability to accept new ideas.” Some of the world’s best investors have no formal backgrounds in finance — which helps them tremendously.
12. The Financial Times wrote, “In 2008 the three most admired personalities in sport were probably Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius.” The same falls from grace happen in investing. Chose your role models carefully.
13. Investor Ralph Wagoner once explained how markets work, recalled by Bill Bernstein: “He likens the market to an excitable dog on a very long leash in New York City, darting randomly in every direction. The dog’s owner is walking from Columbus Circle, through Central Park, to the Metropolitan Museum. At any one moment, there is no predicting which way the pooch will lurch. But in the long run, you know he’s heading northeast at an average speed of three miles per hour. What is astonishing is that almost all of the market players, big and small, seem to have their eye on the dog, and not the owner.”
14. Investor Nick Murray once said, “Timing the market is a fool’s game, whereas time in the market is your greatest natural advantage.” Remember this the next time you’re compelled to cash out.
15. Bill Seidman once said, “You never know what the American public is going to do, but you know that they will do it all at once.” Change is as rapid as it is unpredictable.
16. Napoleon’s definition of a military genius was, “the man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy.” Same goes in investing.
17. Blogger Jesse Livermore writes,”Most people, whether bull or bear, when they are right, are right for the wrong reason, in my opinion.”
18. Investors anchor to the idea that a fair price for a stock must be more than they paid for it. It’s one of the most common, and dangerous, biases that exists. “People do not get what they want or what they expect from the markets; they get what they deserve,” writes Bill Bonner.
19. Jason Zweig writes, “The advice that sounds the best in the short run is always the most dangerous in the long run.”
20. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio once said, “The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you’ll be.” Repeat this line to yourself the next time you’re certain of something.
21. During recessions, elections, and Federal Reserve policy meetings, people become unshakably certain about things they know very little about.
22. “Buy and hold only works if you do both when markets crash. It’s much easier to both buy and hold when markets are rising,” says Ben Carlson.
23. Several studies have shown that people prefer a pundit who is confident to one who is accurate. Pundits are happy to oblige.
24. According to J.P. Morgan, 40{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of stocks have suffered “catastrophic losses” since 1980, meaning they fell at least 70{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} and never recovered.
25. John Reed once wrote, “When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles — generally three to twelve of them — that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.” Keep that in mind when getting frustrated over complicated financial formulas.
26. James Grant says, “Successful investing is about having people agree with you … later.”
27. Scott Adams writes, “A person with a flexible schedule and average resources will be happier than a rich person who has everything except a flexible schedule. Step one in your search for happiness is to continually work toward having control of your schedule.”
28. According to Vanguard, 72{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of mutual funds benchmarked to the S&P 500 underperformed the index over a 20-year period ending in 2010. The phrase “professional investor” is a loose one.
29. “If your investment horizon is long enough and your position sizing is appropriate, you simply don’t argue with idiocy, you bet against it,” writes Bruce Chadwick.
30. The phrase “double-dip recession” was mentioned 10.8 million times in 2010 and 2011, according to Google. It never came. There were virtually no mentions of “financial collapse” in 2006 and 2007. It did come. A similar story can be told virtually every year.
31. According to Bloomberg, the 50 stocks in the S&P 500 that Wall Street rated the lowest at the end of 2011 outperformed the overall index by 7 percentage points over the following year.
32. “The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the sitting,” said Jesse Livermore.
33. Investors want to believe in someone. Forecasters want to earn a living. One of those groups is going to be disappointed. I think you know which.
34. In a poll of 1,000 American adults, asked, “How many millions are in a trillion?” 79{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} gave an incorrect answer or didn’t know. Keep this in mind when debating large financial problems.
35. As last year’s Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett said he has owned 400 to 500 stocks during his career, and made most of his money on 10 of them. This is common: a large portion of investing success often comes from a tiny proportion of investments.
36. Wall Street consistently expects earnings to beat expectations. It also loves oxymorons.
37. The S&P 500 gained 27{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} in 2009 — a phenomenal year. Yet 66{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of investors thought it fell that year, according to a survey by Franklin Templeton. Perception and reality can be miles apart.
38. As Nate Silver writes, “When a possibility is unfamiliar to us, we do not even think about it.” The biggest risk is always something that no one is talking about, thinking about, or preparing for. That’s what makes it risky.
