Hi Colin, 

I agree with what you are saying, but only up to a *very limited* point.

As soon as you say "Without theoretical structure and basis, your personal experiences are of no more significance than whether your foot itches this morning."

That is when you go completely off the rails. 

That phrase, followed by the remaining rhetoric is equivalent to saying the following to a successful race-car driver when he is giving his opinion on how the race tomorrow is likely to go:

"It does not matter how successful you have been in the past 12 years of racing, without a theoretical structure and basis, your personal experiences have no more significance that whether your foot itches this morning.  Unless, of course, you claim to be able to figure out how to drive without going to driver school.   Surely you don't claim to be able to get informal instruction from others, observe their actions, get in the car and drive it for yourself, and actually be able to understand racing well enough to give a reasonable opinion on tomorrow's race.  Just because you have demonstrated that you are a successful driver, you do not have the formal education necessary to offer a realistic opinion.  You should go to driver school and learn how to drive.  That would put you far ahead of where you are now.  And what is more, I refuse to offer you one solid iota of direct example other than to refer you to the nearest driver training school."

All this from a racing commentator who has never shown any success in being a race car driver.

Are you so sure that I did not learn the basics from listening to others, reading from others, and doing my own investing?

Where is the subjective evidence.  To say "you are wrong because I say so" just is not nearly as convincing as saying something like "you are wrong because the framistam is the conjuctive of the leptis and you have used the wrong thurdad, it should have been 3 instead of 2".

Sure, there is a theoretical aspect to finance and investing.  But the proof of the pudding in is the eating.  Maybe, just maybe,  I understand the essential basics and how to implement them much better than you and find that I can decide to ignore all the theoretical minutiae that you seem to think are necessary to invest successfully.

The whole intent of these message boards is to share ideas and opinions so that all can benefit.  The benefit that most want is to improve their investing performance.  To say that my past performance is irrelevant and then to further say - without any shred of supporting evidence for it - that I have "no experience in Finance and Investing" is shockingly pompous and totally misrepresents the facts.  Twleve years is demonstrably more than 0.  If not, can I ask what  math formulae you normally apply when you do these calculations?

In the one reply you have made to one of my posts so far, you tell me that I am wrong, and then go on to make the exact same point that I have made (albeit with a much greater emphasis on how negative it is) and demonstrate that you did not understand the English in my post when you did so.

I suggest that you take a much more pragmatic approach to what is relevant and what is not.  I indicated that Deep seemed to have far too much of an "ivory-tower" approach to these topics.

The same applies to you.  So much so, that I wonder if perhaps you and Deep are the same person or closely related to each other.

Deep has opined that a 4.5% interest rate on the convertible notes represents a "crushing debt burden" and then chides me for disagreeing without even giving his argument any numbers.

I am not unaware of certain metrics that are used to measure this "crushing debt burden".  He did not even bother to use any of them.  Even the "earnings to debt" ratio which would likely show his argument to the best advantage since the earnings are future earnings - once the mine is in production.

Come on, what is the "crushing debt burden" using the following metrics:

Debt to cash ratio?

Debt to book value ratio?

Debt service to expected future earnings ratio - perhaps the most significant one in this particular scenario?

Debt amortization schedule given expected earnings.

I am aware of these and other metrics.  How come none have been used to back up his case so far?

Good luck yourself, colin