I've Been Duped!
They finally got me.
I have just been duped – hoodwinked - had the wool pulled over my eyes - what ever you want to call it, busted for not following a “Golden Rule” that I have been preaching here for years. I can’t say that I don’t know how this happened, because I do, and I’ll explain how this scam worked, but quite honestly I’m more than a little embarrassed over what just transpired a few days ago.
First, what’s this “Golden Rule” that I tell you to follow but I somehow forgot?
“Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.”
Mistakes happen, and while I’m not sure that either Neal Boortz or Harv Ecker, two mentors of mine who have attempted and obviously failed to pound this into my head, would ever forgive me for such a simple oversight, I’m just going to try to let this one slide under the table, and chalk it up to experience.
I feel obligated however to help you learn from my mistake.
So, just how was I played? How could someone like ME miss something like this? The “sting” stems from the newly released 2007 Annual Report when a couple of days ago, one of the Traditionalists posted a comment on my blog that there were only 366 shareholders of company stock.
I simply dismissed it and told this Traditionalist they might have heard something to that effect, but I could assure them, there were more than 366 stockholders of YTBLA. (Myself being one of them.) Another Traditionalist chimed in that this number could in fact be found in the Annual Report on the bottom of page 9.
Now remember my Golden Rule; “Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.” So like a good boy, I opened up the Annual Report and sure enough, there it is.
“As of December 31, 2007, we had 366 shareholders of record of our Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock.”
I was dumbfounded to be honest. I know a ton of people in YTB and when the stock was down in the dumps, I got calls, e-mails, and private messages asking me what I knew what was going on with the company stock. I couldn’t honestly tell them anything I knew because, I really didn’t know why. My gut told me that it would rebound, and I’ve learned to always trust my gut.
By the way, I have very limited experience in this type of stuff. Yes, I own stock, and I also have some mutual funds that I have invested in, but for the most part, investments of this type are of a very limited basis. When I tried to purchase this stock a couple of years ago, I went to a Broker who simply wouldn’t in good conscience let me invest the type of money I was talking about into YTB. While I thought this Analyst was very nice and polite, I wasn’t asking him for advice, I just needed a Broker and it would either be him or someone else. (As it turned out, it ended up being E-Trade.)
When I realized that I was only one of 366 stockholders according to what I was told and I thought I was able to confirm, I had a choice to position this as either be a very risky and lucky investor, or brilliant.
Which position do you think I decided to pick? ;-P
But something just didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t imagine with all the employees at the home office, all the Directors who were vested in stock due to bonuses and many of them had invested early themselves like I did, and all the people calling and e-mailing me in a panic a month or so ago that there were only 366 stock holders at the end of 2007.
It just didn’t add up! (Sorry, had to steal that line.)
With documentation like an Annual Report that’s filed with the SEC, I had to take this as fact. It’s right there in black and white and can’t really argue the point very well now could I? I had seen some of the “Critics” posting on various boards that with only 366 stockholders, manipulation of the stock up or down is very easy to do. Speculation that a couple of Directors had gotten together to drive the price up and then dump it were running amok all over the place. Critics will continue to spread this “Pump and Dump” theory for years to come, trust me.
With all the headlines and focus on the Annual Report about YTB being a Darling, and Stock to watch, I knew that it was Day Traders manipulating the stock price, not Directors, so that spin was extremely easy to dismiss and let go of.
You should too, because it’s complete bunk.
Then yesterday afternoon I got a call from someone cross line to me who I speak with on a regular basis and we exchange what we hear, and most of the time have a good laugh at all the fuss over little ol’ YTB these days.
Then the bombshell came. “Doug” he said, “You know that 366 number that everyone’s been talking about?”
“Yes” I replied.
“That number represents employees at the Home Office not total shareholders.”
WHAT?
Sure enough, I confirmed with an Investment Broker and according to the SEC, the company has to report how many “employees” own stock.
How could I have been so blind to trust a bunch of Critics, Naysayers, Cynics, who’s only mission in life is to “spin”? I actually thought they knew what they were talking about!
So there you have it. How Doug got snookered by the TTA’s and Critics. A cryin’ shame, but I guess it could happen to the best of us.
So the next time you see some “Critic” spout off something as “fact”, please save yourself the embarrassment.
“Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.”
