Toby Smith, a market analyst for Fox News Channel and best-selling author of investment books, has taken a special liking to a small penny stock called China Tel Group. Indeed, he has been touting the stock to his Twitter followers for the past four months.
Unfortunately for Toby (and those who followed his recommendations,) the Asian broadband wireless company has failed so far to find the financing it needs to stay afloat despite several arrangements with relatively unknown investment firms that have subsequently walked away from the deal several times.
Announcements of the financing deals have caused big spikes in China Tel’s stock price, only to be followed by dramatic drops when the investment firms failed to deliver the cash. Curiously, several China Tel insiders and a mysterious Mexican trust company have cashed out to the tune of several million dollars right before the shares tanked. Apparently, Smith’s stocks have tanked in the past.
From The Street Sweeper:
Despite his popularity, as evidenced by two bestselling business books and a highly rated show on Fox, Smith has a checkered track record at best.
Smith actually began stumbling about a decade ago. He helped launch a high-tech mutual fund at the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Reuters revealed, only to see it shut it down as a result of massive losses – with his second-largest holding plummeting by 90% — less than one year later. He has gone on to embrace some other notorious money-losers since that time.
For example, Smith has often recommended some of the same ill-fated stocks exposed by Citron Research (formerly known as StockLemon) before they crashed. He has also criticized the bearish website, despite its early calls on several doomed companies, along the way.
For his part, Smith told The Street Sweeper that he is confident China Tel will secure new financing and maintains his $8 price target.
“These are engineers and construction guys,” Smith told The Street Sweeper. “They’re not capital market guys. When it comes to capital structure,” he conceded, “they’re knuckleheads.”
Shut the fuck up Kouwe
yet another Cramer dick head. When are we going to start throwing these fucker in jail or better yet sending them to China for some TLC?
I’m a fan of the pump and dump.
-Mrs. Buttkiss
Kouwe? I barely touched the donkey.
@1.. You’re an Idiot. This dude has every right to be called out. Go back to wondering why you couldnt get laid at Brother Jimmys last night
ribbit . . . ribbit . . .
-Lehman Quant who likes the work of cricket guy.
mysterious Mexican trust company = cartel money laundering entity.
There is nothing to these scandalous rumors!
- Dan Dorfman
Me like!
If he’s on Fox, isn’t it presumptuous to assume he has the mental capacity to pull something like a pump-and-dump off?
This Fox News redneck is giving the GOP a bad reputation. Check out his Facebook page. Hell, even Christopher Cox would puke over it (Sarah Palin et al)!
@10 Pump and dump to this douche means jerk off to his old HS yearbook and then take a big crap after lunch.
@2 Spot on. Nothing like telling the common folk to actively manage their portfolio.
Majority of professional managers don’t beat the S&P500 on risk adjusted basis, but CNBC keeps selling pipedreams to all these poor schmucks.
On a side note, my face CNBC guest is this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lereah
you really need to ask?
toby smith’s been doing that FOREVER with changewave.
and his market predictions are dead-on…50%. with no predictive value at turning points in the market.
http://www.cxoadvisory.com/individual-gurus/tobin-smith/
@13 What does Lereah like now?
@15 He hasn’t been in the news for a while, so I’m not totally sure.
Sure can’t wait for his new book so i can go short on whatever asset class he’ll talk about (gold?).
CHTL is still operating, who says it has difficity staying afloat ?. Please visit China and look at their roll out on the ground.
The company is real, projects are proven and they have Chinese government contracts. There was some some law suits agaisnt some of its agents and arose some unhappy brokers. So…..they went on a rampage to “play the stock” “pump and dump”. eg. eg Ex-WestMorons – then to CKCooping…
Visit http://www.chinatelgroup.com for a more accurate picture. You will then know the big potential that is ahead once funding hits
@14, Tip ‘o the hat.
@17,18,19: Eat shit and die.
@20, wow you have china broken english.
you are still using fake id, hiding under your mama’s skirt and feed off her cum juice and your daddy’s spent.
Can you defend your story ?.
Heard from the grapevine that Tobin has engaged several Wall Street Lawyers to come after you. Take care.
It isn’t uncommon for a company to have a few problems or setbacks raising a round. However, this company has (as per YHOO) Revs (ttm) of less than $500,000. Debt is at over $215m and cash in the bank less than $20,000(!). Oh, and they have about 170,000,000 shares outstanding.
I haven’t even looked at the Q or K but I’d bet a buck this thing has a giant overhang. Where does one begin…?
Good ol Tobin still at it. This is same guy who pumped out the Change Wave investment news letter that had more spec plays than hookers servicing our ex gov. He forgot to mention he was being compensated by them for his touts. The other half of his letter he spent crowing about 500 dollar bottles of wine he is tasting and recommending. Wine advice good..Stock advice…Well now he is picking stocks in China. Draw your own conclusions.
Tobys picks…lol…you are broke by now and China is a pipe dream
Tobin Smith of Changewave investing recently published a glowing piece on Emcore.
http://www.moneyshow.com/investing/articles.asp?aid=tptp082108-15102
In his recommendations he seems to break the law countless times with a multitude of Reg FD violations.
For those of you who do not know Tobin, he is a newsletter writer with a sizeable following of the lowest common denominator of investors. This is not the first time Citron has encountered Tobin. He has been equally as bullish on three other stocks we profiled.
The first was Interpharma, (AMEX:IPA) which Citron wrote about when it was $7. Tobin called it a “legacy buy”.
http://www.citronresearch.com/index.php/2003/09/22/
The “ legacy” of IPA is 5c per share.
Marketwatch wrote the story of Tobin vs. Citron.
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BD2D8E0B3-CF81-450F-8AED-96A2E672ADFE%7D&siteid=mktw
Then there was Zeros and Ones (OTCBB:ZROS). In 2007, Tobin recommended this company that he claimed was going to revolutionize file transport speeds on the internet. His subscribers bought the stock up. Citron reported on ZROS :
http://www.citronresearch.com/index.php/2007/03/20/stocklemon-reports-on-zeros-and-ones-otcbbzros/
ZROS is now VOYT and the stock now trades at .16 cents.
American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) In June and July this year, Citron warned about this company, which Tobin went on to recommended just a few weeks ago at $38, with advice to “get more aggressive” at $35. Just three months later, today you can buy all you want around $21, and you don’t have to get aggressive about it, either.
So now we have our fourth stock to add to the list. Citron is so convinced of the terminal nature of Emcore’s problems that it makes this prediction: Not even Tobin Smith’s ego can save this company from its fate of ending up in penny stock land. Citron Research vs. Tobin Smith is like the Harlem Globetrotters vs The Washington Generals
A pump and dump is a good way for traders to make money. If you know that is the case play the stock accordingly and dont get caught in the end of the dump. Stop complaining and try to learn something.
mlmorrison, Good question, I will keep this stock as long as I see positive results and progress that lead to earnings. The amount of money used here falls into the speculative category. Regards, tsmith
Totally agree. It is really profitable idea for people who have not much experience and money. I get the latest news on http://www.stockhaven.com . Chat room for discussion are available. It is very website.