Now that the beer fog has cleared somewhat, here are some other observations.
Compared to previous years, the place was dead. Sure, there were people shuffling around. But I had broken a toe on Saturday in an unrelated event, and was a little nervous about getting it stepped on in the crowds (which would have been a given in any of the last three years). But I had no problems on Tuesday--in fact I hardly needed to exercise any vigilance at all, because the aisles seemed quite a bit wider than usual (fewer booths by far), and there were several booths missing at the ends of the crossways, so they were wider too. And there just weren't that many people there.
In other good news, somebody out of the blue asked me to do some work for them. I hadn't planned to look for any work, figuring it was probably pointless, at least among the companies that did show up.
There was a rumour that about 100 companies that had registered to have booths at the investor's exchange didn't bother coming.
These points seem to suggest we are close to a bottom in psychology--and the few financings that have occurred, and someone asking me if I could do some work for them, both point to an improving market. Unfortunately, my gut tells me that not enough bad companies died during the downturn.
One last point of interest--I was talking to a mining securities lawyer acquaintance of mine in one of the hospitality suites and I got to discussing one of my favourite topics--the manner in which NI 43-101 regulations skew the market in favour of larger interests, particularly institutional investors (to the detriment of the retail investor). It didn't surprise me that he agreed with me. It was the way he agreed with me. "Well, duh!". He did suggest that if the retail investor wants to front-run the market like a bank, then let him hire his own team of geos.
Compared to previous years, the place was dead. Sure, there were people shuffling around. But I had broken a toe on Saturday in an unrelated event, and was a little nervous about getting it stepped on in the crowds (which would have been a given in any of the last three years). But I had no problems on Tuesday--in fact I hardly needed to exercise any vigilance at all, because the aisles seemed quite a bit wider than usual (fewer booths by far), and there were several booths missing at the ends of the crossways, so they were wider too. And there just weren't that many people there.
In other good news, somebody out of the blue asked me to do some work for them. I hadn't planned to look for any work, figuring it was probably pointless, at least among the companies that did show up.
There was a rumour that about 100 companies that had registered to have booths at the investor's exchange didn't bother coming.
These points seem to suggest we are close to a bottom in psychology--and the few financings that have occurred, and someone asking me if I could do some work for them, both point to an improving market. Unfortunately, my gut tells me that not enough bad companies died during the downturn.
One last point of interest--I was talking to a mining securities lawyer acquaintance of mine in one of the hospitality suites and I got to discussing one of my favourite topics--the manner in which NI 43-101 regulations skew the market in favour of larger interests, particularly institutional investors (to the detriment of the retail investor). It didn't surprise me that he agreed with me. It was the way he agreed with me. "Well, duh!". He did suggest that if the retail investor wants to front-run the market like a bank, then let him hire his own team of geos.
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