39. The next recession is never like the last one.
40. Since 1871, the market has spent 40{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of all years either rising or falling more than 20{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}. Roaring booms and crushing busts are perfectly normal.
41. As the saying goes, “Save a little bit of money each month, and at the end of the year you’ll be surprised at how little you still have.”
42. John Maynard Keynes once wrote, “It is safer to be a speculator than an investor in the sense that a speculator is one who runs risks of which he is aware and an investor is one who runs risks of which he is unaware.”
43. “History doesn’t crawl; it leaps,” writes Nassim Taleb. Events that change the world — presidential assassinations, terrorist attacks, medical breakthroughs, bankruptcies — can happen overnight.
44. Our memories of financial history seem to extend about a decade back. “Time heals all wounds,” the saying goes. It also erases many important lessons.
45. You are under no obligation to read or watch financial news. If you do, you are under no obligation to take any of it seriously.
46. The most boring companies — toothpaste, food, bolts — can make some of the best long-term investments. The most innovative, some of the worst.
47. In a 2011 Gallup poll, 34{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of Americans said gold was the best long-term investment, while 17{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} said stocks. Since then, stocks are up 87{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}, gold is down 35{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}.
48. According to economist Burton Malkiel, 57 equity mutual funds underperformed the S&P 500 from 1970 to 2012. The shocking part of that statistic is that 57 funds could stay in business for four decades while posting poor returns. Hope often triumphs over reality.
49. Most economic news that we think is important doesn’t matter in the long run. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic once wrote, “I’ve written hundreds of articles about the economy in the last two years. But I think I can reduce those thousands of words to one sentence. Things got better, slowly.”
50. A broad index of U.S. stocks increased 2,000-fold between 1928 and 2013, but lost at least 20{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of its value 20 times during that period. People would be less scared of volatility if they knew how common it was.
51. The “evidence is unequivocal,” Daniel Kahneman writes, “there’s a great deal more luck than skill in people getting very rich.”
52. There is a strong correlation between knowledge and humility. The best investors realize how little they know.
53. Not a single person in the world knows what the market will do in the short run.
54. Most people would be better off if they stopped obsessing about Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the president, and focused on their own financial mismanagement.
55. In hindsight, everyone saw the financial crisis coming. In reality, it was a fringe view before mid-2007. The next crisis will be the same (they all work like that).
56. There were 272 automobile companies in 1909. Through consolidation and failure, three emerged on top, two of which went bankrupt. Spotting a promising trend and a winning investment are two different things.
57. The more someone is on TV, the less likely his or her predictions are to come true. (University of California, Berkeley psychologist Phil Tetlock has data on this).
58. Maggie Mahar once wrote that “men resist randomness, markets resist prophecy.” Those six words explain most people’s bad experiences in the stock market.
59. “We’re all just guessing, but some of us have fancier math,” writes Josh Brown.
60. When you think you have a great idea, go out of your way to talk with someone who disagrees with it. At worst, you continue to disagree with them. More often, you’ll gain valuable perspective. Fight confirmation bias like the plague.
61. In 1923, nine of the most successful U.S. businessmen met in Chicago. Josh Brown writes:
Within 25 years, all of these great men had met a horrific end to their careers or their lives:
The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, died a bankrupt man; the president of the largest utility company, Samuel Insull, died penniless; the president of the largest gas company, Howard Hobson, suffered a mental breakdown, ending up in an insane asylum; the president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, had just been released from prison; the bank president, Leon Fraser, had taken his own life; the wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten, died penniless; the head of the world’s greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger the ‘match king’ also had taken his life; and the member of President Harding’s cabinet, Albert Fall, had just been given a pardon from prison so that he could die at home.
62. Try to learn as many investing mistakes as possible vicariously through others. Other people have made every mistake in the book. You can learn more from studying the investing failures than the investing greats.
63. Bill Bonner says there are two ways to think about what money buys. There’s the standard of living, which can be measured in dollars, and there’s the quality of your life, which can’t be measured at all.
64. If you’re going to try to predict the future — whether it’s where the market is heading, or what the economy is going to do, or whether you’ll be promoted — think in terms of probabilities, not certainties. Death and taxes, as they say, are the only exceptions to this rule.
65. Focus on not getting beat by the market before you think about trying to beat it.
66. Polls show Americans for the last 25 years have said the economy is in a state of decline. Pessimism in the face of advancement is the norm.
