Petróleo sob pressão após ataque dos EUA ao Irão

[HRamos_3]

Uma situação curiosa que tenho acompanhado nos últimos dias, e como se diria em inglês, food for thought....

A Social Network With No Members, but a $6 Billion Valuation
By SCOTT AUSTIN and JEFF ELDER

A screenshot of Introbiz.com, run by CNYK Technology.
How can a social network that no one has ever heard of suddenly be valued at more than $6 billion?

That’s what is happening with the one-time penny stock, Cynk Technology, which is up more than 100-fold since mid-June, bringing its market capitalization to more than $6 billion on Thursday. Yet the self-proclaimed social network has no revenue, no product, no assets and one employee.

If it’s true that there’s a sucker is born every minute, then many of them trade on the penny-stock market. As The Wall Street Journal wrote this week, the world of penny stocks is “a historical haven for con men and hustlers that the FBI says is ‘rife with fraud.’”

Cynk’s various securities filings from 2012 to 2013 read like a satirical article from The Onion. Let us count the red flags:

–The company’s business plan is vague and poorly written, containing gems like: “Instead of paying for a lunch that neither party wants to eat, parties can get down to business knowing that their time has been valued.” Here’s the full boilerplate from the IPO filing, when the company was called Introbuzz CYNK -5.51%, not to be confused with its proposed website, Introbizz.com, which is now actually Introbiz.com (emphasis ours):

We are a development stage company formed in the state of Nevada on May 1, 2008 as a web based social network service founded on the premise that personal networks and contacts are valuable. Social networks are web based services that allow individuals to post a profile and link their profile to other friends and organizations. To date, social networks such as Linkedin.com and Facebook.com have generated enormous popularity. Social networks have largely been a “personal branding” exercise or for pure entertainment to see what friends or associates are doing.

Introbuzz plans to be a social network that is also based of showing the types of people you are connected with and are associated. However, it’s also based on the idea that people should, and will pay to get in touch with people you know. Furthermore, money or donations act as a convenient reason to get in touch with people who can benefit your career or enhance one’s life.

We believe that people will pay for introductions that are meaningful since it can save or create significant value to someone’s life such as to find the right executive, nanny, software developer – or even the right squash player. Instead of paying for a lunch that neither party wants to eat, parties can get down to business knowing that their time has been valued.

– Introbizz.com was supposed to launch in the second quarter of 2012. It’s still not operating. Cynk does, however, appear to have started a site under the Introbiz.com domain name, which isn’t listed in any of the filings.

– No revenue yet. But, get this: “Introbuzz believes a social network that generates revenue is a compelling reason to get people to join.”

So how does Cynk expect to make money? Not advertising, it says. But it’s not exactly clear in the business plan: “[T]o reach people in your network, you should have to pay a fee either to the person introducing and/or to the person you wish to meet. The fee can be directly donated to charity, or received as cash.” So money flows from one person to the other.

Looking at Introbiz.com, which the website calls “The Social Marketplace,” it appears to connect users with people in all walks of life for a fee. Want to reach actor Leo DiCaprio? Get his contact information for only $50! Clicking on “business professionals” allows you to meet people like “Nspire Walker,” listed in the “speech & motivation” category for $450.

Regardless, the company says in its filings that it is “likely to fly under the radar for some time.”

–Four chief executives since 2008. That’s a lot of chiefs for a company that isn’t up and running yet. The 10-K from May 2013 says John Kueber was the CEO from 2008 through October 2011 and then Kenneth Carter took over. A few months later, in the 10-Q, Marlon Luis Sanchez was listed as the CEO, having started in April 2013.

Who is Sanchez? According to a Cynk proxy filing, he is a partner in Sanchez Medical Services, which provides comprehensive medical services to the Southern California market. He is also the “primary spokesperson” for the Medical Tourism Industry council in Tijuana, Mexico. Not exactly a Mark Zuckerberg type.

Reached by phone Thursday, Sanchez said he left the company several months ago. “I worked my magic for a year, my friend, and now you can see the results,” he said, adding that he couldn’t speak further at this time.

UPDATE: A document from June reveals who replaced Sanchez at CEO: Javier Romero, whose address is listed in Belize City, Belize. The letter — from law offices of Harold P. Gerwerter, who writes that he signed off on Cynk’s latest disclosures — disclosed that Romero purchased 210 million shares from Sanchez in February. Those shares were worth more than $3.5 billion during trading on Thursday.

In response to an email from The Journal, Gewerter replied, “I no longer represent that company.” He wouldn’t grant an interview. In his June letter, he listed Romero’s address as Suite 400 in a Belize City business center. However, a staff member at the business center said there is no Suite 400.

As for Carter, Cynk said he is CEO of Blaque Technology, a “marketing, promotions, web building/trafficking, and entertainment casting company based in Las Vegas.”

