I've Waited 13 Years for This Call
Renowned market technician, JC Parets, talks to TheBigScore's Tommy about Canada's gold obsession, mining history & future, Toronto/Vancouver rivalry and more
J.C. PARETS INTERVIEW WITH TOMMY H: LINK HERE
Social media exploded in the late 2000s.
Twitter posts per day grew from 60 thousand in 2007 to 50 million in early 2010 (They're over 500 million now).
At a Whistler, BC nightclub, an acquaintance, in his early 20s, fabricated a story to one woman that he was the Facebook founder.
People didn't know who Mark Zuckerberg was yet, but they were hooked on Facebook. Moments later, everyone in the bar came up to shake his hand.
The Finance sector was slower to adopt social media. Regulatory and corporate policies forbade rogue publishing.
A Canadian born investor and VC living in the U.S. had ideas for Twitter to serve stock investors, but Twitter wouldn't listen to him. So Howard Lindzon started Stocktwits in 2009, birthing the $cashtag, market data and chat streams for every US stock.
It became a meritocracy for finance writers outside of the system to showcase their wit and get attention. Stocktwits nurtured its community and its early stars, like Josh Brown and J.C. Parets, were upwardly mobile. Brown is now CNBC's most popular commentator and CEO of a wealth management firm. Parets, a market technician then in his late 20s, built AllStarCharts into a leading research platform.
After Howard spoke at a Vancouver conference in June 2011, I pleaded with him to expand Stocktwits into Canada. Howard was receptive, but his partners didn't see the point.
A few years later, I followed their roadmap for CEO.CA, which had a similar growth trajectory to Stocktwits at Canadian scale, a transformative success for me. It’s a testament to the power of borrowing ideas in new markets and networking to gain ideas.
At Stocktoberfest in Coronado, Howard congregated his fintech friends for an annual gathering. I was there 2011-2013. I also joined Howard in New York for other Stocktwits related events. He opened many doors for me.
J.C. Parets was one of those contacts. We hit it off in New York and San Diego. He had a big personality and curiosity about everything. I hung on to J.C.'s coattails at Stocktoberfest, where he was already a known entity (not quite Zuckerberg bar level).
As CEO.CA grew, I saw less of the Stocktwits group. They were getting big in the US, as I was digging deep into Canada’s venture markets. But J.C. came up to a couple of our conferences and we stayed friends.
I watched him build financial publisher AllStarCharts to a great exit to Tiffin a few years ago. Incredibly, he bought the company back last year and is full steam again.
He’s become one of the top finance voices in media. J.C.’s calls, informed by price action or technical analysis, often contradict mainstream views and headlines. He was ahead of the Covid crash and bullish US stocks early last year, for example.
A lot of investors follow what he says, so I’ve been encouraged to see J.C.’s constructive Tweets and stories about gold recently. I take them as positive signs for Canada’s miners. So when J.C. reached out last week to do an interview together, I told him I’d been waiting 13 years for his call.
It was a happy interview about our history, why Canadians are obsessed with gold (hint, it's the banking fees), why J.C. MUST buy a gold coin, mining finance folklore, and my favorite emerging stock.
Many new subscribers have joined TheBigScore since J.C. published the video yesterday. I’m grateful to J.C. for the opportunity, and happy to have you here.
TheBigScore is provided for education & entertainment purposes. We are not financial advisors.