67. Finance would be better if it was taught by the psychology and history departments at universities.
68. According to economist Tim Duy, “As long as people have babies, capital depreciates, technology evolves, and tastes and preferences change, there is a powerful underlying impetus for growth that is almost certain to reveal itself in any reasonably well-managed economy.”
69. Study successful investors, and you’ll notice a common denominator: they are masters of psychology. They can’t control the market, but they have complete control over the gray matter between their ears.
70. In finance textbooks, “risk” is defined as short-term volatility. In the real world, risk is earning low returns, which is often caused by trying to avoid short-term volatility.
71. Remember what Nassim Taleb says about randomness in markets: “If you roll dice, you know that the odds are one in six that the dice will come up on a particular side. So you can calculate the risk. But, in the stock market, such computations are bull — you don’t even know how many sides the dice have!”
72. The S&P 500 gained 27{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} in 1998. But just five stocks — Dell, Lucent, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart — accounted for more than half the gain. There can be huge concentration even in a diverse portfolio.
73. The odds that at least one well-known company is insolvent and hiding behind fraudulent accounting are pretty high.
74. The book Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? was written in 1940, and most people still haven’t figured out that brokers don’t have their best interest at heart.
75. Cognitive psychologists have a theory called “backfiring.” When presented with information that goes against your viewpoints, you not only reject challengers, but double down on your view. Voters often view the candidate they support more favorably after the candidate is attacked by the other party. In investing, shareholders of companies facing heavy criticism often become die-hard supporters for reasons totally unrelated to the company’s performance.
76. “In the financial world, good ideas become bad ideas through a competitive process of ‘can you top this?'” Jim Grant once said. A smart investment leveraged up with debt becomes a bad investment very quickly.
77. Remember what Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel says: “You have never lost money in stocks over any 20-year period, but you have wiped out half your portfolio in bonds [after inflation]. So which is the riskier asset?”
78. Warren Buffett’s best returns were achieved when markets were much less competitive. It’s doubtful anyone will ever match his 50-year record.
79. Twenty-five hedge fund managers took home $21.2 billion in 2013 for delivering an average performance of 9.1{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}, versus the 32.4{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} you could have made in an index fund. It’s a great business to work in — not so much to invest in.
80. The United States is the only major economy in which the working-age population is growing at a reasonable rate. This might be the most important economic variable of the next half-century.
81. Most investors have no idea how they actually perform. Markus Glaser and Martin Weber of the University of Mannheim asked investors how they thought they did in the market, and then looked at their brokerage statements. “The correlation between self ratings and actual performance is not distinguishable from zero,” they concluded.
82. Harvard professor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says that “virtually everything I taught” in economics was called into question by the financial crisis.
83. Asked about the economy’s performance after the financial crisis, Charlie Munger said, “If you’re not confused, I don’t think you understand.”
84. There is virtually no correlation between what the economy is doing and stock market returns. According to Vanguard, rainfall is actually a better predictor of future stock returns than GDP growth. (Both explain slightly more than nothing.)
85. You can control your portfolio allocation, your own education, who you listen to, what you read, what evidence you pay attention to, and how you respond to certain events. You cannot control what the Fed does, laws Congress sets, the next jobs report, or whether a company will beat earnings estimates. Focus on the former; try to ignore the latter.
86. Companies that focus on their stock price will eventually lose their customers. Companies that focus on their customers will eventually boost their stock price. This is simple, but forgotten by countless managers.
87. Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort looked at analysts’ predictions of interest rates, and compared that with what interest rates actually did in hindsight. It found an almost perfect lag. “Analysts are terribly good at telling us what has just happened but of little use in telling us what is going to happen in the future,” the bank wrote. It’s common to confuse the rearview mirror for the windshield.
88. Success is a lousy teacher,” Bill Gates once said. “It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
89. Investor Seth Klarman says, “Macro worries are like sports talk radio. Everyone has a good opinion which probably means that none of them are good.”
90. Several academic studies have shown that those who trade the most earn the lowest returns. Remember Pascal’s wisdom: “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”
91. The best company in the world run by the smartest management can be a terrible investment if purchased at the wrong price.
