Mr. Stathis: AVA Investment Analytics is a subsidiary of Apex Venture Advisors. Apex Venture Advisors is a boutique consulting firm for venture capitalists and hedge funds. AVA Investment Analytics handles the public markets side, where I serve as the Chief Investment Strategist. I also oversee equity research and trading strategies. The Web site was launched in April 2009 as a way for retail investors to access some of our insights. We are still in the process of developing the site. AVA Investment Analytics advises hedge funds, pensions, endowments. And we also re-launched, about seven months ago, our investment newsletter for institutional and retail investors.
A lot of the demand that sparked the rollout of the public markets division came from a book that I wrote called America's Financial Apocalypse in 2006, which essentially predicted all of what we see today. And that's how a lot of the hedge fund guys got a hold of me, although that was not my intention. It just turned out that way.
I think it's important for investors to note that the media has banned me ever since that book was released, maybe because they did not want to hear that there would be a depression. Since that time, of course, the "depression" word is pretty common, but they still don't seem to be interested in speaking to me for some strange reason - perhaps because they still deny there is a depression underway. We have spent the better part of three years contacting every media outlet, journalist, you name it, every newspaper, TV station and nada. People need to start asking questions of the media.
TWST: You have a good track record; they should want you back.
Mr. Stathis: They never included me to begin with. But I will tell you that I'm the only person in the world that I know of to put in a book that Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) would collapse and be bailed out by the taxpayers, that the Dow had a very good chance of going to 6,000, that real estate would fall by 30% or 35% nationwide - once again all published in late 2006. In my real estate book, Cashing in on the Real Estate Bubble, which was also written in late 2006, I told people to short Fannie and Freddie, Novastar Financial, Fremont General. And of course, all of those are zero now other than Fannie and Freddie, which are about $1. I also advised people to short the banks and homebuilders, and I mentioned there would likely be a huge fallout with General Electric (GE) and General Motors (GRM) because I realized they were essentially banks.
The media knows about my books and track record since then, but they have completely black-balled me. I'm saying this not to boast, but only to let people know of my record and the fact that media has suppressed me. I think people need to know that because they have suffered as a result of the censorship and lies from America's propaganda machine.
Much of my track record is actually on my Web site. I have issued a $50,000 award on my Web site for anyone who can show that there is someone out there in the world that matches my track record. I issued this reward so people can ask the media why they have banned me. I am very serious about paying this money, but I know I won't have to because I've got the best record. And unlike most people out there who believe what they read and hear without researching track records, I've researched the track records of all of the guys in the "media club," and I have not found a single person who is quoted by the media regularly that has a clue what is going on. And their track record confirms this.
The unfortunate thing is I think a lot of people are going to the televised media, WSJ, Barron's, Bloomberg, etc., for their investment analysis and information. For some reason most people actually trust an industry that makes all of its money selling ads to the financial industry and corporations. But just like during the dot-com collapse, they're not getting valuable insight because there are agendas all over. You can imagine who pays the bills at the financial networks, Wall Street. That's pretty much how it works. That's why Main Street always gets blasted apart.
I don't have agendas; I speak the truth. Maybe that's why they banned me. The media doesn't want the truth. They don't want real insight that will actually help investors. The idea isn't for the media to help investors, it's to help the companies who pay the bills via buying commercials - the financial industry.
You aren't likely to ever hear this mentioned because the media has such a huge control over who gets exposure. And people are scared to expose the media for what it is. At this point, I have nothing to lose since they've shut me out, so I'm going public with it. The media cost a lot of people a great deal of money by denying things, censoring people like me and promoting Wall Street hacks. That's the way the game is played. I'm pretty upset about this exploitation. Everyone else should be even more upset than me because they lost a lot of money.
On the other hand, we've got the "doomers" out there, the guys talking about doom and gloom, and so forth. The media airs these guys as well because they create drama and, at the end of the day, they actually help Wall Street because their extremist ideas often cause more harm than good. I'm not one of those people because I haven't been saying doom is coming for 20 years. These are the guys who try to pump up gold; they too have agendas. If you have been predicting doom for 15 years or more, you don't have any credibility because eventually things will shift to the other side. But you missed out on all those gains during that time, right?
In contrast, I rode the market all the way down. Then I told people to buy into the market when the Dow hit 6,500. The article was actually posted in the public domain at that time and is still there. I know when to change directions because that's my business. Now I'm only human, and I'm by no means perfect, but I've been fortunate to have achieved my track record in part because I don't pay attention to the media noise. But also because I have no agendas; we don't sell securities or push gold here. And we don't sell ads for gold and so forth. We only push top-tier information and analysis. I think it's important for people to understand I have no agendas because most people do. It comes down to integrity. You either develop that early in life or you don't. Some abandon it for greedy motives.
Tickers included in this excerpt: HWAY, PBR, PFE, UNH
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