SANDSTORM: - A Collective Investment Vehicle for BTC. -

[jmutch]

Quick interjection here..

1% isn't a promise but if you were to an analysis of the current assets of Sandstorm it's clear that this goal can easily be sustained for a long time.

You're going for a Masters in Economics, and you're trying to tell us that you seriously believe you can sustain a 52% annual ROI for a long time?

The weekly reports make it clear to anyone the state of affairs at Sandstorm. This transparency is there so investors can make informed trading decisions.

Clear to who, exactly? The newbies who bought on hype on page 7?

As I said before, I (and many others) look for details on your investments..not just a typed up asset list. Purchase and sale prices, dates of purchase, quantities purchased on those dates, weighted share value per asset, profit / losses modeled over time..hell, if you're feeling frisky model out a CAPM for your portfolio. The more data I see, the more likely I am to put in my BTC50, BTC100, or BTC200, etc.


EDIT: Where's MPOE? She's usually all over this stuff..

Thanks for the critical feedback and suggestions

In the real world, I admit that an of 52% per annum would be harder to achieve. However, in the bitcoin world I don't think this is hard to achieve. If you spend enough time researching opportunities and analysing data that is. This is only my opinion and doesn't really mean much, but i'm sure some people will agree with me here.

The reports aren't just typed up asset lists. They go into some detail as to when trades are made and at what price. As said previously, the assets can be seen in Sandstorms public portfolio on btct.co. I appreciate your feedback in this area and might take on some of your suggestions regarding transparency.

It should be very clear to newbies that Sandstorm only is investing 100BTC (~$10,000) worth of capital. What fantasy would those newbs be imagining that would make these investments worth 10x that amount? Even if Sandstorm guaranteed (which is not the case) the 1% dividend minimum, there's no way anyone can think the valuaion should be $100,000+. There's no excuse for people buying at that value if they even skimmed the prospectus.

But if I buy in at a higher price, that just means he has more capital to work with, so he can make me an even higher percent yield! [/noob]

+1 for everyone who actually might believe this. He said he wasn't planning well his 40k shares so you are making other shareholders and/or speculators wealthier, not him or his funds assets per se.

He will be utilizing all the capital, or it would make zero sense to have it traded on a bid/ask scenario.
no different than if the shares totaled only 100 btc and he took a small decline he would than trade with less, he is likely now going to have well over 1000 and will trade with that. i will believe that until he mentions otherwise , which im sure he will not.

There's a fundamental misunderstanding here about how an IPO works. Jason IPOed 60K shares at 0.001 per share. It doesn't matter these shares resold for > .01 per share; Jason doesn't benefit from that until he sells his own at the higher price. He has only has 100BTC (60BTC raised from the IPO + 40BTC for his own stake) to work with plus whatever his 40K shares earn from dividends to reinvest.

I don't think that there's any scam going on here and in fact I'll be happy to buy shares at or near .001 / share. I just don't see how it's valued at 10x that amount.

Thanks for clearing this up Canth. If you do not fully understand what capital was raised for investment during the IPO please read this post!

P.S. my name is Josh 

Happy trading

[1714650296]

1714650296

[Peter Lambert]

well either way, thats decent motivation to do well having 40000 shares potentially worth more than $40,000 dollars.

and 10x evaluation is nothing compared to stocks and funds with P/E ratios of MUCH MUCH higher,

seeing as i personally made close to 1000% in one of my best months daytrading cryptos, 10x evaluation doesn't seem so high,  in fact potentially very cheap

ps: im not biased as of yet, but am purchasing this week when funds arrive.  as i dont want to sell my ltc

Just so everybody knows, my last post had a "[/noob]" at the end, indicating it was sarcastic and what I believe is the opposite. Once he sold his shares in the IPO that is the amount he can trading with, what those shares trade at later has no bearing on the amount of working capital.

bitmillion: the 10x evaluation we are considering here is the P/B, not the P/E. He raised 100 btc of working capital (B) at 0.001, and his shares trading at a price of up to 0.02 putting the price (P) at 2000, so the P/B is 20. Normally funds trade at a P/B close to 1. The P/E is the price to earnings ratio, for that you need to consider the amount he earns, which his small history so far has shown to be good, but let's use his goal of 1% which would mean 1 btc per week or about 50 btc per year, so the IPO was priced at an estimated P/E of 2, but now the estimated P/E is more like 40.

[jmutch]

Weekly Report.
It was speculated that the .62 sell wall on cognitive would be demolished as the issuer had indicated an upcoming update. Some good profits were made by buying some extra cognitive shares before this announcement with the sole purpose of short term selling.

Updates regarding hardware from both Cognitive and bASIC have increased the market value of their shares recently.  This is obviously great news for Sandstorm. Profits will be realised from these 2 assets over the coming weeks. This week, 5 basic shares were sold at .72BTC.

4 more ASICminer-PT shares were acquired on the 14th at what now appears to be a low price(4.22BTC)

Other than trading off the cognitive announcement, it has been a relatively quiet week for Sandstorm.