92. There will be seven to 10 recessions over the next 50 years. Don’t act surprised when they come.
93. No investment points are awarded for difficulty or complexity. Simple strategies can lead to outstanding returns.
94. The president has much less influence over the economy than people think.
95. However much money you think you’ll need for retirement, double it. Now you’re closer to reality.
96. For many, a house is a large liability masquerading as a safe asset.
97. The single best three-year period to own stocks was during the Great Depression. Not far behind was the three-year period starting in 2009, when the economy struggled in utter ruin. The biggest returns begin when most people think the biggest losses are inevitable.
98. Remember what Buffett says about progress: “First come the innovators, then come the imitators, then come the idiots.”
99. And what Mark Twain says about truth: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is putting on its shoes.”
100. And what Marty Whitman says about information: “Rarely do more than three or four variables really count. Everything else is noise.”
101. Among Americans aged 18 to 64, the average number of doctor visits decreased from 4.8 in 2001 to 3.9 in 2010. This is partly because of the weak economy, and partly because of the growing cost of medicine, but it has an important takeaway: You can never extrapolate behavior — even for something as vital as seeing a doctor — indefinitely. Behaviors change.
102. Since last July, elderly Chinese can sue their children who don’t visit often enough, according to Bloomberg. Dealing with an aging population calls for drastic measures.
103. Someone once asked Warren Buffett how to become a better investor. He pointed to a stack of annual reports. “Read 500 pages like this every day,” he said. “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
104. If Americans had as many babies from 2007 to 2014 as they did from 2000 to 2007, there would be 2.3 million more kids today. That will affect the economy for decades to come.
105. The Congressional Budget Office’s 2003 prediction of federal debt in the year 2013 was off by $10 trillion. Forecasting is hard. But we still line up for it.
106. According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2010, “for every 1{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} decrease in shareholder return, the average CEO was paid 0.02{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} more.”
107. Since 1994, stock market returns are flat if the three days before the Federal Reserve announces interest rate policy are removed, according to a study by the Federal Reserve.
108. In 1989, the CEOs of the seven largest U.S. banks earned an average of 100 times what a typical household made. By 2007, more than 500 times. By 2008, several of those banks no longer existed.
109. Two things make an economy grow: population growth and productivity growth. Everything else is a function of one of those two drivers.
110. The single most important investment question you need to ask yourself is, “How long am I investing for?” How you answer it can change your perspective on everything.
111. “Do nothing” are the two most powerful — and underused — words in investing. The urge to act has transferred an inconceivable amount of wealth from investors to brokers.
112. Apple increased more than 6,000{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} from 2002 to 2012, but declined on 48{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of all trading days. It is never a straight path up.
113. It’s easy to mistake luck for success. J. Paul Getty said, the key to success is: 1) rise early, 2) work hard, 3) strike oil.
114. Dan Gardner writes, “No one can foresee the consequences of trivia and accident, and for that reason alone, the future will forever be filled with surprises.”
115. I once asked Daniel Kahneman about a key to making better decisions. “You should talk to people who disagree with you and you should talk to people who are not in the same emotional situation you are,” he said. Try this before making your next investment decision.
116. No one on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans can be described as a “perma-bear.” A natural sense of optimism not only healthy, but vital.
117. Economist Alfred Cowles dug through forecasts a popular analyst who “had gained a reputation for successful forecasting” made in The Wall Street Journal in the early 1900s. Among 90 predictions made over a 30-year period, exactly 45 were right and 45 were wrong. This is more common than you think.
118. Since 1900, the S&P 500 has returned about 6.5{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} per year, but the average difference between any year’s highest close and lowest close is 23{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}. Remember this the next time someone tries to explain why the market is up or down by a few percentage points. They are basically trying to explain why summer came after spring.
119. How long you stay invested for will likely be the single most important factor determining how well you do at investing.
120. A money manager’s amount of experience doesn’t tell you much. You can underperform the market for an entire career. Many have.
121. A hedge fund once described its edge by stating, “We don’t own one Apple share. Every hedge fund owns Apple.” This type of simple, contrarian thinking is worth its weight in gold in investing.
122. Take two investors. One is an MIT rocket scientist who aced his SATs and can recite pi out to 50 decimal places. He trades several times a week, tapping his intellect in an attempt to outsmart the market by jumping in and out when he’s determined it’s right. The other is a country bumpkin who didn’t attend college. He saves and invests every month in a low-cost index fund come hell or high water. He doesn’t care about beating the market. He just wants it to be his faithful companion. Who’s going to do better in the long run? I’d bet on the latter all day long. “Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with a 130 IQ,” Warren Buffett says. Successful investors know their limitations, keep cool, and act with discipline. You can’t measure that.
