Good morning everyone! For this episode of Off The Handle I spoke with *Top Contributor @SaskExpress. Over the years, @SaskExpress has been contributing ideas both in chat and through articles posted in the #Articles channel here at CEO.CA.
Here’s the breakdown of our conversation:
- Finding and becoming active in the CEO.CA community - [00:00:57]
- Best CEO.CA functions: CEOPro lvl2 - [00:03:23]
SEDI and news notifications - [00:04:24]
- Creating deeper connections and attending conferences - [00:06:38]
- Suggestions of who to watch on CEO.CA- [00:8:49]
Thanks for taking the time to check it out and good luck to everyone in your investments!
Audio here: https://cdn-ceo-ca.s3.amazonaws.com/1g8dhm6-off+the+handle+eps+3+-+sas+express.mp3
Vaughan: Welcome back everyone for another episode of Off the Handle. With me today is SaskExpress, or if you're following him on Twitter, it's @SaskExplorer I do believe.
SaskExpress: @SaskExplorer1, my friend.
Vaughan: @SaskExplorer1.
SaskExpress: If you follow @SaskExplorer on Twitter, you might be getting a lot of photos from Saskatchewan or something like that whereas I stick to the stocks.
Vaughan: @SaskExpress has been a user of CEO for probably close to five years now. My first question to you is: how did you find the site and when did you find this site?
SaskExpress: I think I found it in the summer of 2015. At the time I was kind of really getting into NexGen the stock (NXE). It was one of the big names early on and in CEO, I think. A lot of early users were really into the stock and doing a lot of due diligence. Around that time I had already bought the stock, but I started looking around online. I was looking for all the information I could get, basically. Eventually it led me to the CEO.CA. I think I probably lurked for the first six months or something like that. But then I started posting and pretty early on I started messaging guys like Pamplona and a lot of other posters, kind of behind the scenes.
It maybe isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed the community side of CEO, the fact that a lot of us were like minded and we could discuss either in public or just behind the scenes the things we found interesting. Over time, NexGen led me into a bunch of other stocks. I went from not really knowing a lot about researching resource stocks to being more sophisticated. I'm not saying I'm that sophisticated, but a lot of my development was due to the community, just kind of soaking up ideas from everyone.
Vaughan: I definitely agree that the community the main value there. I'm sure if anyone looked at your chat history, they will see who you're frequently interacting with and so likely have a good rapport with. In terms of using the site outside of the user base, are there any functionalities that you find particularly valuable?
SaskExpress: Yeah, for sure Vaughan. If you're willing to pay for it, I think anyone would find some value in the level 2 data that you guys have put together. The visuals are great, @Murat and @Tommy did a really nice job. I don't know who else is involved behind the scenes, but I'll give them all the credit. I think the visual gives you a really good idea at a glance what the market depth looks like. I find it better than just a table listing of the bids and offers. It's very visual. So if you like that, it's great.
Vaughan: It's very intuitive.
SaskExpress: Yes. I think over time it'll help people that are interested in the trading side of things to get better at what they're doing. Like I said, at a glance you know what's going on in the market and you'll figure things out over time.
Um, things that are free... you guys do a great job collecting all the Sedi data. It's really nice to see which stocks have insiders buying or selling. We don't want to see selling normally, but it happens and its really valuable to have that information. Also, if you're following a stock on CEO.CA you'll have all the latest news right there waiting for you. Every morning it's pretty much the first thing I do: pop open the phone, go to CEO, look for news. It gives me a good idea of what I really want to follow that day. Sometimes before I even get out of bed I need to put bids in right there and then kind of thing. It's part of the daily routine.
I have a day job but I make time, like 30-45 minutes every morning to go through the set ups on CEO and plan my day that way. I know I won't be watching the stocks all day long so I'll check in right at the market open and I'll check in on my lunch. But I'm not watching every tick all day long.
Vaughan: Some people take it one step further and they'll use the push notifications and they'll get news sent directly to them. That's for those who might not necessarily partake in the chat so much but want the latest news immediately.
Online chats are notorious places for messy conversation. You mentioned there is a ton of value - perhaps the most value I've gotten from other users - in private messages and having DM conversations with people individually, outside of the free for all of the main channel. You can really create some great connections and make some real friends out of this stuff.
