Vacating

See what happens? We start trading on the OTC market and my free time all goes out the window. I have to go on vacation just to catch up on blogging. I think that goes against the whole "blogging" concept, doesn't it? Oh well, now is good a time as any to get caught up.

Since we hit the market on February 1, the market has taken a considerable hit. Then this weekend, Bear Stearns goes under, getting scooped up by JP Morgan at a fraction of its value, sending global markets into a wild tailspin. I've been talking to financial professionals for a couple of weeks and they all say that this is worse than the dot-com bust and fallout. Between the housing market debacle, the financial markets failing, then the WGA writer's strike, hard times are hitting Southern California and the entertainment industry. Hopefully, this will create a shakeout throughout all 3 industries that will create a more solid base across the board. It could take quite a bit of time, though.

What does this mean for the OTC market and our stock price specifically? Over the last 45 days, trading volume has all but dried up on stocks I track on the OTC. I would gather that if there WERE any institutions invested in OTC companies (highly unlikely), they've either curtailed their trading activity or have pulled out entirely. But here is where the opportunity is being missed. While one would assume that "smart money" has moved out of the riskier, wilder OTC frontier and into safe investments, what is a safe investment today? My dad used to say that safe money was in municipal bonds and zero-coupon t-bills but that isn't true anymore. The Fed can't bail out everyone! So where do you invest? banks? financial institutions? Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? Pharmaceuticals? Commodities?

During all economic conditions, I still stick to the idea that the smartest investments are in companies that you know. If you know computers, invest in Apple or some other computer company. If you watch the green technology companies, that's where you should put your money. If you know entertainment, invest in entertainment companies. At the end of the day, the best investments are ones that make you money. The way to do that: get a good value for your investment. You don't want to overpay for anything. Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! is following the same path - MS isn't raising their target price for Yahoo! and the marriage is on track to complete soon.

When investors ask me about the prospect of Platinum's stock during these rocky economic times, I have a standard answer to that question. We're not running our company specifically to drive the share price or in direct response to market activity - rather, we are trying to build a growing, scalable, profitable company. If we focus on that end game, the fundamentals and the stock price should be reflective of that success. That's what we're focusing on. At the very least, the entertainment industry as a whole is recession-proof and that should attract some attention and our business case success should point to great value.

$2/share for Bear Stearns? Wow! Even in these insane economic times, there are great investment/money-making opportunities. So much for vacating......