Anticipation Is Half The Fun April 17, 2021April 17, 2021 I suggested RECAF at $2.50 a month ago; Thursday, they announced encouraging news. The Namibians are thrilled; and I have to say that to the extent the world will still need oil and gas for another decade, I’d just as soon some of the wealth flow to the good people of Africa. Also, the stock closed at $6.10 Friday, giving us a 140% return in a month. You will be forgiven if you sold some. I sold an eighth of mine at $5.72 (in an IRA, with no taxes to muddy the decision) — and hope happily to regret having done so. RECAF has a license to drill on acreage nearly the size of Switzerland. It could all amount to naught — or not. Maybe one of the majors will pay $5 billion for it one day, giving us a further six-fold gain. The reader who turned me onto RECAF writes: The news couldn’t have been much better at this stage of exploration. That said, I’m a bit disappointed with the stock price action. I’m looking for more realistic valuations in the coming days and weeks. I see no reason we’re not worth $10-15 right now. But what do I know, I make beer for a living? Famous last words, to be sure. But though he makes beer for a living, he apparently knows a top-flight geologist. And if you did buy a few shares at $2.50 with money you can truly afford to lose . . . isn’t this fun? Which brings me to BOREF and PRKR. What do they have in common? Both are gambles that require a ton of patience. Lucky for you, I only started writing about PRKR a couple of years ago — nothing compared to the nearly 22 years I’ve been writing about BOREF. (Back then, I could run a four-minute mile and leap tall buildings with a single bound; today, I need help finding the Roomba.) As recently noted, PRKR just might wind up being more than just a collection of potentially valuable lawsuits. They have bigger plans. So those of us who’ve paid anywhere from a dime to well over a buck a share to place our bets — with money we can truly afford to lose — could see a big gain one day. “Anticipation is half the fun!” Even though, I grant, you can’t eat anticipation. But as Revlon founder Charles Revson used to explain, he wasn’t selling cosmetics; he was selling hope. My hope with PRKR is to sell maybe 10% of my shares close to $2 as the oft-delayed Qualcomm trial eventually draws near . . . and then a good chunk at $5 or $6 after a hoped-for favorable verdict . . . and maybe the final 20% years from now at an even higher price, when the company has hit big not just with its lawsuits, but with the other technology it’s developed. None of this may ever come to pass! But it’s fun to think about. In the case of Borealis, the hope is that WheelTug will win FAA approval and begin to fly, eventually making a ton of money. A lot of airlines are lined up to give it a “Twirl” (as WheelTug calls one of its time-saving gate-area maneuvers). Here’s this past week’s news from Hyderabad: WheelTug To Improve Airline Efficiency. (What? you don’t read Telangana Today?) And as if Twirls™ and Twists™ weren’t enough, the company envisions the possibility of even broader horizons someday. Given that Chinese-controlled rare-earth metals are designed into many electric motors — but not required by the Borealis technology — one WheelTug executive asserts: “Just as fracking broke the criticality of OPEC, WheelTug‘s little motors can break one of the key Chinese strangleholds on the development of modern electric systems.” A statement that bold will confirm the certainty some of my friends have that these people are delusional; and strengthen the resolve others of us have to hang on to see whether maybe — just maybe — they can pull it off. With the entire company valued by the market at $35 million (5 million shares trading at $7 each) — half what a Beeple sold for at Christie’s the other day — I like our odds. But only for money I can truly afford to lose. Have a great weekend!