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- Published in Blog
The Venture Hitting New Lows – Is it Time for a Turnaround Yet?
The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index dropped -12.81 points today, hitting a 10 year low.
Contrarian investors must be salivating today as oil scraps at the bottom with an 5 year low. Morgan Stanely said that oversupply would most likely peak next year with OPEC deciding not to cut output.
China’s exports rose by 4.7{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}, down from 10.6{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} in October. While the US economy is doing well, China’s economic growth slowed to 7.3{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} in the last quarter, the lowest in 5 years. We are beginning to see history repeat itself on the venture – after 4 years of dropping, it would not be unusual to expect a turnaround in the shortterm. It might go sideways a bit like back in 1991-92 or 2000-2003, however a pattern emerges – take a look back from 1990 to now on the index.
1991-1992> sideways
93> up
94> down
95-96> up
96-99> down
2000> up
00-03> sideways
03-06> up
06-08> down
08-10> up
10-14> down
See the pattern? There is almost a clear back and forth that happens, and following the history, it looks like we are soon to see an uptrend.
- Published in Blog
The MMPR Investments Report: Organigram (OGI:V)
The medical marijuana space in Canada has been crazy for the last year.
From the sudden emergence of a corporate medicinal cannabis supply system to court cases allowing formerly registered users to continue growing their own product, to the crazy profligation of unregulated dispensaries in Vancouver while other cities shut them down as soon as they appear, the mining-to-marijuana rush, the crazy share price spikes and crashes, the suited brokers shoving through barbed wire fences to do deals with motorcycle club employees, the boardrooms with baggies of samples being passed around… nobody could have foreseen the madness.
But out of madness, eventually, comes sanity. And the Canadian weedspace right now is verging on the sane.
Gone are many of the early share price rockets. Companies like Green and Hill, and Growlife, and Enertopia, and Creative Edge Nutrition, which had market caps as high as when they launched, now scrape bottom. The ticker symbol plays like BUD and THC are nowhere to be seen. And investors that, formerly, played all day, bouncing their cash from play to play depending on what was being promoted, are now butthurt, poorer, and looking for where to go next.
That’s the bottom end.
At the top, some serious wheels are turning. I’ve looked deep into the soul of many of these companies and I like what I see. Canadian medical marijuana is a mess of bureaucratic regulations, to be sure, but that torturous process has effectively allowed the market to be filtered through a sieve that has left only the high quality, the well-funded, the professionally run and the well supported companies standing.
Companies like Bedrocan, the Canadian subsidiary of a Dutch parent that has the monopoly on European medical marijuana and has earned $1m in revenue just reselling imported product from its parent. And Tweed, which two licensed facilities and a big war chest, the first mover in the market that stands tall on its effective marketing campaign and US investor base penetration. And Mettrum, a new player that keeps it cards close to its chest while it quietly connects registered patients to its product. And Supreme, which is marching towards its license with a plan to grow medical marijuana in a massive Ontario based facility, and sell it on the cheap to feed the low end of the market.
These are all fine companies. There are others, earlier in their licensing process, that may add to the roster. But there’s one that, right now, to me, has demonstrated it stands tall.
That company is Organigram.
You’ll find it in the Canadian markets under the ticker V.OGI. In the US, it’s OGRMF.
Why do I like this company? How much do I like this company?
Let’s get into that.
Organigram is not selling more weed than anyone else. It’s not got more name recognition than anyone else. It’s not sitting on a billion square feet of growing space. But it has something REALLY important in Canada, and North America proper.
It has a deal.
That deal is with Trauma Healing Centres (or THC), a group that is opening a series of clinics across Canada aimed at treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder. That means, largely, military veterans and first responders.
The deal promises to bring Organigram as much as $22m over the first two years, and to expand outward from that. But while that’s nice, it’s not the most important thing.
The deal also promises to give Organigram a bankable off-take arrangement upon which it can plan ahead. Instead of fighting for every patient, the THC group will bring the patients to them. But that’s not the most important thing.
The deal will embrace Organigram’s certified organic product (something no other company has), and will take advantage of the company’s truly bilingual structure (something, again, no other company has, and which gifts the company Quebec as a virtual monopoly).But, again, not the most important thing.
