A number of recent pump and dumps have been tagged with the “Caveat Emptor” (also known as the skull and crossbones ☠) designation by OTCMarkets.com. Below I have indicated on the stock charts when each stock was given the Caveat Emptor designation. For the most part, pumps marked with ☠ have quickly dropped and stayed down. Besides the negative publicity of the Caveat Emptor designation, it also has some deeper effects that have caused promoters to abandon tickers given the Caveat Emptor. Unfortunately I cannot yet publish the evidence I have for this conclusion. I do intend to explain this in a follow-up post, hopefully in a few months.
A list of stocks with the most recent addition or removal of Caveat Emptor status can be found at https://www.otcmarkets.com/market-activity/compliance-statistics. See OTCMarkets’ policy on when a stock gets marked Caveat Emptor. Follow their Twitter account for notifications of Caveat Emptor designation. A handy time-sorted list of only relevant tweets by @OTCMarkets is here. Unless otherwise noted, stocks were given the Caveat Emptor designation after the market close. Do note that when trading is suspended in a stock it automatically receives the Caveat Emptor; those cases are not interesting to me because the trading suspension by the SEC is the more important action. I have also excluded illiquid and subpenny stocks from the list below. I have tried to be thorough but let me know if I have missed any stocks.
A few stocks have been notable to me and the folks at OTC Market Research for not getting designated Caveat Emptor. Among those are long-time landing page promotion NUGL (which isn’t even marked as a paid promotion), BEAG (landing page and now a mailer pump), boiler-room pump NHEL from two months ago, and current boiler-room pump BKIT.
White Label Liquid Inc (WLAB): Caveat Emptor 6/19/2019
CLIC Technology Inc (CLCI): Caveat Emptor 6/17/2019
Antilia Group Corp (AGGG): Caveat Emptor 6/7/2019 (midday — I reported it in chat at 1:07pm Eastern but stock had already dropped a lot by then)
Frelii (FRLI): Caveat Emptor 5/22/2019
Bionovate Technologies Corp (BIIO): Caveat Emptor 5/8/2019
Perkins Oil & Gas (OOIL): Caveat Emptor 4/8/2019. Exactly one month later on 5/8/2019 the SEC suspended trading in the stock. The reason given in the order (pdf) was “because of concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace, including statements by third-parties about OOIL’s assets and valuation.”
Kalmin Corp (KLMN): Caveat Emptor 1/31/2019 — This is the one promotion that held up the best after the CE designation, gapping down but then recovering completely on the second day after receiving the skull and crossbones.
Corrections & Clarifications
2019-7-9 Title changed to remove OTCMarkets Group CEO’s name (Cromwell Coulson) and replace it with ‘OTCMarkets Group’
2019-7-10 Info on trading suspension of OOIL added.
Disclaimer: I am short FRLI and have no position in any other stock mentioned. I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above except that I am a paying subscriber to OTCMarket Research. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.
As of 2019-7-9 NUGL finally has the Stock Promotion flag at OTCMarkets.com (but still no Caveat Emptor).