At the time of writing: As AMC seems to be selling out it’s .0025 shares there may be a price increase. At this stage it looks like a  necessary risk to expose sandstorm to AMC for a period of time.

Profits
.86BTC Trading Cognitive Shares
2.25BTC selling 5 bASIC shares

.609 BTC ASICminer Dividends
.002 BTC Cognitive Dividends
.027 BTC bASIC Dividends
.001 BTC RentalStarter Dividends


Total =3.749BTC (2BTC to dividends+1.749BTC to carryover fund)

Dividends
2/100000 = .00002 per share

Last weeks assets

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)

10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
40 bASIC shares (.27)
38.4BTC

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.22)


10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
35 bASIC shares (.27)
3500 AMC shares(.0025)
16.45 BTC

[Korbman]

Generally speaking, the willingness of the OP to thoroughly answer any and all questions can be indicative of the effort they’re willing to put into their business.

Thanks for addressing some of the points which i think are misleading in Korbman's post. I'll take an in-depth look at his post and make a response later.

11 days to craft a response is a long time

[jmutch]

Hey Korbman,

You obviously put a bit of effort into this post. Now that things have settled down a bit I'll try to respond to your concerns with the fund. Answers in orange...

Alright. 11 pages later (read twice) and I think I’m ready to craft a response

First, let me preface this by saying I respect the decisions made by Havelock administrators.
In my 9 months of being hosted on their exchange, never once did I ever have any qualms with how operations were run, and Lightbox was always incredibly responsive to questions not only posed by managers, but investors and customers in general.

That said, I’m quite shocked with how this whole situation has developed; between the vagueness of the ‘investment fund’ (more on that momentarily) and the seemingly rushed IPO, something doesn’t quick sit right with me given how methodical and organized previous listings were.

To the topic of Sandstorm – here’s where the fun begins. Yes, this will be an extensive post and I apologize. As a forewarning, my responses may sound rude and/or condescending, but I assure you I don’t mean them that way. I imagine it as if you and I are sitting at a table and I’m asking these questions with more of an upbeat attitude.
Generally speaking, the willingness of the OP to thoroughly answer any and all questions can be indicative of the effort they’re willing to put into their business. Let’s see how this goes…

Summary
Sandstorm is a collective investment vehicle which strives to maximise the potential of BTC’s that are invested in it. Sandstorm will use sophisticated investment strategies to ensure that the goals are met and the company grows into a mature entity within the BTC community.

How do you define these strategies? Can you prove your past performance?

Some examples of investment strategies that are:  employing risk management principles to the sandstorm portfolio, technical graphical analysis, etc.

Past performance could be proven by disclosing previous trading logs. I'm not going to do this. I believe my performance should be measured by what I have done with Sandstorm to date.

Description

The creator of Sandstorm has been creating wealth through BTC related activities for a long time [1]. This company is simply an extension of these activities. More capital means further wealth creation [2] which is the primary long term focus of this company. This wealth will be fairly distributed among shareholders.
Sandstorm plans to invest BTC in the smartest way possible [3] to maximise profits to investors. Profits will be used to rewards shareholders and grow the company. BTC related activities will be analysed for their potential as a long or short term investment.

[1] – So far as I’ve seen, this has been just ‘words on paper’. Echoing my question above, can you prove your performance on previous investments?  Essentially the question becomes – “how much wealth” over “how much time”?

I get the impression everything I write here will be "words on paper". I created around 60BTC profit over 6 months from a 28 BTC investment whilst cashing out my original $ investment. Some of this was through high risk trades with alt coins which I wouldn't expose Sandstorm to.

[2] – Either your inexperience is showing or this was just poorly worded (I’m going with the latter for now). Increasing the amount of capital is not directly correlated to an increase in wealth creation. With improper diversification it’s actually a great way to increase risk…and mismanagement can lead to great losses as well.

I kind of agree which you there. This has been noted and may be included in a few proposed changes to the prospectus. However, more capital allows for diversification into things that couldn't be invested in otherwise. I think you're missing the point here a little bit. I realised that I had a skill in something I turned this into a product which can be bought and sold.

[3] – I suppose this goes back to the “sophisticated investment strategies”. A bit of clarity and transparency could make all the difference here.

Contract

No contract has been created so far as I’ve seen..more of a prospectus than anything else.

You're right again, the whole description is more of prospectus. I labelled this section "contract" simply so that I could emphasis Sandstorms obligations to shareholders. So people can later call me out and say "hey that goes against the contract" if I do something that goes against the original prospectus.

Sandstorm's Goals:
-Release weekly dividends of at least 1% of the capital gathered from public offerings. This is a minimum expectation.
-Achieve consistent growth in value, share price and dividends

From what I’ve gathered through the rest of the thread, you’re promising a weekly 1% dividend (minimum), with the expectation of achieving growth.
Growth over time is normal, but if you truly are a legitimate fund, then promising a set percent of dividends per week is not possible. There are far too many variables (both known and unknown) to promise anything in Bitcoin, and I’ve learned this firsthand.

I don’t have a problem with dividends. I do have a problem with guaranteeing them, as that’s usually indicative of a scheme.