The important thing is veterans in Canada have government-backed health insurance, and medical marijuana is an accepted treatment for PTSD.
This means Organigram has a deal that, as a first in North America, will be insurance-backed, to serve a large segment of the population exclusively.
Anxiety disorders, or which PTSD is one of the largest segments, cost the US health system $42.3 billion annually, according to the Sidran Institute. Around half of that is spent on drugs, and those drugs are significantly more expensive – and less effective – and have more side effects – than medicinal cannabis.
Currently, Health Canada puts the potential market for medical marijuana at $1.3b per year in 2022. So if Organigram can be the go-to place for Canadian veterans and first responders to turn to for their PTSD relief, the market radically dwarfs the expected registered medical marijuana user for all other ailments.
This won’t happen tomorrow. It won’t happen next month. But when it happens, when the healing centres open and the veterans groups, which are behind THC, start moving their brothers into that system, Organigram won’t have time to scratch itself for all the business it’ll be handling.
And that’s why the company, right now, is working feverishly to expand. All the money it has raised in previous months, all of it is going to expansion of its present facility – something it can do because it just purchased the building next door and worked with the municipality to merge the two properties into one address. No need for a new MMPR!
I own Organigram stock. I’m not selling. I’m going to have to make that disclosure every time I write about this company for a long time to come because I have no plans to cash in my stake. I’m waiting for dividends, and I’m very happy in my belief dividends will one day flow hard.
There are several great investment options in medical marijuana in Canada. You should seriously consider them and invest where you think your money will be safest and most productive.
For me, that’s Organigram. V.OGI. Get in.
Written by: Chris Parry
NOTE: The author of this report has been paid for its production and dissemination and owns Organigram stock. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment and speak to a licensed professional for investment advice.
- Published in Blog
Canada’s Newest Exchange – Aequitas NEO Exchange!
“We at Aequitas are on a mission to reverse the trends that currently trouble our markets, to restore confidence and to build a new exchange that puts the interests of investors and issuers first.”
-Jos Schmitt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aequitas Innovations Inc.
On November 17th, The Ontario Trade Commission has recognized Canada’s newest exchange, the Aequitas Neo Exchange. It is expected to go online March 1, 2015. The last time this happened was the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2004. The ANE aims to limit high frequency trading with higher commissions as well as other bumps. Jos Schmitt, CEO of Aequitas Innovations, hopes to have 20{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce} of the market in trade volume in the next 4-5 years, so its reasonable to expect some aggressive campaigns in the coming months for the exchange.
“We are thrilled to receive approval from the OSC to move forward and launch the Aequitas NEO Exchange,” Schmitt said.
“We appreciate the careful review undertaken by the OSC. We are now in a position to help promote confidence and build an exchange of the future using a bold new blueprint that puts investors, companies and their dealers first.”
Aequitas’ founding shareholders include Barclays Corp Ltd., a subsidiary of the well-known British bank; RBC Dominion Securities Inc.,telecommunications giant BCE; mutual fund companies CI Investments Inc. and IGM Financial (Investors Group); OMERS Capital Markets, the investment arm of the OMERS (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System); and ITG Canada, a market maker.
- Published in Blog
Organigram (TSXV:OGI) has entered into a binding letter of intent with Trauma Healing Centers!
Organigram (TSXV:OGI) Has continued to show its innovation in the marketplace with its latest expansion.
Today, November 11th, Organigram entered into a binding LOI with Trauma Healing Centers. By June 2015 Organigram will cater to 13 new locations, including Edmonton, Ottawa, Quebec and Halifax. Medical marijuana has long been known to aid PTSD users, and this is a major step in bringing it to the public. This collaboration will bring about new research into PTSD and the use of marijuana as treatment. Organigram’s dedication the highest level of quality can easily be seen in its recent internationally recognized organic certifcation.
The current medical marijuana space has seen many turns. The recent changes in Oregon, Alaska and DC joining the legalized world of marijuana shows how new this industry is, and how quickly things are changing. We are only at the beginning of this North American emerging market! With over 1000 applications to Health Canada for licenses, Organigram’s early acceptance will allow them a strong foothold on the growing marketplace.
