The Great Snipe Hunt

By: Ross Silver

When I was 11 years old I went to a summer camp on Catalina Island which is an island off the coast of California. We slept in cabins with no windows or doors and everyone was in a bunk bed. Wild boar and other animals would run through our cabins at night searching for food, scaring the newly arrived campers half to death. It would not be an aberration of the truth to suggest I may have left food and candy on the floor of the cabin at night in order to attract the aforementioned animals. I was at the camp for two months and entertainment in the form of scaring the daylights out of someone has always been ranked #1 on my list of enjoyment. I apologize to anyone reading this that likely has to sleep with a light on as a result of attending camp with me and staying in the same cabin I slept. I of course slept in a top bunk, far away from the floor and the wild boars who thrashed about in the cabin. 

My counselor at the camp quickly realized I was one of the “hooligan” kids and wanted to teach me a lesson for constantly scaring my fellow cabin mates. One day my camp counselor spoke of a mysterious animal that caught my attention while we were all at dinner. The Great Snipe is what the counselor called it. The Great Snipe was described to 11 year old Ross Silver as being 12 feet tall, had tusks, could run 45 mph and knock down trees with one punch. I needed to see the Great Snipe, understand it, and possibly even capture it. 

My camp counselor and other camp counselors promised me, my brother and some other “hooligan” kids that we would search for The Great Snipe; which we referred to as The Great Snipe Hunt. I volunteered to have the honor of carrying a garbage bag full of garbage to the hunting grounds and my brother carried a special flashlight. This was only to be turned on when we found The Great Snipe. When we arrived at the place where The Great Snipe lived, my brother and the other “hooligan” kids were told to whistle and shake the bushes in order to attract The Great Snipe. After about 45 minutes I realized this was a ruse and I told everyone we need to walk back to the camp. The moonlight served as our only source of light given the special flashlight had no batteries. 

I mention The Great Snipe story because I recently sat in on a presentation to some high net worth investors by someone seeking to manage their capital. In the presentation there was a lot of talk about how markets will continue to move higher over time and that money in equities, specifically long equities has ALWAYS and will ALWAY do well. I  interrupted the presentation and highlighted that while the major stock indexes are up over the past 20 years, there have been periods of negative returns. Asset selection is critical in those times versus just buying anything with a ticker symbol. Don’t fall for a Great Snipe story which at the moment features a thesis that equities can only go up. Equities do go down. In an environment with historically low borrowing costs; you may want to consider having exposure to companies that will benefit. Junior resource companies, specifically one like Summa Silver (ticker: SSVR.CN) is one I thought to highlight.

Tickers to consider: SSVR.CN, CEI, FRSX, ARPO, TZA, PPCB &  POAI