Reached on Wednesday, Carter said he received many calls about the company’s stock climb and was surprised to discover his name is still on company documents. “I thought this was done,” he said. “I resigned.”

Carter said he had the initial idea for the social network and got the support of investors that he declined to specify. He said the investors took the company in a different direction than he had in mind, so he quit and dumped his stock at the advice of his attorney (without specifying to us who bought those shares). He says he believes the current market cap is not based in reality. “How could it be worth it?” he said.

– 10 hours. That is how much time per week Cynk says Sanchez devoted to company matters.

–A lack of internal controls. This is perhaps investors’ biggest red flag. In the risk factors section of the IPO filing, there is the standard filing language about required internal controls over financial reporting. If you don’t have the necessary controls in place, such as an audit committee or a board, it’s hard for anyone to have much faith in your financials. As of Dec. 31, 2012, management concluded the internal controls weren’t effective:

Material weaknesses noted by our management include lack of a functioning audit committee; lack of a majority of outside directors on our board of directors, resulting in ineffective oversight in the establishment and monitoring of required internal controls and procedures; inadequate segregation of duties consistent with control objectives and affecting the functions of authorization, recordkeeping, custody of assets, and reconciliation; and, management dominated by a single individual/small group without adequate compensating controls.

We’ve reached out to the parties involved with Cynk and will update the post if we hear from them. It isn’t exactly clear how this stock jumped so quickly. In an era of venture-funded apps that send “Yo” and potato-salad crowdfunding campaigns, it’s easy to scream, “Bubble!” But there is likely something deeper going on related to the speculative world of penny stocks. Stocks site Seeking Alpha has an interesting theory.

The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/10/ ... valuation/

Cynk Technology Is The New Scheme In Town
BY Paulo Santos, Think Finance - Long/short equity, arbitrage, event-driven, research analyst

Cynk Technology is an abomination and a clear short sell which will drop 99.9% with 100% certainty.
However, it's also an example of a new kind of scheme built to extract money from the market.
This article explains the scheme.
You've probably never heard of Cynk Technology (OTCPK:CYNK). Unless you've been following Twitter the last couple of days, that is (Source for chart: Interactive Brokers).

(click to enlarge)


CYNK now has nearly $6 billion in market capitalization. Which isn't bad for a company you've never heard of. That has 1 employee, no website and nearly no cash to its name. $6 billion for a company which doesn't exist, basically. It's even worse than Cannabis Capital (OTCQB:CBCA) and it will obviously fall 99.9% at some point.

However, CYNK also heralds a new age. It heralds the appearance of a new type of scheme engineered to take money from the market. A scheme which will naturally prevail until the SEC shuts it down.

How does this new scheme work

In the most simple of forms, the scheme goes like this:

A tight group of insiders controlling 100% of the stock of a company, trades between themselves until the stock is at an obviously unsustainable valuation;
Then, this group of insiders lets there be some shares available for selling short;
Naturally, some valuation-driven short sellers cannot believe their luck and short sell the stock at what's a clearly unsustainable valuation - like, say, $2 for a company like CYNK;
Here, the fun starts. The insiders once again shut down the availability of stock to sell short, thus shutting down the supply of stock, and at the same time drive the stock powerfully up. Up 100%, 500%, 1000% as with CYNK;
At this point, even reasonable short sellers who only sold 5% of their portfolio have a problem. The position compounds against them and becomes huge. Even a 5% position turns into a 50% position that wipes out half of their portfolio;
Here, two things can happen: either the short sellers cover, thus closing out the insiders at a gain, or they try to hold onto the position - certain that it will, at some point, go down 99.9%.
But this is where the scheme gets really creative. Since insiders control the shares being lent and sold short, they also control the pricing short sellers need to pay just to keep their positions open. This pricing is the so-called "short rebate". And this is what happens in a stock like CYNK (Source: Interactive Brokers, red and green highlights are mine):

(click to enlarge)


Notice how 7 days ago, there was stock to be borrowed. Notice also how the short rebate shoot up into the sky and now stands at 120%.

The problem is not just that the position now needs to pay a fee at an annualized 120%. It's also that this 120% applies to the current stock quote, so in effect the position will be paying 1200% on the short seller's cost basis!

And therein lies the scheme. Either the short sellers quit or they pay through their nose at such a clip that even if they don't quit, they lose. Unless the SEC shuts it down or until someone in the insider circle breaks loose and makes more supply available to the general market, at which point this will, indeed, drop 99.9% with 100% certainty.

Conclusion

Beware of CYNK. It's a scam that's been driven to a $6 billion market capitalization. Yet, there is a rational scheme behind it which should allow its promoters to profit even if the stock ultimately drops 99.9% with 100% certainty.

The scheme involves both a traditional short squeeze, and the racking up of massive short borrowing fees. The stock will drop 99.9%, but those driving it up will probably make out like bandits, unless the SEC does something about it.

Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2309115 ... me-in-town