I talked to you about Macmillan nott too long ago when it was at 27¢.Now its at $1.00. ButI sold out too early. Worried over a coming
major correction in the precious metals...though it seems so unlikely with the dollar going nowhere but down.Time will tell.
I hope some of you took a bit of money off the table with Montello...just to be on the safe side. I sold a bit to bring down my average to about 10¢. I do hope they succeed
.
NOw for a new stock I fell upon last week. 10 bagger possibility within 3 weeks. You are the first people to hear about this stock because I just discovered it and haven't had time to talk to others yet. The company is called Portrush (PSH.V)
1-They have 10% participation in deep wells in MISSion River. That is their bread and butter. They make about $1million a year and that pays for all their expenses including their drilling.
2-They are almost finished drilling ( a couple of days left) a well in Ontario where they have 87%working interest (even though on their website they speak of 50%, they have corrected that in one of their news releases and I got it confirmed over the telephone by the IR man). They are drilling a gas reservoir the size of which is about 1200 feet by 2300 feet. Their reservoir is situated between 2 other reservoirs that have already produced about 6 billion cubic feet each. It took the company 27 years to buy out all the farmers. So there are high hopes riding on this field and management believes it could be a company maker. The reservoir is not quite as big as the other two but 3-4 billion cubic feet seems very reasonable. If they were able to produce just 3million cubic feet a day at 6$ per 1000 cubic ft, that would earn the company about $18,000 per day, $ 540,000. a month, 6,570,000 with very little expense.

What is beautiful: it trades at .07¢, they are very low profile, and there are only 44-45 million shares. Even without the Ontario property, they are very undervalued in my opinion. The company wants to grow but safely, so they won't take high risks. There is very little downside to the stock even if the Ontario well doesn't come through. The news went unnoticed. So one shouldn't get hurt and with new wells from Mission River coming on stream will help the stock move back to the 25-50 cent area where it belongs.

Likewise 10bagger good to hear from you again.
I still have my holdings of AUL (decided the lesser no. shares gave better exposure than MEO) and like everyone else am waiting on results. Will start doing my DD on PSH. Thanks for the heads up and best of luck to you.
Cheers

Here we go:

Sorry for not formatting it. But I think it will answer your question. There are around $2 m stock options around.

comes from CapitalIQ:

Stock Option Grants in Fiscal 2006 Ended 12/31/2006
____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

Percentage Market Value of Securities
Number of Exer. Underlying Options
of Total Price on Date
Options Options Per Grant Expiration of Grant
Name Granted Granted Share Date Date Per Share
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Cotter 1,500,000 55.0% $0.15 4/10/2006 4/10/2009 $0.17
Wes Franklin 0 0.0%
Neal Iverson 100,000 4.0% $0.15 4/10/2006 4/10/2009 $0.17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employees/Consultants 1,125,000 41.0%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 2,725,000 100.0%


Aggregated Stock Options Exercised in Fiscal 2006
Fiscal Yearend Unexercised Stock Options
Fiscal Yearend Stock Option Values
Senior Management/Directors
____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Number Value of Unexercised
of Number of In-the Money
Shares Unexercised Options Options at
Acquired Aggregate at Fiscal Yearend Fiscal Yearend
on Value Exercisable/ Exercisable/
Name Exercise Realized Unexercisable Unexercisable
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Cotter 0 $0 1,500,000/ nil $nil/ $nil
Wes Franklin 0 $0 300,000/ nil $nil/ $nil
Neal Iverson 100,000 $15,000 200,000/ nil $nil/ $nil
Subtotal 100,000 $15,000 2,000,000/ nil $nil/ $nil
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Others 525,000 $78,750 1,880,000/ nil $nil/ $nil
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 625,000 $93,750 3,000,000/ nil $nil/ $nil


Regards

10bag: I'm not sure what you meant by your statement: I think the options given to the employees is a way to raise cash for the company. What exactly do you mean by that. How do options raise cash for the company? The only way employees would give up their cash is if the stock option price was "in the money". And that don't raise money, it just sells them the stock at a discounted price. Perhaps I am missing something here?