This is incorrect. Nowhere have I guaranteed a minimum dividend. I was simply giving a indication of what to expect from Sandstorm. This is 1%(1BTC a week) is a goal which I intend to meet and have thus far.

Plan:
[…]
Once the company has reached a mature stage, where the abilities of the company have been proven, further public offerings of 100,000 shares at a time will be issued to raise further capital.
There will no more than 1,000,000 shares issued in the long term.

How do you plan on releasing more shares to the public down the line without diluting investors’ holdings?

This is a challenge for sandstorm. One way is to only release small amounts of units in the future for capital raising (10,000-50,000). This will have a small impact compared to the possible gains which could be made from Sandstorm holding more capital. Right now I have no intention of raising further capital for Sandstorm. If further capital in sought it will be done in a way which will minimise dilution (see goal #2)

Investment
Shareholder funds will only be invested in things related to BTC:

• Investing in other virtual securities
• Buying and selling other virtual securities
• Mining operations (unlikely)
• BTC/USD trading (small amounts due to higher risk)

I’m actually quite curious about this. Why not mine? Mining can provide a stream of income for your fund, which may be helpful when times get tough (and they will).

I'm a bit sceptical about the difficulty trend VS cost of hardware. With the relatively small amount of capital Sandstorm has, I believe better returns can be made through trading. Buying one Avalon would take over half of Sandstorms portfolio. Sandstorm is not a mining company.

If on the unlikely chance that Sandstorm can't continue:
Shareholders will be fully informed and a suitable replacement for management will be sought after. If this attempt is unsuccessful, shares will be purchased back at 105% of the 7 day average. All remaining assets will be liquidated and distributed to shareholders through dividends.

Hypothetical scenario:
Sandstorm is sought after in Australia for securities trading and is pending a lawsuit. Managers of Sandstorm are unable to find a suitable foreign replacement to take over and decide to follow through on “Plan B” (repurchasing).
Bitcoin has risen in value to $250 each. Investor [A] owns 1000 shares of Sandstorm, and the 7 day average is BTC0.1.

How do you plan on repurchasing 1050 shares (valued at 105 Bitcoins) now that they’re worth $26,250?

This is definitely an issue with the contract which is especially relevant with the valuation of Sandstorm shares. I don't have 60,000AUD to buy out the 60,000 units at market value. I'm also planning to propose a change to this. Somthing like:
All remaining assets from the last weekly report will be liquidated and distributed to shareholders at a per unit basis
I think this is a more fair solution for all parties.

Product

A place for people maximise returns on BTC without the associated stress of holding long positions on investments. It is aimed at people within the BTC community searching for a relatively low risk investment with high rewards.

Whether in Bitcoin or “real world” trading, there is no such thing as a low risk / high reward investment. Marketing yourself this way leaves me a bit skeptical.

I see your point here. I haven't even stated relative to what. I think I'll propose to delete this pointless sentence altogether.

Issuer
Joshua Mutch
Sandstorm - A Collective Investment Vehicle for BTC
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
+61422072562
joshua.d.mutch@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/josh.mutch

Naturally, we appreciate the marginal transparency, but after the Bakewell scam names and addresses don’t quite mean as much anymore.
More words on paper...but i invite you to call the number so we can discuss sandstorm over the phone  . I've identified myself to havelock as per their conditions.  

Financing

The financials of Sandstorm will be updated and released weekly after dividends have been distributed. This will offer transparency to shareholders and potential investors.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhkfI_u94nYydFRIaTlBNE14aHBZNzIxRlBLWlhzTlE&usp=sharing

In case of updates to this contract:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L0iXSEu_JkmPi6JvqPb0I0xg_CnSJq9Bx-A1pBHbmzU/edit?usp=sharing

I think you posted the wrong Google Docs link. The ‘financials’ you posted are just shares sold. Where’s the income statement? Maybe a balance sheet? Current assets held by the fund? Dates when shares were bought / sold, their respective prices, profits / losses?

The financials are a summary of the weeks as sandstorm progesses. I believe that this is sufficient information when combined with the weekly reports. It has been noted that this is a weakness Sandstorms transparency. I invite you to take a closer look at the weekly reports. By giving a weekly asset list along with what price they were bought, it is easy to deduct what major trades have happened during the previous week.

Phew! Now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the rest of the posts:

Weekly Report:
Profits
.9BTC from trading AM-PT shares
.42BTC from trading basic shares
.2 from trading AMC shares
 .38BTC from AM share dividends

~1.9BTC gone to dividends

Current Assets

2500 AMC shares bought at @ .0005
48 BTC

Do you have any proof of your holdings and when they were purchased?

Current Assets

2500 AMC shares bought at @ .0005

Kthnxbye.

To be honest that is just a quick buck. I have no faith in AMC, it's just a short term opportunity. What's wrong with buying something for .0005 and selling it 3 days later for .0007?
 

TradeFortress has a point, even though he didn’t vocalize it.

I thought the idea of this fund was to make “smart” “low risk” investments? To me, that means only investing in securities which you are confident in. Gambling with potential scams with the hope that “it’ll go up to .0007” is not investing, it’s speculating.

