Financial Sense's "Roving Reporter" Rob Kirby
at the Annual Convention & Trade Show
March 2-5, 2008 Toronto
"A Trade for the Ages"
Rob Kirby's Daily Report, March 4, 2008
As Canada's National Post reported yesterday:
The unofficial start of the PDAC came Saturday night, with the launch of the first round of projects in Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra's Sustainable Growth Initiative. The star-studded gala at the Westin Harbour Castle cost $2,500 a head and brought in a veritable A-list of celebrities: Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Robin Williams and many others. Entertainment for the night included Sir Elton John and Shakira.
Or so the National Post thinks.
In my view the real unofficial start of PDAC came Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. when "Mr. Gold" - Jim Sinclair - rented a hall at his own expense to give a speech [3 hours with Q and A] to the faithful atToronto's downtown Marriott Hotel to a packed room of 700+.
Jim Sinclair packs them in at Toronto's downtown Marriott
For those who may be unfamiliar with Jim Sinclair, he is primarily a precious metals specialist and a commodities and foreign currency trader. He founded the Sinclair Group of Companies (1977), which offered full brokerage services in stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles. The companies, which operated branches in New York, Kansas City, Toronto , Chicago , London and Geneva , were sold in 1983.
From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Sinclair served as a Precious Metals Advisor to Hunt Oil and the Hunt family for the liquidation of their silver position as a prerequisite for the $1 billion loan arranged by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volker.
He was also a General Partner and Member of the Executive Committee of two New York Stock Exchange firms and President of Sinclair Global Clearing Corporation (commodity clearing firm) and Global Arbitrage (derivative dealer in metals and currencies).
In April 2002, shareholders of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration (formerly Tan Range Exploration) approved the acquisition of Tanzania American International, a company controlled by the Sinclair family, for shares in Tan Range. Following this transaction, Mr. Sinclair became Chairman of Tan Range and now leads its efforts to become a gold royalty company.
In January 2003, Mr. Sinclair launched, "Jim Sinclairs MineSet," which now hosts his gold commentary and is intended as a free service to the gold community.
I Bring all of this up for good reason:
Covering the PDAC for Financial Sense comes with some perks. As a print-media representative I received a late e-mail invitation [Friday at noon] to attend the Clinton / Giustra soiree the next evening. Trouble was, I had a very narrow window in which to reply to the R.S.V.P. - by 4:00 p.m. local time.
I left home late in the morning to attend Mr. Sinclair's event from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
So one way of looking at things - I traded a "Clinton / Guistra" for a "Jim Sinclair".
Makes me wonder if the ole commodities trader Jim Sinclair would congratulate me for doing a good trade?
Rob Kirby
Your Roving Reporter for Financial Sense at PDAC 2008
March 4, 2008