- Published in Blog
Upcoming Montreal Event – IIROC’s “Tips for Traders Montreal”
MomentumPR strives to provide you the best tools to tackle Canadian small caps today. In this investing environment, staying ahead of the curve is the only way to increase your portfolio. Need to brush up the latest compliance issues? Come check out Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)’s “Tips for Traders Montreal”! Attending will also provide you with 1.5 hours of IIROC Continuing Education Compliance Credits.
The event will cover a variety of subjects, mostly in English. Some topics include
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electronic Trading Rules
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Overview
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TCC Observations
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Third-Party Electronic Access
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Odd-Lot Order Rulings
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Single-Stock Circuit Breakers
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Marketplace Thresholds
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Debt Reporting Update
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Best Execution
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Identification of Trading Groups
Day? Thursday, November 13, 2014
Time? 4:30-6:00pm
Where? Centre Mont-Royal, “Cartier 1”, 3rd Floor, 2200, rue Mansfield, Montreal
Lakeland finishes sampling, mapping program at Star
LAKELAND RESOURCES INC. PROVIDES UPDATE ON 2014 EXPLORATION
Lakeland Resources Inc. is providing an update on recent and planned work at its 100-per-cent-owned Athabasca basin uranium properties.
Highlights
- Star uranium property: completion of follow-up mapping and prospecting at the Star uranium property. This work was completed in order to define the deposit model and the source of the gold, Platinum group element (PGE) and rare earth element (REE) mineralization observed during the fall of 2013;
- Lazy Edward Bay property: exploration permits have been received for the proposed summer work program and crews will begin mobilization to the property as soon as possible. The BAY trend will be the focus of exploration;
- Fond Du Lac property: exploration permits have been received for the proposed summer work program and crews will begin mobilization to the property as soon as possible. The Fond du Lac property is targeting a coincident geochemical and conductive target at the margin of the Athabasca basin.
Star uranium property
Crews from Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd. recently completed a six-day sampling and mapping campaign at the Star uranium property. A total of 73 rock samples and 124 soil samples were collected from in and around the uplifted basement block at the northeastern portion of the property, immediately north of the margin of the Athabasca basin. This work was completed in order to define the deposit model and the source of the gold, platinum group element and rare earth element results obtained in the fall of 2013. The 2013 sampling explored a small portion of the uplifted basement outcrop on the Star property. Anomalous concentrations of gold (up to 5.7 grams per tonne gold), platinum group elements (0.75 g/t PGE), rare earth elements (up to 6.9 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO)) and highly anomalous uranium suggest the presence of a robust hydrothermal system.
Lazy Edward Bay property
Exploration permits have been received for the proposed summer work program, and mobilization to the property will begin as soon as possible. The BAY trend will be tested with a RadonEX survey. This and other targets will be prospected in order to locate boulders or other surface expressions of shallow unconformity-style uranium mineralization.
The BAY trend consists of two parallel conductive trends at the southern margin of the Athabasca basin. The BAY trend is highlighted by historic exploration of Uranerz in 1982, where drill hole LE-50 intersected the basement rocks about one kilometre south of the Athabasca sandstones. Moderately chloritized, sericitized and weakly hematized migmatitic, graphitic pelite returned an assay value of 770 parts per million uranium along with anomalous boron, nickel, pathfinder metals (Sask AR: 74G07-0042).
Fond Du Lac property
Exploration permits have been received for the proposed summer work program, and crews will begin mobilization to the property as soon as possible. The Fond du Lac property is targeting a coincident geochemical and conductive target at the margin of the Athabasca basin.
National Instrument 43-101 disclosure
The technical information above has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the company by Neil McCallum, PGeo, of Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a qualified person.
- Published in Mining
Sirona Subsidiary, TFChem, Receives CDN$1.2 Million for Anti-Aging Project
VANCOUVER, BC–(Marketwired – August 12, 2014) – Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX VENTURE: SBM) (OTCQX: SRBCF) (FRANKFURT: ZSB), (the “Company”) announced that its French subsidiary, TFChem, has received confirmation for funding of CDN$1.2 million from Bpifrance (the French Public Investment Bank) and the district of Haute Normandie in the form of a no-interest loan. The funds will be used to advance the organization’s anti-aging project.
The loan, co-funded by Bpifrance and the district of Haute Normandie, will be dispersed in lump sums and is strictly allocated for advancement of the anti-aging compounds into preclinical testing. Repayment of the loan will be made in installments, beginning in Q3 2018 with the majority being paid after 2020. The company expects to be into substantial milestone and royalty payments before any repayment of the loan begins.