Imagine in those 3 days that the price dropped to .0003. What then? Buy and hold and hope for the best?

As Furuknap aptly noted:

In short, stick to an investment profile so investors know what they are buying. 'Anything I can find' isn't a strategy, it is a lottery.

PS: I understand you will make some form of judgment on new opportunities, but like I mentioned, you have no credibility to prove that you are better at making those judgments than anyone else.

In short.
I never gamble with shareholders funds. I make calculated investment decision based of various information.
I invested 1.25BTC into AMC at that time. An intentionally tiny amount which correlated with the large amount of risk that position held at the time. Simple risk management.
I do a lot of research so that I can make informed decision. When you buy into sandstorm you place trust in those decisions.

And in terms of being transparent with your actions…

I know this does look like a ponzi scheme and there is no way for me to prove  that it's not. I can only offer my assurances that this is not a ponzi scheme

…this is a bit unacceptable. There are numerous ways to show your background operations, which would instantly clear up quite a bit of skepticism.

As I write this, I’m beginning to question why you’re more than willing to reveal your identity, yet you won’t want to reveal the details of your investments. And before you say it, no, that “Asset List” with a bit of math does not qualify as ‘detail’.
Refresh this link every minute: https://btct.co/portfolio/gLk7Eg== There, you have a live feed of 95% of Sandstorms portfolio!;) In all seriousness I am looking at a more detailed accounting strategy for Sandstorm.

Done! (for now of course)
I thank you for taking the time to read this and no hard feelings. We’ve had far too many scams around here and it’s only proper for members to vet new entries. Most the established members here share the same sentiment that I do, so I’m hoping this will provide you with a channel to clear the air so to speak.

It is hard to read some of these things when I only have good intention for Sandstorm. I mean I own 40% of it.

Overall I do appreciate the feedback. It shows me where the holes are so that they may be fixed.

Thanks for your interest!

As always, Happy trading

[freedomno1]

Mission complete
BTCT was interesting today any comments or will I need to wait on that  
11 Pages and 11 Days adds an 11 Reference

Thanks for the reply

[jmutch]

Weekly Report.
As expected, the thunderous finish to ActM’s capital raising was followed on by a rise in the share price. There is currently a lot of interest in this company. As time goes on it seems to be gaining investor loyalty. I expect that some solid activity from this company could create a spike in the price of these shares in the coming months. However, I still see this investment carrying considerable risk.

Another relatively stable week from ASICminer compared to it’s recent history.

Due to the fallout from SEC news, there was a lot of uncertainty and volatility created yesterday. I believe a fair bit of this was unwarranted. Still, negative sentiment could cause a downward trend in particular securities. Of course the BTC world moves very fast and this sentiment could evaporate by the end of the weekend.

Sandstorms reaction to this was to reduce its holdings in bASIC.

 At one stage during the “mayhem” someone bought up a large amount of ASICminer PT shares. Sandstorm sold into the ripples of this move. I just happened to be lucky enough to be watching the markets at that time.

These moves put Sandstorm in a relatively liquid position during this time of some uncertainty. The behaviour of the markets will be watched and some re-buys may be done over the coming week.

During this week a motion will put forward via email to major shareholders (greater than 1%). This will propose to clean up parts of the Sandstorm prospective which have been highlighted in this thread.

Unless something drastic happens, I believe Sandstorm is still in a very positive position.

Happy Trading.

Profits
.8BTC selling 500 AMC(now Active Mining) shares
4.6 BTC selling 20 bASIC shares
2.32BTC selling 4 ASICminer-PT shares

.577 BTC ASICminer Dividends
.009 BTC Cognitive Dividends
.039 BTC bASIC Dividends
.016 BTC Active Mining Dividends


Total =8.361BTC (2.5BTC to dividends+5.861BTC to carryover fund)

Dividends
2.5/100000 = .000025 per share

Last weeks assets

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.22)


10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
35 bASIC shares (.27)
3500 AMC shares(.0025)
16.45 BTC

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)

10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
15 bASIC shares (.27)
3000 (.0025)

46.2 BTC

[Korbman]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. Let’s see if I can whittle this down a bit so we don’t have to keep staring at walls of text as the thread goes on.

EDIT: Nevermind, it’s still a big wall of text

How do you define these strategies? Can you prove your past performance?

Some examples of investment strategies that are:  employing risk management principles to the sandstorm portfolio, technical graphical analysis, etc.

Past performance could be proven by disclosing previous trading logs. I'm not going to do this. I believe my performance should be measured by what I have done with Sandstorm to date.

As I’m sure you know, this begs the question of why? If the object is to garner trust in your trading ability, then why not show that you’ve had successful trading experiences in the past? Even if you didn’t start off successfully, showing a progression and adaptation to Bitcoin markets over time (prior to starting Sandstorm) would go quite far.

Description

The creator of Sandstorm has been creating wealth through BTC related activities for a long time [1]. This company is simply an extension of these activities. More capital means further wealth creation [2] which is the primary long term focus of this company. This wealth will be fairly distributed among shareholders.
Sandstorm plans to invest BTC in the smartest way possible [3] to maximise profits to investors. Profits will be used to rewards shareholders and grow the company. BTC related activities will be analysed for their potential as a long or short term investment.

