Priced To Perfection...

Those words become tainted with bitterness when the results turn out to be less than perfect. Witness the recent fate of Currie Rose Resources.

The company announced last October 21st that it was drilling on its Mabele Hills project in Tanzania. There were artisanal working on the property, lifting gold up from the ground, and surface samples showed results that were quite good:

SIGNIFICANT GOLD INTERCEPTS ONE G/T GOLD AT SISU RIVER PROPERTY

Sample No.             Easting         Northing         Gold
                         (UTM)            (UTM)         (g/t)

SS-X-09-001             488809         9655276          2.05
SS-X-09-002             488809         9655276          0.47
SS-X-09-003             488808         9655256         89.20
SS-X-09-004             488808         9655256         40.70
SS-X-09-005             488781         9655354          9.44
SS-X-09-006             488781         9655354          1.49
SS-X-09-007             488802         9655384          1.87
SS-X-09-008             488789         9655408          0.06
SS-X-09-009             488791         9655278         23.00
SS-X-09-010             488792         9655290          4.47
SS-X-09-011             488792         9655290          4.13
SS-X-09-012             488792         9655290          3.96
SS-X-09-013             488802         9655260         21.30

From 11.5 cents, the stock rocketed up to as high as 47.5 cents on December 7th, simply on anticipation of a huge bonanza drill sample. Trading got so frenetic, the company issued one of those "Management doesn't know why the stock is up" press releases on Novemeber 26th. They're required to do so by the exchange when the action gets really hot.

Today was the day. The company released, a half an hour after market opened, the results from the holes assayed from the drill program. They got 3 metres grading 9.89 grams per ton gold from one hole and 11 g/t over 3 m from another. These are good grades, but they're far from the bonanza expected by the market. The stockholders were likely expecting more than 5 g/t over a core length of something like 15 - 30 metres or more.

Consequently, the stock got slaughtered today: from 34 cents at the close last Friday to 22.5 cents. Sadly, it was up from Friday's close before the drill results were disseminated.

This kind of stock is one that some players like to scoop up after the disappointment's sunk in, on the hope that later results will be better. Currie's a little dicey in this respect, because companies typically release the best holes they've got first. Phase 1 of its drill program is effectively over; any such hope would have to be reserved for Phase 2. The Phase 1 holes went down to a depth of about 100 m; Phase 2's holes will go deeper.

Here's the not-so-exciting-anymore 1-year chart of Currie Rose, from Stockwatch. Note the huge volume accompanying today's sell-off:




The Moral Of The Story: Playing the anticipation game is exciting, but it can end in tears. It's like a game of musical chairs in the dark.


Disclosure: I don't own any shares in the company.