SaskExpress: Oh, for sure you can. And I mean, you won't want me to say this, but some of those conversations have just naturally went to other mediums as well. I have some conversations on CEO.CA, some of them on my cell phone, WhatsApp etc. You meet people at conferences and end up in all kinds of groups on all kinds of mediums. I'd encourage anyone to go to some of the conferences that are out there. Who knows what kind of connection you're going to make with someone. You might hit it off and find them to be a great source of ideas and market intelligence and that sort of stuff. I think I've been at three conferences with you and we've always been able to chat and have a good laugh, but also share some insights that we're finding and what stocks are interesting to us. It's useful information always to have those conversations.
Vaughan: Agreed. Conversations are going to migrate all over the Internet. Obviously CEO.CA doesn't have a monopoly on being the place to chat.
SaskExpress: I'll give you another example. I ended up in a fantasy football league during covid. I thought I was done with fantasy football, but it happened. We ended up having conversations on stocks going in the app for the fantasy football. You just go where the convos take you.
Vaughan: Right. I don't think anybody on the CEO.CA team would be offended or hurt by me saying that the point of the chat is and always was to create a community, a space for people to connect and talk stocks. If that migrates to text messages and phone calls, great! The idea is to help each other advance and get better as investors, as I see it anyhow.
Last question I'll ask real quick: you mentioned some earlier, is there anyone that you would suggest people follow that they might not already know about?
SaskExpress: Oh, that they might not already know? I think a lot of people know of the people I talk to a lot. People I speak with quite often are pretty well known for the most part. People like @Goldfinger, @theGalvanizer @Brandon, @Pete. A guy who's not followed a lot on CEO but has a big Twitter following is Adrian Godas, @The_Godas. Another guy that's really under the radar, but just a really good guy for digging into data is @Oops.
Vaughan: I've come across the handle a few times.
SaskExpress: @Oops really digs. I just feel like I'm getting good information from him. I don't know how many followers he has now, but it probably isn't enough.
Another good more recent follow - and I'm not just saying this because I'm invested in his company - is Mark Ashcroft, the CEO of Aurelius Minerals which is a Nova Scotia based company. His handle on CEO.CA is @MNJA, you'll find him if you just look at the AUL page. He's a mining engineer. I know lots of geologists and they are great guys to know, but mining engineers approach things sometimes from a different perspective. Maybe we don't have enough of them posting on the website. I have these conversations with Mark and I learn a lot like every time. I'm not trying to push the stock on people I just think he's a good quality follow and you're going to learn stuff from him.
Let me take a spin through kind of my direct messages here. @cautiousnow, of course @miningbookguy, he's been around forever. But, yeah, I think I think @Oops is a really quality under followed guy.
Vaughan: One of those hidden gems. You know, you're not the first person to say that to me, actually. I've found myself on the same side of an investment with @oops a couple of times. Maybe he's a name to talk to soon. @Oops, if you're listening, I'm going to be reaching out to you buddy... We're going to have a chat.
SaskExpress: Yeah. He digs and digs and digs. Another guy that's similar to him in that sense is @thecowsaysmoo. He is really involved with the community wiki pages for a lot of stocks he's been in. He also does a lot of digging and is really on top of things like when are PPs shares become free trading and things of that nature.
So, yeah, those are a bunch of names that jump out at me. I apologise to like probably 10 other people that I should mention. It's tough to think of everyone in the moment.
Vaughan: Especially On the spot. For @thecowsaysmoo, I recall reaching out to him early on in his wiki endeavours on the site because I thought his format was perfect. I promoted it to everyone on the site saying 'if you're thinking about doing a wiki, have a look at what he's doing'. He continues to add value in many channels and we also speak in our own DM channel. I have DM channels with almost everyone on the site, it's madness.
I won't take up any more of your time and I do appreciate you taking the time. I know it's late where you are, so we'll call it a day and I'll reach out to you again soon.
SaskExpress: Sounds good, Chris. Thanks for having me.
Vaughan: All right buddy, talk to you next time.
SaskExpress: You bet.