[1] – So far as I’ve seen, this has been just ‘words on paper’. Echoing my question above, can you prove your performance on previous investments?  Essentially the question becomes – “how much wealth” over “how much time”?

I get the impression everything I write here will be "words on paper". I created around 60BTC profit over 6 months from a 28 BTC investment whilst cashing out my original $ investment. Some of this was through high risk trades with alt coins which I wouldn't expose Sandstorm to.

No you didn’t. How I can be so confident in my answer? Simple. I read through all available information on your asset and there is no indication of the performance you’ve quoted. The “words on paper” phrase was used figuratively, meaning we’re to trust you know what you’re doing simply based on what you write in this thread. There isn’t any evidence to back your claims, and you’ve made it clear you’re heavily resistant to releasing any data that may change that. That seems a bit...peculiar…

[2] – Either your inexperience is showing or this was just poorly worded (I’m going with the latter for now). Increasing the amount of capital is not directly correlated to an increase in wealth creation. With improper diversification it’s actually a great way to increase risk…and mismanagement can lead to great losses as well.

I kind of agree which you there. This has been noted and may be included in a few proposed changes to the prospectus. However, more capital allows for diversification into things that couldn't be invested in otherwise. I think you're missing the point here a little bit. I realised that I had a skill in something I turned this into a product which can be bought and sold.

I’m not missing the point at all. I’m giving you a third party perspective to what I’m reading throughout this thread. My advice – work on the quality of the service you’re selling.

No contract has been created so far as I’ve seen...more of a prospectus than anything else.

You're right again, the whole description is more of prospectus. I labelled this section "contract" simply so that I could emphasis Sandstorms obligations to shareholders. So people can later call me out and say "hey that goes against the contract" if I do something that goes against the original prospectus.

Yeah, no worries. Differentiating between the two is a pretty common mistake among fund developers.

EDIT: I’m actually being serious. I’ve seen this mix-up a number of times, especially back in the GLBSE days.

Sandstorm's Goals:
-Release weekly dividends of at least 1% of the capital gathered from public offerings. This is a minimum expectation.
-Achieve consistent growth in value, share price and dividends

From what I’ve gathered through the rest of the thread, you’re promising a weekly 1% dividend (minimum), with the expectation of achieving growth.
Growth over time is normal, but if you truly are a legitimate fund, then promising a set percent of dividends per week is not possible. There are far too many variables (both known and unknown) to promise anything in Bitcoin, and I’ve learned this firsthand.

I don’t have a problem with dividends. I do have a problem with guaranteeing them, as that’s usually indicative of a scheme.

This is incorrect. Nowhere have I guaranteed a minimum dividend. I was simply giving a indication of what to expect from Sandstorm. This is 1%(1BTC a week) is a goal which I intend to meet and have thus far.

You’re saying that you’re not guaranteeing a minimum 1% dividend, yet as you market your fund you state it’s a minimum expectation?

I see what you mean, but Holy poorly-worded-prospectus Batman! Maybe it would be better with something along the lines of “Through active trading, the goal of Sandstorm is to achieve a weekly dividend of 1% based on capital raised, but by no means is this guaranteed”. This leaves it open as a clearly stated weekly goal, instead of an expectation, which gives you the flexibility to go lower without as much uproar.

Plan:
[…]
Once the company has reached a mature stage, where the abilities of the company have been proven, further public offerings of 100,000 shares at a time will be issued to raise further capital.
There will no more than 1,000,000 shares issued in the long term.

How do you plan on releasing more shares to the public down the line without diluting investors’ holdings?

This is a challenge for sandstorm. One way is to only release small amounts of units in the future for capital raising (10,000-50,000). This will have a small impact compared to the possible gains which could be made from Sandstorm holding more capital. Right now I have no intention of raising further capital for Sandstorm. If further capital in sought it will be done in a way which will minimise dilution (see goal #2)

It is quite challenging, I agree. Any way you look at it, starting with a fixed amount of shares and then increasing that amount will result in dilution. The puzzle comes from minimizing the effects of the action and making sure that all investors are aware of any changes made ahead of time.

Investment
Shareholder funds will only be invested in things related to BTC:

• Investing in other virtual securities
• Buying and selling other virtual securities
• Mining operations (unlikely)
• BTC/USD trading (small amounts due to higher risk)

I’m actually quite curious about this. Why not mine? Mining can provide a stream of income for your fund, which may be helpful when times get tough (and they will).

I'm a bit sceptical about the difficulty trend VS cost of hardware. With the relatively small amount of capital Sandstorm has, I believe better returns can be made through trading. Buying one Avalon would take over half of Sandstorms portfolio. Sandstorm is not a mining company.

Ah, got it, and I definitely understand your concerns with respect to lack of capital, difficulty, etc.

If Sandstorm grows and increases its capital, would you consider purchasing mining equipment? The equipment would be beneficial in two ways: 1) Adding an additional revenue stream so the burden of relying solely on trading for income is lessened, and 2) adding physical assets to Sandstorm’s balance sheet (whenever that gets created), increasing the value of the company.

