To OTC Journal Members:
 

General Comment

We are living in times we may never see again for decades. These are the times we will tell our Grandchildren about. The NASDAQ exploded from 2400 in the Fall of 1999 to 5200 in the Spring of 2000. Many stocks rocketed from the teens to the two hundreds in a matter of months.

This bubble burst when Wall Street admitted that the Internet would not revolutionize the way people shopped. Wall Street had to accept the fact the billions raised for Dot-Com start ups would vaporize due to flawed business model assumptions.

We are now one or two percentage points away from the worst bear market in NASDAQ history. From feast to famine in one short year. In the middle of this unprecedented violent market swing came the first Presidential election in history to be hotly contested. No winner was determined until weeks after the election date, and our current President won by a few scant votes in Florida and a Supreme Court decision.

Times like this don't come along every day. You probably won't remember how much you made or lost on any particular stock in these turbulent times 10 years from now. You will remember the nasty bear market at the beginning of the 21st Century and the Presidential election. The grizzled old Wall Street veterans can no longer say today's investor has never seen a true bear market.
 

Many Thanks For Your Kind Comments

We received an unprecedented amount of complimentary mail on our Wednesday edition where we called Trading Alerts on JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK).

We nearly called a rebound perfectly, but our concept was derailed by Oracle's late day warning on Thursday. Nokia did extremely well for our members. It opened at $22.10 on Thursday morning and has since seen a high of $25.30 for a 14.5% return in two days.

JDS Uniphase was not as cooperative, only seeing an 11% return at the top from Thursday morning's entry level of $26.50. We may be in the midst of a short term relief rally. Monday will be important. Don't be afraid to lock in your profits and give up a little upside. The perception of future economic activity is deteriorating daily, making a tough environment for stocks. 

Bears are looking for the NASDAQ to drop to the 1800 level. A few bulls see a relief rally to the 2800 level. We're not sure where it's going, but we know the market won't stay this bad forever. Odds are with the bulls over the longer term. We have been in a long term bull market since the first stock certificates changed hands on the London Stock Exchange in 1830. One might argue that all bear markets have just been corrections in a multi century bull market.

We believe there is no more than 10 or 15% downside risk in the market. The real question is not how much farther stocks will go down, rather when will they start to go back up.

Many thanks to our friends at the Swing Wire (www.swingwire.com) for the trading ideas.
 

A Subtle Shift in Patterns

Bulls were heartened by a subtle shift in trading patterns this past week. During the last June quarterly earnings season a pattern was established. Stocks were trading up nicely in advance of their quarterly earnings releases, then getting killed if they came a little short or met expectations. Companies that beat their expectations also sold off, just not as violently.

This past week we began to see the other side of that coin. Shares of companies announcing business slow downs and downward earnings revisions actually went up, leaving many Bulls optimistic that all bad news has already been priced into stocks. The following companies traded up this week after announcing slow downs:

• Millipore (NYSE: MIL)
• Amphenol (NYSE: APH)
• Applied Micro Circuits (NASDAQ: AMCC)
• Latice Semi Conductor (NASDAQ: LSCC)

This statement caused a major shake up on Wall Street. Analysts assumed all software companies were experiencing the same environment, and there were over 30 downgrades on software companies on Friday.

The Oracle announcement may just be a bump on the road in a relief rally, or it might be the catalyst for the next leg down. We hope the pattern will continue of stocks trading up on bad news.
 

Special Edition on Tuesday- After Envoy's Annual Shareholder Meeting

Tuesday, March 6th is the Envoy Communications (NASDAQ: ECGI) annual shareholder meeting. This stock is our favorite in the small cap sector. We are expecting several exciting news announcements to come out of this meeting. We will publish a special Tuesday night announcement covering events.

The stock has held well in the mid to low $3 range, and those of you who are accumulating the stock might want to add to positions in advance of the meeting.
 

In the News- Visa Gold Explorations (CDNX: YVL)

We have been following Visa Gold since December. This stock is a speculator's dream, and should be relatively immune to the bear market and economic slow down. 

Visa Gold is the first commercial company to explore Cuban waters for ancient ship wrecks in partnership with Government owned corporations. Their first discovery, the brigantine ship “Palemón” lay undisturbed for 161 years until discovered in August of last year by Visa Gold in partnership with Cuban Crown Corporation Geomar S.A. Thousands of valuable artifacts have been recovered from this site.

Both volume and price have been improving in this stock recently. The stock has moved up from the mid $.40 range to a closing price of $.67 on Friday in the past two weeks.

On Thursday morning Visa Gold put out a press release which may help explain the recent activity in the stock. The company announced it had entered into a Joint Venture with a Bahamian based company to explore Havana Harbor for ship wrecks.

It has been long believed there are many valuable ship wrecks in Havana Bay, but these waters have remained unexplored. The bay is very murky and about 400 feet deep. Over the centuries many ships have sunk in this harbor from the cannons mounted to defend the port from attack.

Under the agreement, Ocean Technologies Ltd. will deploy a two-person submersible to survey areas in a territory from the historic Havana Harbor to the Bay of Honda.

We are planning to interview management on these new developments, but they were in Cuba this week and could not be reached for comment.

The stock was over $1 when we first released our profile at the end of November. If you are unfamiliar with this company now would be a good time to review our profile and past editions on this company. The stock could be heating up. Click Here to go directly to our archive section on the company, or go to the Profile Archives on the left hand menu bar of our home page. Go to the November 10th edition for the original profile.

The stock trades on the new heavily regulated CDNX Canadian exchange. A phone call to your trading desk is required if you are a US investor and wish to pick up shares of the stock. The above prices are quoted in Canadian dollars.

SwingWire.com also has a lucrative incentive model for experienced investors and traders who consistently outperform the market. Share market ideas with other like-minded investors, establish a proven track record, provide insightful commentary, attract followers and ultimately become one of the Internet's highest paid and most sought after CyberAnalysts! 

Click here to receive your FREE 30-Day Trial Membership with no further obligation. Sign Up Today! 
 

Click Here to view our compensation on every company we have ever covered, or visit the following web address:  http://www.otcjournal.com/disclaimer.html for our full profiles and http://www.otcjournal.com/trading-alerts/disclaimer.html for Trading Alerts. MarketByte LLC has been paid a fee of $25,000 for the release of this report by the Investor Relations Group acting on behalf of Visa Gold Explorations.

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