OTCMarkets continues handing out Caveat Emptor ☠ designations like candy: VCEX, BETW, and ELGL

On July 9, 2019, after the market close, OTCMarkets.com designated three stocks as ‘Caveat Emptor’ (buyer beware; also known as the skull and crossbones for the emoji they use). I previously wrote about how poorly many recent stock promotions have performed after receiving the caveat emptor designation. I will continue to keep updating people on this topic.

The three stocks that were designated caveat emptor were Vaccex Inc (VCEX), Bettwork Industries Inc (BETW), and Element Global (ELGL).

Element Global was unknown to me until it was marked caveat emptor. Judging by the chart it had some sort of promotion or manipulation in May; in June it put out several press releases. The stock closed at 0.36 on July 9th and on the third trading day after being designated ‘caveat emptor’ (July 12th) it closed at $0.1648. With 249 million shares outstanding it still has a significant market cap of $55 million as I write this.

Bettwork Holding (BETW) is the only one of these three stocks that is above where it was before the caveat emptor designation. It closed at $0.6655 on July 9th, gapped down but then recovered the next day, and has continued to rise on light volume. BETW was promoted by PennyPickNewsletter.com (and possibly by other websites controled by the promoter behind it). OTC Market Research has referred to this promoter as the “Tier 1” promoter because they move stocks but keep changing which websites they use and use fake names in all their disclaimers. That BETW has kept rising is not that surprising to me — the only other recent promotion that kept rising after being designated ‘caveat emptor’ was another “Tier 1” pump, Kalmin Corp (KLMN). At a current price of $0.76, BETW has a market cap of $32 million.

I am short BETW (see full disclaimer at bottom).

The third stock that was designated caveat emptor on July 9th was Vaccex (VCEX). Vaccex had been promoted via an online landing page at https://thepublicmarkets.com/heres-why-otc-vcex-is-the-must-see-stock-of-the-year-the-timing-couldnt-be-better/. At some point on the second trading day after the caveat emptor designation (July 11th), that landing page was taken down. I was just about to blog about the promotion (after having just come back from vacaction) and had not yet saved a copy of the landing page. Thankfully, Archive.org had already archived the promotion page.

VCEX gapped down big after the caveat emptor designation and then dropped precipitously the second day and dropped more the third and fourth days. I was lucky enough to have just shorted VCEX on July 9th right before the caveat emptor. I covered at around $0.38. At a current price of $0.30, VCEX has a market cap of $15 million.

Disclaimer from VCEX landing page:

We are paid to advertise the Profiled Issuer (VCEX). thepublicmarkets.com is owned by 7 Stocks, LLC and has been compensated $100,000 by Antevorta Capital Partners LTD. for a period beginning on June 24, 2019 and ending July 22, 2019. We will update any changes to our compensation. We own zero shares of (VCEX)

Per the full disclaimer page at the website, it is owned and run by 7 Stocks LLC, a Wyoming LLC. It was initially registered on December 8, 2018 (filing # 2018-000831874). The company was registered by Cloud Peak Law Group with an employee of that firm listed as an ‘Authorized Individual’.

Disclaimer: I am currently short BETW. I intend to hold the short for weeks if necessary but I may cover the position at any time. I 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 OTC Market 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.

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