Obviously there’s more than just the cost of the hardware that needs to be considered when making the final purchase decision. It can get complicated, sure, but since when is diversifying your revenue streams something to be avoided?

If on the unlikely chance that Sandstorm can't continue:
Shareholders will be fully informed and a suitable replacement for management will be sought after. If this attempt is unsuccessful, shares will be purchased back at 105% of the 7 day average. All remaining assets will be liquidated and distributed to shareholders through dividends.

Hypothetical scenario:
Sandstorm is sought after in Australia for securities trading and is pending a lawsuit. Managers of Sandstorm are unable to find a suitable foreign replacement to take over and decide to follow through on “Plan B” (repurchasing).
Bitcoin has risen in value to $250 each. Investor [A] owns 1000 shares of Sandstorm, and the 7 day average is BTC0.1.

How do you plan on repurchasing 1050 shares (valued at 105 Bitcoins) now that they’re worth $26,250?

This is definitely an issue with the contract which is especially relevant with the valuation of Sandstorm shares. I don't have 60,000AUD to buy out the 60,000 units at market value. I'm also planning to propose a change to this. Somthing like:
All remaining assets from the last weekly report will be liquidated and distributed to shareholders at a per unit basis
I think this is a more fair solution for all parties.

Your solution definitely works quite well, and stifles any unreasonable expectations Investors may have should the company run into trouble.

Financing

The financials of Sandstorm will be updated and released weekly after dividends have been distributed. This will offer transparency to shareholders and potential investors.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhkfI_u94nYydFRIaTlBNE14aHBZNzIxRlBLWlhzTlE&usp=sharing

In case of updates to this contract:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L0iXSEu_JkmPi6JvqPb0I0xg_CnSJq9Bx-A1pBHbmzU/edit?usp=sharing

I think you posted the wrong Google Docs link. The ‘financials’ you posted are just shares sold. Where’s the income statement? Maybe a balance sheet? Current assets held by the fund? Dates when shares were bought / sold, their respective prices, profits / losses?

The financials are a summary of the weeks as sandstorm progesses. I believe that this is sufficient information when combined with the weekly reports. It has been noted that this is a weakness Sandstorms transparency. I invite you to take a closer look at the weekly reports. By giving a weekly asset list along with what price they were bought, it is easy to deduct what major trades have happened during the previous week.

For an investor, a company’s financial statements are by far the most important resource the company can provide.
Investors shouldn’t need to guesstimate about how the company is doing, how the company is managed, or how the portfolio progresses from day to day (or week to week) based on bits of information posted here and there. It’s the company’s job to provide investors with enough information where they are able to make a fully informed decision prior to investing.
You may believe there is sufficient information available, but in actuality the details are quite lacking. It seems you understand this, which is a step in the right direction. I hope to see an update on this soon, and I guarantee others will appreciate it as well.

If you need help creating an income or balance sheet, just ask! There’s plenty of people around here that are more than willing to lend a hand or give advice.

Current Assets

2500 AMC shares bought at @ .0005

Kthnxbye.

To be honest that is just a quick buck. I have no faith in AMC, it's just a short term opportunity. What's wrong with buying something for .0005 and selling it 3 days later for .0007?

TradeFortress has a point, even though he didn’t vocalize it.

I thought the idea of this fund was to make “smart” “low risk” investments? To me, that means only investing in securities which you are confident in. Gambling with potential scams with the hope that “it’ll go up to .0007” is not investing, it’s speculating.

Imagine in those 3 days that the price dropped to .0003. What then? Buy and hold and hope for the best?

As Furuknap aptly noted:

In short, stick to an investment profile so investors know what they are buying. 'Anything I can find' isn't a strategy, it is a lottery.

PS: I understand you will make some form of judgment on new opportunities, but like I mentioned, you have no credibility to prove that you are better at making those judgments than anyone else.

In short.
I never gamble with shareholders funds. I make calculated investment decision based of various information.
I invested 1.25BTC into AMC at that time. An intentionally tiny amount which correlated with the large amount of risk that position held at the time. Simple risk management.
I do a lot of research so that I can make informed decision. When you buy into sandstorm you place trust in those decisions.

Correct, but if you’re investing in funds known to be a bit sketchy, how do you think investors will view your decisions?

I know this does look like a ponzi scheme and there is no way for me to prove that it's not. I can only offer my assurances that this is not a ponzi scheme

…this is a bit unacceptable. There are numerous ways to show your background operations, which would instantly clear up quite a bit of skepticism.

As I write this, I’m beginning to question why you’re more than willing to reveal your identity, yet you won’t want to reveal the details of your investments. And before you say it, no, that “Asset List” with a bit of math does not qualify as ‘detail’.

Refresh this link every minute: https://btct.co/portfolio/gLk7Eg== There, you have a live feed of 95% of Sandstorms portfolio!;) In all seriousness I am looking at a more detailed accounting strategy for Sandstorm.

And should you invest in securities outside of BTCT, what happens then? Suddenly we’ll only be able to see 75% of your holdings? 50%?