employee stock options are not sold to the employees. They are used as an inducement to keep the employee with the company. For instance, I receive options where I work now. They are issued every other year for me. The option price is set using a day specific, usually the day before it is ussued, as the future strike price. For instance, this last round I received 5,000 shares with a strike price of $26. These vest over a five year period. In other words, one year from now, I can buy, or cash in, 20% of those shares for $26. Provided the then current price is higher, I could cash them in if I wanted to. If the price is $30, I can convert the one thousand shares (20% of 5,000) to either $4,000 in cash (which counts as personal income, not long term gains), or let it ride hoping the price will be higher in the future. And I have 5 sets of options over the last 10 years that are in various stages of vesting (some 100%).
The CEO you talked with could well be right in that they sell stock to the employees without having to go public. Any company that is incorporated has shares. That's how the corporations are set up. And they can sell those shares directly to the employees as a way to raise money. But you don't sell them options, you grant them options.

Hey Willy

Can you give some more info. where i can find Capitall Q on the net.
thanks....turbomut

1-at-the-track: Thanks for info. More questions about options: Whe you exercise opitions you mean the company offers you shares that you can buy at a fixed price for so many years. Where does the company take those shares? From the market? It's holdings?

2-vrian9240. I hate that when people say I'm pushing shares. I'm not. I discover stuff that I think others can get in on if they choose. This is another gambling situation with fairly little downside risk. But I'm playing Portrush because I like the odds. If it goes up to 15 cents I'll will sell 30 % of my holdings to protect myself. I deal with 3 online brokers and use mostly CIBC because Inow pay a $6.95 commission because they offer a deal of 50 trades for something like 375$ and once you've done 50 trades you get to pay $6.95.
Maybe somebody else can help you better. From what I can tell, you can't afford to gamble on these kinds of plays. If it doesn't feel right don't touch it. If you are a conservative investor, put away some cash and wait for good market corrections even if it takes 6 months. I'm remaining 50% in cash waiting for those kind of opportunities. There are safer longer term 10 baggers out there . You have to be patient.
For example, I was watching (HVG) Harvest Gold for 2 years. Bought some in March 07 at .15 cents and sold them for 25. in August. BOught them back at .17 cents about 10 days ago, they are now .37 cents. This company is a 10 bagger in my book.I like their properties. But I wouldn't buy it at these prices unless they came out with great news on a bad market day. Otherwise. I'll wait for a pull back in the 20-25 cents area to buy more. If we get a steep gold correction and market correction over the next month ( I sort of expect it) most stocks will drop and Harvard could be right back at 17-18 cents unless it keeps climbing to 60-70 cents over the next few days which I doubt. Today I bought 3000 shares of AZA at .59cents. I knew I was paying too much but it doesn't really matter because I'Ll be averaging down over the next month and my goal is to buy at least 10,000 shares and maybe 15000 depending on the price it goes down to. We should see it go back to the high 40's in the next few days. I like this company because its owns 100% of the property it is drilling in one of Argentina 's good basins. It has 375,000 acres of land. It has 3 X 100% properties in Argentina and 1X100% in Columbia. I could have bought shares at .40 cents a few months back but hesitated because they have 108 million shares fully diluted. I prefer companies with less than 50 million. I gain nothing and lose nothing by sharing stock information. If you like what I present, good. If not...pass. Do your due diligence. Hope all this helps someone.

Thanks for the response I didn't mean anything negative with the "pushing stocks" comment other than the stocks you recommend. Obviously everyone should do their own diligent homework and I love hearing others research and opinions so keep the recommendations coming.

at-the-track
Great stuff. Never been so clear. I'll be copying this stuff into a special folder to help others understand how options work. I really want to thank you. This info will be greatly appreciated for years to come.All the best to you.

One thing I think you left out regarding options.

