Golden Minerals (AUMN) (AUM.to) and ECU Silver (ECU.to) is "A merger of equals": 100% agreement here

And so just a few minutes ago, Golden Minerals (AUMN) and ECU Silver (ECU.to) announced they were merging. Here's the NR and the key phrase here is "a merger of equals". Gotta agree with that, at least on a managerial basis, as both companies are pisspoor mining operators as the Apex Silver debacle shows on one side and the serial losses of ECU.to show on the other. Also, the way overinflated top managers' salaries at both companies are equally shareholder unfriendly.

Both stocks are trading significantly lower on the news, too. The likely explanation for this is 1) idiot rahrah brigade at ECU.to are looking at AUMN and thinking they're getting diluted and 2) the slightly more sophisticated AUMN fans knowing full well they're getting led up the garden path on this one. DYODD.

UPDATE: More on "a merger of equals":

Yup, equally crappy share price performance this year. This deal makes more sense by the minute.

I uncovered my short on ECU.to again yesterday

Why so? Because Bill Murphy of GATA is a liar about ECU Silver (ECU.to) and doesn't have the first clue about what he's pumping to you. And that arrogant bully known to an undeserving world as Wistar Holt is so close to outright fraud in his non-stop pumping of ECU.to that you can hardly slide a sheet of paper between the gap.

But the numbers? They don't lie.

 

And before the ranks of Kool-Aid drinkers who actually fall for this scam start writing in, do us all a favour and don't bother until you can actually understand what the numerical information held in those charts actually signifies, because life is too short to read your banalities otherwise. Oh, and another number for you is $455,702, the all-cash salary of head scamster Michel Roy in 2010. He's laughing at you, sheep.

By the way, I just love how ECU.to has "lost" over $10m in asset value due to the new IFRS accounting rules but just can't be bothered to tell you about it...or why. Over $300m market cap for a company that generates revenues of $5m a qtr, pays all its excess to the loan runners and can't return a net profit to save its sorry ass, even in the current price levels for silver and gold? Gimme a freakin' break, dumbasses. DYODD, dude.

And now I'm off shopping with my mother. Catch you later.

ECU Silver (ECU.to): When a normal company late-files a quarter it's not a cause for worry, but...

..when a bullshit scam run by a bunch of sophists and toerags misses its filing date without making a single comment on the lack of quarterly financials or MD&A, then suspicions are infinitely higher.

And I'm really looking forward to the ECU Silver (ECU.to) report as well. One of my four annual guffaws from those guys, because in the reg filings they have to at least write something resembling the sad reality of the company. So c'mon guys, file your quarter today willyaz?

UPDATE: Aha! As if by magic, ECU.to after the bell today sends out its latest lump of huffypuffery about drilling then buried further down is this:

The Company also advises that it plans to file its March 31, 2011 Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis on June 14, 2011. The filings for the first quarter of 2011 will contain the first set of financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). To assist companies in making the transition from Canadian generally accepted accounting principles to IFRS, Canadian securities regulators have extended the normal filing deadlines for the first quarter of 2011.

Strange how all serious mining companies have had no problem about filings under the new regulations, but ECU.to uses it as its weak excuse, innit? Strange how they don't mention that a planned filing of June 14th means a one month delay to normal scheduling. Mind you, the lack of straight talk and basic honesty is par for the course.

ECU Silver (ECU.to): Checking in on Wistar Holt's market prowess

Hey dudettes and dudes, anyone remember back in November 2010 when your author got mails from Wistar Holt, the scumball scamster that shows GATA for what it really is? Well if you don't recall, let's just remind you of a couple of the phrases used by Wistar in his missives:

I swear to God that if I ever come across you in person, I will rip you apart.

Got it? 

But of course, you won't ever show up, cause you are a coward!

Isn't this guy just the cutest ever? Anyway, the subject was, of course, his non-stop pumping of ECU Silver (ECU.to) and the way ECU.to had just made spurt in the market. Poor little lost boy Wistar couldn't contain his excitement and just had to blurt out how wonderful he was at the time. So let's see how ECU.to has done since your humble scribe's exchange with Wister Holt:

Hmm...and let's remind people of the wider context of ECU.to and Wistar, too:

 

And by some bizarre coincidence, since the continued demise of ECU.to, even in the face of the amazing run in silver, Wistar Holt seems to have ....

DYODD

It's a pretty quiet day at the office, so...

...let's break the tedium by having a good laugh at Wistar Holt, Mexico Mike Kachanovsky and all the GATA idiots for backing the dog of all dogs, ECU Silver (ECU.to) and shamelessly pumping the stock while on the company payroll. I mean, how you you like your charts?

Five day?

Year to date?

12 month?

5 years?

How anyone can take these idiots seriously is beyond me. You get paid to promote the worst silver company out there (I nearly said 'silver producer' there, but even ECU.to admits it doesn't fall under that category) for years on end, watch it do worse than nothing all this time and still have the brass neck to tell your flocks it's only a matter of time...and any minute now....and now's not the time to give up. Utter charlatans, the lot of you.

I know I shouldn't laugh too hard....

...what with my own portfolio and IKN Weekly recos taking a good whacking this morning as well, but I couldn't help having a rare old chortle when, out of the corner of my beady eye, I saw ECU Silver (ECU.to) trading under a buck this morning.

After all the braindead squawking from the GATA pair Bill Murphy and Wistar Holt, after all the bullshit smoke'n'mirrors NRs out of the company in recent times, after all the paid shilling from Mexico Mike, the company can't escape the hard reality of the stock market indefinitely. And with silver wildly above $30 an ounce too...hoodathunkit, eh?

Go out and make good and bad trades in the market folks, just like me, just like others. But listen on just this company please; ECU Silver (ECU.to) is the epitome of a stock that is constructed and exists for suckers. It has every single ingredient of the stock that greenhorns will gravitate towards and unless you actually learn about the ways of the market and move beyond your initial positive conclusions for ECU.to (and others like it) by understanding earnings reports and how financials affect results, you'll always be stuck at stage one of your personal learning curve and never make it as a successful investor in mining stocks. That's all.