“With the tremendous support provided by this loan the need to arrange financings over the next 12 to 18 months are anticipated to be minimal,” reports CEO and Chairman of Sirona Biochem, Dr. Howard Verrico. “The funding received from Bpifrance and the district of Haute Normandie will enable us to start testing our library of anti-aging compounds without dilution. We are very excited about the potential of these compounds and the interest shown in them.”
The global anti-aging product market is currently valued at over $220 Billion USD with a CAGR of 5.2{92d3d6fd85a76c012ea375328005e518e768e12ace6b1722b71965c2a02ea7ce}. It’s expected to be nearly $285 Billion USD by the year 2018.1
About Sirona Biochem and TFChem
Sirona Biochem is a cosmetic ingredient and drug discovery company with a proprietary technology platform developed at its laboratory facility in France. The company specializes in the stabilization of carbohydrate molecules, with the goal of improving compounds’ efficacy and safety. Sirona Biochem’s compounds are patented as new chemical entities for maximum commercial protection and revenue potential. Newly developed compounds are licensed to leading companies around the world in return for licensing and milestone fees and ongoing royalty payments. TFChem, Sirona Biochem’s wholly-owned French laboratory is a recipient of multiple French national scientific awards and a European Union and French government grant. For more information visit www.sironabiochem.com or www.tfchemistry.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Sirona Biochem cautions you that statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based upon current expectations and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of release of the relevant information, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, Sirona Biochem’s forward-looking statements due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in Sirona Biochem’s business including, without limitation, statements about: the progress and timing of its clinical trials; difficulties or delays in development, testing, obtaining regulatory approval, producing and marketing its products; unexpected adverse side effects or inadequate therapeutic efficacy of its products that could delay or prevent product development or commercialization; the scope and validity of patent protection for its products; competition from other pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies; and its ability to obtain additional financing to support its operations. Sirona Biochem does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.
- Published in Life Sciences
Sirona Biochem Launches Global Awareness Campaign With Cousteau Ambassadors’ Video
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug 21, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — Sirona Biochem Corp. (SBM) (frankfurt:ZSB) launches global awareness campaign with ambassadors’ video produced by the team of Jean-Michel Cousteau and Fabien Cousteau to represent their support of the glycoprotein project.
“The time and effort put into this video illustrates just how dedicated the Cousteaus are to the relationship with Sirona Biochem,” said Howard Verrico, founder and CEO. “Having Jean-Michel and Fabien’s support for this project serves as a reminder of the immense potential value in these compounds.”
Jean-Michel Cousteau and Fabien Cousteau (son and grandson of Jacques Cousteau) are brand ambassadors for Sirona’s glycoprotein project. The project has also been generously supported by Bpifrance (the French Public Investment Bank) and the district of Haute Normandie with funding of CDN$1.2 million in the form of a no-interest loan.
The video can be viewed at the following link: http://youtu.be/s0PDhFOl6Ck
(with German subtitles: http://youtu.be/j5LDgIyzC3Y)
Sirona Biochem also announces attendance at the upcoming BIO Europe conference in Frankfurt Germany Nov 3-5 2014 with support from BIOTECanada and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Global Opportunities for Associations (GOA) program.
About Sirona Biochem Corp.
Sirona Biochem is a biotechnology company developing diabetes therapeutics, skin depigmenting and anti-aging agents for cosmetic use, biological ingredients and cancer vaccine antigens. The company utilizes a proprietary chemistry technique to improve pharmaceutical properties of carbohydrate-based molecules. Sirona Biochem is the parent company of French-based biotechnology company, TFChem. For more information visit www.sironabiochem.com.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Sirona Biochem cautions you that statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based upon current expectations and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of release of the relevant information, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, Sirona Biochem’s forward-looking statements due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in Sirona Biochem’s business including, without limitation, statements about: the progress and timing of its clinical trials; difficulties or delays in development, testing, obtaining regulatory approval, producing and marketing its products; unexpected adverse side effects or inadequate therapeutic efficacy of its products that could delay or prevent product development or commercialization; the scope and validity of patent protection for its products; competition from other pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies; and its ability to obtain additional financing to support its operations. Sirona Biochem does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.
- Published in Life Sciences