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Travel Diary: World Alternative Investment Summit Canada by John Lee, CFA 11/13/2007 Restless in Montreal - World Alternative Investment Summit Canada (Nov 5-7) I had the pleasure to be invited as one of the keynote speakers at the Canadian HedgeWatch Conference, arguably the largest hedge fund gathering in Canada. https://www.worldhedgefundssummit.com/HedgeFunds/Public/subject.aspx?SubjectId=55 How could I miss such an opportunity. So I packed my bags and off we go again, the 5th road show in 8 weeks. I departed Vancouver on a drowsy rainy morning and arrived in Montreal on a clear Monday evening. The distance between Vancouver and Montreal measures 4900 miles (8,000 kilometers). I left home at 7am and didn’t get to my hotel until 7pm. This is when I realized Canada is a big country indeed. This is also why I am not a movie buff and tiresome of those dark seats especially after being stuck in a cramped airplane for 5 hours. I am not a meat fan, but having come out of the hotel hungry without food all day, I plunged into a huge NY strip steak at the popular joint Mr. Steers on Ste-Catherine Ouest. http://www.fodors.com/world/north%20america/canada/montreal/entity_47596.html All my talks were on Wednesday so Tuesday was a relatively easy day, or perhaps not, as Gold that day jumped $10 to close at $840 and oil at over $95. Montreal is a much more diverse city than Vancouver. Things went on as usual despite the fact that commodity markets embraced for a historic day. On Tuesday registration, I was greeted by the very friendly Ms. Ruth Bonner who had everything organized for me in a packet. This conference is a gathering of the hedge fund community, involving Hedge fund managers, auditors, recruiters, and accredited investors. I sat in a few workshops and the topics mostly revolved around laws and regulations surrounding the industry, jurisdiction overviews, and techniques in reducing risk and enhancing returns. I was quite surprised that the topic of commodities was not touched at all, that is, until my talk on Wed. One of my favorite plays, Sacre Coeur Minerals (SCM.v) was an exhibitor, I was happy to see Scott Young at the booth. SCM is a great undervalued gold play in Guyana of South America . While accredited investors were few and far between, I think those conferences were great for mining outfits, as Scott got some good leads from the hedge fund managers side.
On Wednesday morning I had a 45min dedicated slot to speak about commodities and gold at the main hall in front of about 100 professionals. Some of them reportedly manage hundreds of millions, including the likes of Goldman Sachs. I was glad to have thoroughly prepared my transcript and researched my data till 3am in the morning for the talk.
I focused on the subprime problem and that gold is ready to breach $850. Pat Polland of BNN made my introduction and sat in for the whole presentation. I got a nice applause in the end and as usual a few came to shake my hand and talked to me afterwards. I think it went well. The presentation along with full transcript can be accessed here. Overall I felt the conference was more of an information exchange as the turn out by accredited investors was on the lowside. It was an education experience for me. A lot of emphasis was placed on low risk (volatility) and moderate return. My presentation I think was an eye opener for many by the type of returns our funds were able to generate. I received a dozen business cards along with few praises during the afternoon capital introduction workshop, which was equally well attended.
Montreal became very windy and started to snow in the afternoon. After checking out at noon, I went by to see my favorite folks at Kitco.com. Montreal is Kitco’s headquarter. I last visited them 4 years ago, and it was amazing to see the growth. The office has been completely revamped with 80+ staff that occupy three floors. Kitco is actively expanding into Asia and plans to start selling bullions and coins within the next few months. I chatted with Bart and Rosie for a good half an hour before jetting my way back to Vancouver.
Next show is the big Vancouver Cambridge Conference on Jan 20, 21 http://www.goldshow.ca This is going to be a crazy show and we plan to make a splash, better get some rest first! Landed YVR at 9pm, it’s good to be home. John Lee, CFA UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS |
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