Changing Seasons

1. Fall Travels - As days are shortening and the night air is feeling a bit cooler, I am enjoying the change of seasons once again. This year I hope to enjoy the coming of fall in a particularly memorable way as my wife and I leave on a trip to New England where we are hoping we can take in the fall colours in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. That will be after first checking out Wall Street in New York, strolling on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, seeing the sights in Washington DC, exploring history at Gettysburg – and visiting five major league ballparks! This is a trip we have looked forward to for a long time. I am sharing this to say that during our time away over the next three weeks, I will have limited computer access, so will not likely be reading the San Gold Forum on a daily basis. A change of season – a change of location (at least for a little while).

2. Retirement – I am not anywhere near retiring from work (I am one of those crazy people that enjoys working), but I believe the time has come to retire from my role as the main hub leader on this forum. Not that I have been that frequent of a poster, but I seem to have fallen into the role of policeman or referee on this board – for better or for worse. However, the genius of Agoracom is that everyone should take the role of helping keeping this Hub a better place to visit, read and learn. Anyone can flag a violation of the rules. There are a number of hub leaders who can process the flags, other than myself, and Agoracom administration is processing them as well. So, this board should be able to continue to do well whether I am actively involved or not. Therefore, this is my notice that I am hereby retiring from my role as Hub leader on this forum. I may still show up in the list at the bottom right, but I will no longer be processing any violations or dealing with board issues. I may post from time to time, but when I do, it will be as just another poster. A change of season – a change of role.

3. Investments – As time moves along, everything changes. We change, our interests and priorities change, and our investment strategies also change. I enjoyed reading about Rookie’s pilgrimage from mutual funds to cash to blue chips to juniors that he shared last night on the Wildcat forum. My journey has been a little different – started with mutual funds, then a few big board stocks and then I really stuck my neck out and got into San Gold when it was at .39 in 2005. It was a bit tough to see my investment lose ground soon after that when the price dropped to .33, but I thought I had hit the jackpot when it got to .56 a few months later! Well, San Gold has treated me very well, and I was able to see my investment grow about 500% before I sold the bulk of my personal holdings. I also got friends and associates interested in SGR along the way and they have likewise done exceedingly well with this company. I expect the future will continue to be great and $5, $10 or more per share is very possible. But I have taken a large part of my investment out of SGR for now. I am not sure where the markets are going this fall – after such a strong recovery from the depths last winter, a general correction is very possible. Whether gold stocks go up or down in that kind of a situation is hard to tell. A correction may not even happen, but I am choosing to protect against that possibility by moving to a strong cash position for awhile. And I have diversified into other companies which I believe to also have good future potential - both in Canada and the US. For quite a long period of time, my portfolio was 100% SGR -- now I have a lot more diversity in what I hold. A change of season – a change of investment focus and new ideas of where I am going.

To the many great folks I have gotten to know through our mutual interest in San Gold and through participation on this forum – thanks a lot for the great amount of stuff I have learned from you and for the support you have given me in the role I have had. But most of all I have appreciated the good relationships that have developed. It has been something really special. Sometimes good things like that just need to be said. I am hoping some of these relationships will carry on for years to come.

Best wishes to everyone in all of your investing and in all of life.

NorthLion

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“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…
A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted…
A time to keep silence and a time to speak.” (from Ecclesiastes 3)