Everyone seems to be aware that NOT is underpriced. Many many stocks are underpriced and people just shake their heads and expect that they'll achieve value some time down the road. In the interim those stocks continue to loose value through loss of confidence in the market, fed by meaningless headlines. At the same time it's interesting to watch Jitney and Anonymous all over the market scooping up significant shares on bursts when the market is having a particularly low point in the day. So the days, weeks and months go by and prices dwindle and shares change hands. Into whose hands are these shares being deposited? Companies put out glowing reports and prices still go down. So the time goes by and finally an offer is made on Company Z and though Z is worth $10 a share according to the investors, the offer is for $1.80. The shareholders rally to put this offer down so another is made for $2. The BOD puts it out there for the vote and the shareholders continue to rally against this offer and they say it will never go through....but it does. Somehow the votes mounted in favour of the $2 bid. Who would have voted for such a deal when they were worth $10. But it was really a good deal wasn't it when the sp was at .50? Most of the voters thought so. I mean how could a company realistically be offered 20X the share price? That's some premium isn't it? I mean it was valued at .50 and the market is always right isn't it? Well, somewhere in that dark pool of shares being lapped up there is a big question mark as to who lurks there. Add to that the subprime, world economic crisis, high speed trading, a growing mass of retirees, the shifting sand of investor sentiment and we come to grounds never before walked on. There is a lot of perception involved here. Do the large companies percieve that they need to pay a lot of money for acquisitions or do they see bargain hunting as the road to the future? I think it will be the rare situation where a company gets even close to the fair value they see and no one will pay one dollar more than they have to whether they are homegrown or Chinese. I don't know what NOT will realize in the end but all points point to this taking a while and a lot will depend on what the times are like when NOT experiences it's coming out party. No one will care about NOTs minerals if they aren't silver or gold should the attention turn to those metals in a big way.....and I think Baosteel would be very happy with that state of affairs. Crazydik considers NOT not so much of a gamble as he sees NOT being a guaranteed mine. The gamble isn't so much to that issue as how the market will respond to NOT the mine in the time that it makes that move. Will the market care when it's focus may be elsewhere? The market has shown in the past how bereft of interest it can be.

So much has been spoken about NOTs prospects over the years and most of it unrealized as of yet. In point of fact....we just don't know what the outcome will be. We wait to see. In the end it's still a gamble....hopefully a good one....but that will depend on how much you paid for your shares.