Let's say you have options on your company's stock at $26 per share and you decide to exercise the options and hold hte stock. If the stock is at $40 when you exercise the option to buy it at $26, the $14 per share difference immediately becomes taxable income. That's why most people hold the options until they decide to exercise them.

When the bubble burst back in 2000, a number of people got into trouble with the IRS because they had exercised their options above the strike price, but held their shares until they were worth less than the strike price. If they had sold their stock the same year they exercised their options, they would have been OK. Instead, the held the shares until the next year, when they had lost much of their value. Since capital gain losses are capped at $3000 per year, they took a beating.

The tax code could have changed since then, but I haven't followed up.

Personally, my options were worth over $300K at one point, but I wasn't vested any at all until after the third year. They were worthless by that point.

Mike

Hi 10bagger,

I've sussed out Portrush (PSH - X) and see that it is trading at .09 as of Oct.19 with a 2 star rating from Globeinvestor. It actually went up not down on the day. I'm tempted to jump in based on your recommendations and was wondering if you are still bullish on this one? How do you feel about Harvest Gold (HVG) right now?

Thanks for your input,
StockLord

Sorry about the last post here, meant for it to be posted as a new thread.

SL

Just to keep you informed.

2007-10-22 13:49 ET - News Release
Mr. Martin Cotter reports
PORTRUSH COMMENCES DRILLING IN ONTARIO
Portrush Petroleum Corp. has been advised that the drilling contractor has commenced drilling the Portrush No. 1-Moore 5-13-III in Moore township, Lambton county, Southwestern Ontario. The six-billion-cubic-foot prospect is located in the heart of gas-storage country on trend and midpoint between two pinnacle reef gas storage pools, Kimball Colinville and Waubuno. The operator anticipates reaching total depth by mid-November.

The Waubuno pool produced 6.01 billion cubic feet before being converted to gas storage and this pinnacle reef prospect is postulated to have a similar reservoir with slightly less volume of gas in place.

Due to leasing problems the drilling has been delayed for 37 years. The leasing problem was resolved through force pooling in February, 2007. Portrush Petroleum holds an 89-per-cent interest in the project.

The project involves 150 acres all of which have been spaced through Moore 5-13-III spacing order 2005-8. In 2006, a pooling order application was made to the Mining and Lands Commissioner and was granted as No. OG-003-6 on Feb. 5, 2007. The pooling order effectively forces a P&NG lease on the holdout with terms identical to the leases signed by the remainder of the lessors.

The prospect is favourably located with respect to a Union Gas pipeline tie-in located on the Kimball Side Road approximately 1.55 miles from the prospect.

Who else keeps an eye on the high-tech startup company that aims to turn old Soviet plutonium warheads into electricity for Russia, and maybe keep even keep nukes out of the hands of terrorists? The company says it is within arm's reach of turning plutonium warheads into electricity. All it takes is persuading the U.S. government to back the plan.

The 52 week high low runs $.15 to $.44. It's off 5 cents today at $.39. I was a Johnny-come-lately. Jumped in when the new CEO took over. At the time the price was $.27.

Recommend anyone interested do their DD.

Just some background info. I had Thorium power on my screen - but in my alzheimer moment (6 months actually) - it fell off my screen. Thorium is poor man's uranium - several countries that are uranium, O&G challenged, are looking to develop Thoruim power plants (India is proabably the lead here, and has several projects ongoing). The technology is a bit tricky, not a sure thing, so I cant say if the company has a handle on this - but they do have a few projects to demonstrate feasibility. In view of the stock runup, the market has voted on their technology?

BTW I've enjoyed some nice trades on this stock with in the market range of .18 to .28 cents (in & out) right now, probably "over bought". Just my 2 cents. Regards.

Agreed Roadster.

clarification to hexdek - sorry, what I meant was pound for pound (or rad for rad), thorium is not as effective in producing elec as uranium. It is more abundant, but purification technology (needed) is not as advanced as uranium....