I look forward to your accounting updates.

It is hard to read some of these things when I only have good intention for Sandstorm. I mean I own 40% of it.

Overall I do appreciate the feedback. It shows me where the holes are so that they may be fixed.

And a quick proverb for the day, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Investors are paid based on your actions, not your intentions.

I’m glad we’ve been able to address a number of concerns with the fund, and I always think it’s a good thing. It seems there’s still much to be done, but if you can pull it off I don’t doubt you’ll be able to grow your fund without a problem.

[josiasrdz]

any updates?

[jmutch]

Weekly Report.

I see these two new IPO’s changing the dynamic of the BTC hardware manufacturing industry in the future. It is hard to see how this new competition will affect ASICminer and the economy down the track. All I know is that there is a lot of money getting thrown into these companies collectively right now.

Again it seemed necessary to buy into an IPO which had huge demand. Sandstorm managed to pick up 5119 units of Labcoin at IPO prices(.001). I was up all night due to the bad time-zone  getting updates on this launch. 1119 of these units were sold at .0028 in order to decrease the risk of the position.

Just like ActM, I’m not 100% convinced by these companies (btcgarden and labcoin). I’m aware of the possibility that one of them may turn out to to be a scam. Therefor Sandstorm will limit exposure, but still be involved in the potential for big rewards. This will be done by recovering a percentage of the initial investments.

The market vacuum created by the Labcoin IPO allowed for some cheap(ish) bASIC shares to be picked up. The reason for my continuing investment in basic is that I have a lot of confidence in the operator of the company.

It’s been a busy week, so I didn’t send the email out regarding changes to the prospectus. I will do this by the end of the weekend. Also, I think I’ve found an easy way to disclose Sandstorms trades in more detail. This may be included in next weeks report.

Due to being involve in these IPO’s, Sandstorms NPV has seen a healthy lift.

Happy Trading.

Profits
2.004BTC selling Labcoin Shares

.446 BTC ASICminer Dividends
.015 BTC Cognitive Dividends
.024 BTC bASIC Dividends

-.51 Havelock fee (mainly for listing fee and IPO. This is totaled monthly)

Total =BTC 2.114(2BTC to dividends+.114BTC to carryover fund)

Dividends
2/100000 = .00002 per share

Last weeks assets

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)

10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
15 bASIC shares (.27)
3000 (.0025)

46.2 BTC

Assets
10 ASICminer direct shares (2.5)
6 ASICminer-PT shares (2.48)
4 ASICminer-PT shares(4.19)

4000 Labcoin Shares(.001)
10 Cognitive Shares (.28)
100 RentalStarter shares (.0149)
15 bASIC shares (.27)
15 bASIC shares (.41)
3000 Active Miner shares (.0025)

35.87 BTC

[Smidge]

So, obviously I have a conflict of interest here, but the fund is down 23.36% in one week if I read this correctly.

And what you did as a fund manager to "prevent" it from tanking like the rest of the market was buying Labcoin and then selling some of them?

Any shareholders still reading this thread?

[xaviarlol]

So, obviously I have a conflict of interest here, but the fund is down 23.36% in one week if I read this correctly.

And what you did as a fund manager to "prevent" it from tanking like the rest of the market was buying Labcoin and then selling some of them?

Any shareholders still reading this thread?

Anyone who bought shares in this deserved to lose their money. Though unfortunately I suspect most people who did were noobs at bitcoin and fell for the promises of "At least 1% per week". Instead they got -24% per week.

Also, I think it's quite sad that the fund manager decided to kind of mask the true performance of the fund in a way where ordinary people would not have known just how poorly it has performed. This is going to turn in to a shitstorm, perhaps shareholders should vote to change the name.

[ThickAsThieves]

On the next episode of TOP FUND MANAGER, Lord Sugar tells it like it is!

[xaviarlol]

On the next episode of TOP FUND MANAGER, Lord Sugar tells it like it is!

Haha. I wish someone would track all the fund performance and post it somewhere. I'd probably get more shareholders if someone did that. Although less shareholders means more profit for me!

[ThickAsThieves]

Although less shareholders means more profit for me!

Oh, the irony!

[BitHub]

I don't think josh really cares about sandstorm or its shareholders. One lil lousy update a week? If we're lucky. What myself and S.E.C and A.S.I.C (australian securities and investments comission) are investigating and interested in, is that the Fund manager Josh Mutch setup a localbitcoins account around the same time as doing the IPO https://localbitcoins.com/ad/19465/purchase-bitcoin-bank-transfer-australia-australia

Now the question becomes is he selling sandstorm IPO funds to buy things for himself in the real world or he just doesn't care anymore and is cashing out before it really does turn into a shitstorm?
 

[xaviarlol]

I don't think josh really cares about sandstorm or its shareholders. One lil lousy update a week? If we're lucky. What myself and S.E.C and A.S.I.C (australian securities and investments comission) are investigating and interested in, is that the Fund manager Josh Mutch setup a localbitcoins account around the same time as doing the IPO https://localbitcoins.com/ad/19465/purchase-bitcoin-bank-transfer-australia-australia

Now the question becomes is he selling sandstorm IPO funds to buy things for himself in the real world or he just doesn't care anymore and is cashing out before it really does turn into a shitstorm?
 