I have just been duped – hoodwinked - had the wool pulled over my eyes - what ever you want to call it, busted for not following a “Golden Rule” that I have been preaching here for years. I can’t say that I don’t know how this happened, because I do, and I’ll explain how this scam worked, but quite honestly I’m more than a little embarrassed over what just transpired a few days ago.
First, what’s this “Golden Rule” that I tell you to follow but I somehow forgot?
“Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.”
Mistakes happen, and while I’m not sure that either Neal Boortz or Harv Ecker, two mentors of mine who have attempted and obviously failed to pound this into my head, would ever forgive me for such a simple oversight, I’m just going to try to let this one slide under the table, and chalk it up to experience.
I feel obligated however to help you learn from my mistake.
So, just how was I played? How could someone like ME miss something like this? The “sting” stems from the newly released 2007 Annual Report when a couple of days ago, one of the Traditionalists posted a comment on my blog that there were only 366 shareholders of company stock.I simply dismissed it and told this Traditionalist they might have heard something to that effect, but I could assure them, there were more than 366 stockholders of YTBLA. (Myself being one of them.) Another Traditionalist chimed in that this number could in fact be found in the Annual Report on the bottom of page 9.
Now remember my Golden Rule; “Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.” So like a good boy, I opened up the Annual Report and sure enough, there it is.
“As of December 31, 2007, we had 366 shareholders of record of our Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock.”
I was dumbfounded to be honest. I know a ton of people in YTB and when the stock was down in the dumps, I got calls, e-mails, and private messages asking me what I knew what was going on with the company stock. I couldn’t honestly tell them anything I knew because, I really didn’t know why. My gut told me that it would rebound, and I’ve learned to always trust my gut.
By the way, I have very limited experience in this type of stuff. Yes, I own stock, and I also have some mutual funds that I have invested in, but for the most part, investments of this type are of a very limited basis. When I tried to purchase this stock a couple of years ago, I went to a Broker who simply wouldn’t in good conscience let me invest the type of money I was talking about into YTB. While I thought this Analyst was very nice and polite, I wasn’t asking him for advice, I just needed a Broker and it would either be him or someone else. (As it turned out, it ended up being E-Trade.)
When I realized that I was only one of 366 stockholders according to what I was told and I thought I was able to confirm, I had a choice to position this as either be a very risky and lucky investor, or brilliant.
Which position do you think I decided to pick? ;-P
But something just didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t imagine with all the employees at the home office, all the Directors who were vested in stock due to bonuses and many of them had invested early themselves like I did, and all the people calling and e-mailing me in a panic a month or so ago that there were only 366 stock holders at the end of 2007.
It just didn’t add up! (Sorry, had to steal that line.)
With documentation like an Annual Report that’s filed with the SEC, I had to take this as fact. It’s right there in black and white and can’t really argue the point very well now could I? I had seen some of the “Critics” posting on various boards that with only 366 stockholders, manipulation of the stock up or down is very easy to do. Speculation that a couple of Directors had gotten together to drive the price up and then dump it were running amok all over the place. Critics will continue to spread this “Pump and Dump” theory for years to come, trust me.
With all the headlines and focus on the Annual Report about YTB being a Darling, and Stock to watch, I knew that it was Day Traders manipulating the stock price, not Directors, so that spin was extremely easy to dismiss and let go of.
You should too, because it’s complete bunk.
Then yesterday afternoon I got a call from someone cross line to me who I speak with on a regular basis and we exchange what we hear, and most of the time have a good laugh at all the fuss over little ol’ YTB these days.
Then the bombshell came. “Doug” he said, “You know that 366 number that everyone’s been talking about?”
“Yes” I replied.
“That number represents employees at the Home Office not total shareholders.”
WHAT?
Sure enough, I confirmed with an Investment Broker and according to the SEC, the company has to report how many “employees” own stock.
How could I have been so blind to trust a bunch of Critics, Naysayers, Cynics, who’s only mission in life is to “spin”? I actually thought they knew what they were talking about!
So there you have it. How Doug got snookered by the TTA’s and Critics. A cryin’ shame, but I guess it could happen to the best of us.
So the next time you see some “Critic” spout off something as “fact”, please save yourself the embarrassment.
“Don’t believe a word you hear, unless you can verify it on your own to be true.”
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Labels: Annual Report, Home Office, MLM Myths, Pump and Dump, SEC, Stock Split, YTB
