Stock price when the opinion was issued
(A Top Pick Aug 5/15. Down 21.47%.) A complicated story and difficult for people to understand. This is based on the possession and use of gold to undertake transactions for goods, and set up arrangements with MasterCard (MC-N) and other major card services. They are building subscribers. He still likes.
Trying to create gold as a currency. You deposit gold and they store it for you, and then you use it like a debit card. Has a very good customer growth rate. A lot of people like the concept. They are really trying to change the world a little. Management has a pretty good pedigree. They’ve raised some money and the growth is there. Unfortunately, customer acquisition costs are quite high. He isn’t really excited about this and wouldn’t expect a whole lot of profits for a couple of years. Maybe a better stock down the road.
This is where you can deposit gold and have access to it at merchants, whoever will accept that as a form of payment. He likes the concept, but it is still a little too early. You are now competing with all kinds of other alternatives as well. This has a good management team and they’ve done some good acquisitions. Their customer acquisition costs are still kind of high, and the industry acceptance is still not quite there.
Zero rates are about to nudge higher and Quantitative Easing by buying bonds is starting to taper and unwind. The European Central Bank announced that instead of buying $60 billion of their bonds, they are now buying $30 billion each month, and that is going to zero by September of next year. Therefore, the thesis of gold going up in the next 18 months is going to look a lot different. The scenario of not trusting your own currency has a lot of bigger problems, and in that environment, this would be a higher risk stock. Don't be afraid of peeling off profits.
He was a founding shareholder. It treated him well. Sold his holdings because it exceeded every possible expectation he had for it in a short period of time. Good management. They are adding assets under management very quickly, and are expanding into the physical gold space. He hopes to be in competition with them in a joint venture with Tradewinds with a blockchain cleared and settled with a gold physical token.
Doesn't know this super well, but obviously with what is going on in the blockchain/Bitcoin space, this is a bit of a hybrid. They are doing a similar type of business in gold. You are seeing a big trend and big interest in that sector, but at the same time, you are also seeing gold and a commodity increase. An interesting way to have an alternate form of currency in gold. If you think gold is going up and that we are going to start looking at alternative currencies, this is an interesting one to hold.
Has been adding to his holdings. He loves the concept. It is complete destructive technologies. This company has figured out a way to monetize physical gold that is stored around the world. Launched in April and have over 500,000 accounts now. Thinks the concept will continue to grow. They have no debt and it is growing quite fast.