The poor old venture exchange sure lost signficant value during the recent market meltdown. I was reading the Canaccord Morning Coffee and found the last line on this summary to be rather interesting; I say it is a good thing NOT is cash healthy to ride to avoid being one of those companies that ultimately disappear. I am also hearing more about the formation of the bottom in the markets being formed and the Santa Claus rally or Obama rally could be underway; if true it will be most welcome.

S&P/TSX Venture (JX : 684.31), Net Change: -13.55, % Change: -1.94%

Aye Carumba. The S&P/TSX Composite’s little brother reported its November trading statistics last week. While we figured they’d be down substantially in both value and volume, we were taken aback by the actual results. The volume of shares traded declined by 42%, or 36% on an average daily basis, but the value of shares traded declined by a staggering 85% to $26 million a day, or $517 million for the entire month. Last November there were 26 new listings on the exchange, while this November there were only eight. On a year-to-date basis, the average daily volume of shares traded has declined by 18% to 173 million, while the average daily value of shares traded has declined by 45% to $101 million. The combined market cap of all 2,435 companies on the exchange totalled $16.5 billion, or $6.8 million per company. With equity financings declining by 82% to $183 million for the month, expect the number of companies existing on the exchange to start declining if they are not soon able

to cash up their balance sheets.