That is highly suspicious. Why would you be selling Bitcoins for fiat if you just opened a Bitcoin investment fund?? If you were scammed are a sandstorm shareholder, I'd suggest doing everything you can to get your money back ASAP.

[jmutch]

Hey guys,

It's up to the free market to price the Sandstorm units. IMHO Sandstorm shares are still overpriced. I think the "value" of the shares are about 2 or 3 times the IPO price. Anyone who's done any research into Sandstorms assets would know this. Currently I'm really working on increasing this value without placing to much risk on Sandstorm.

I see Sandstorm as performing quite well. I know there is volatility in the market right now. This is why Sandstorm has long term positions which act as a buffer against the market falling. People look to much into the short term in the BTC world.

Of course i'm acting in the greater interest of shareholders. I put a lot of hours into operating this fund the best way I can. I think updates once a week is sufficient. If you want to know whats happening with sandstorm, why not ask? It just doesn't feel right spamming my own thread.

As to the accusations regarding my localbitcoin account. This is completely ridiculous. I've made a lot of BTC through trading long before I began Sandstorm. Don't I a have a right to turn some of my personal BTC into fiat? If i ran off with the IPO funds how did i pay for the assets in the public portfolio on btct.co? Why would I sell stolen BTC through a user account with my name on it? Do you guys really think that i'm that stupid?

For disclosure I've sold around 15 BTC through localbitcoin about a month ago out of my personal wallet and 5BTC about 2 months ago, also from my personal wallet. I've also bought BTC from localbitcoins.com. I think it's a great site.

These slanderous comments from other fund managers are tiring. I'm sorry about my negative tone in this message. It's just hard to see constant criticism against something i've put so much work into over the last 2 months. I suppose i should get used to it.

[xaviarlol]

Hey guys,

It's up to the free market to price the Sandstorm units. IMHO Sandstorm shares are still overpriced. I think the "value" of the shares are about 2 or 3 times the IPO price. Anyone who's done any research into Sandstorms assets would know this. Currently I'm really working on increasing this value without placing to much risk on Sandstorm.

I see Sandstorm as performing quite well. I know there is volatility in the market right now. This is why Sandstorm has long term positions which act as a buffer against the market falling. People look to much into the short term in the BTC world.

Of course i'm acting in the greater interest of shareholders. I put a lot of hours into operating this fund the best way I can. I think updates once a week is sufficient. If you want to know whats happening with sandstorm, why not ask? It just doesn't feel right spamming my own thread.

As to the accusations regarding my localbitcoin account. This is completely ridiculous. I've made a lot of BTC through trading long before I began Sandstorm. Don't I a have a right to turn some of my personal BTC into fiat? If i ran off with the IPO funds how did i pay for the assets in the public portfolio on btct.co? Why would I sell stolen BTC through a user account with my name on it? Do you guys really think that i'm that stupid?

For disclosure I've sold around 15 BTC through localbitcoin about a month ago out of my personal wallet and 5BTC about 2 months ago, also from my personal wallet. I've also bought BTC from localbitcoins.com. I think it's a great site.

These slanderous comments from other fund managers are tiring. I'm sorry about my negative tone in this message. It's just hard to see constant criticism against something i've put so much work into over the last 2 months. I suppose i should get used to it.

What does the share price have anything to do with the net assets? Smidge asked if it is correct that you lost the fund some -24% of its assets in the last week. The answer to that appears to be "yes". The fact that you are selling BTC for fiat at the same time you launch an IPO certainly does bring up questions, particularly because you came out of nowhere. You haven't proved you are trustworthy yet, so don't get defensive.

I personally pointed out that I think the way you report the fund performance to shareholders is deceptive, and you do it that way to cover the fact that it has performed poorly.You should post its actual performance, not a bunch of other unimportant stats. The first thing you should show is the net asset growth of loss in that period.

Are both me and Smidges comments not correct or appropriate? If so, please explain where we are wrong.

[felente]

you should do think in the long term.
lost xx% THIS week? and gain next week - no?? what about next month? or year??
be more patient and give josh a try to do main job and not waste the time trolling here.

besides it seems to me that some subjects are interested for detailed "updates" everyday (no, best - hourly!) to peep on josh's strategies
this is his weapon, and he's not obligated to tell the world about each and every aspect of it.
nevertheless - please write right here YOUR detailed strategies FIRST, then ask from someone else the same.

guys, that's a trust.
there is no evidence for josh's bad intentions, obviously.
i bought small amount of shares and getting some dividends for that.
the overpricing of shares is another issue and not josh's merit. also not directly...
weekly reports are fine too - maybe this can be fine-tuned in the future, but this is not an excuse and reason to disallow him to use his own "capital" as needed.

be more polite.
we're all coming from nowhere once.
if that's the main reason - do not trust those people "from nowhere" (first) and do not yammer (then).
it's YOUR choice to risk, and risk is not the same as scam - look for difference.