Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (OMR)

Odyssey Marine has got to be the sorriest excuse for a public company that I have ever seen. Their financials constantly run at a loss, and their biggest source of cash is the constant sale of stock. You could be excused for thinking that this was a pharmaceutical company that can't quite get their drugs out of Phase I testing. But no, they don't make drugs. They are treasure hunters. As in, underwater treasure hunters.

Now let me tell you this, in the past I have worked as a professional diver, mostly in teaching, but I've done some commercial work too. It is the most grueling and dangerous work I've ever done, and probably the least rewarding too. I know a few guys who've signed on with treasure hunters and from what they tell me that work is even worse. If you're not underwater you're working as a dive tender, or deckhand, or cook. Or you're on-deck sifting through the days take for anything that might be valuable. A find is so rare as to be ridiculous. Talk about a "ship of fools".

To give OMR credit they did just find something, and it's apparently something big. They may have found the wreck of the Merchant Royal, one of the most fabled treasures of all time. I say "may". Obviously they are being very tight-lipped about this. Besides the fact that other explorers are looking for this treasure, there are many other groups who would love to get their hands on anything that has been found. We can ignore indignant archaeologists for now. The Spanish government in particular regularly asserts an ownership claim to any shipwreck that is found. And that is the case here. The Merchant Royal is known to have been carrying the payroll for Spain's 30,000 soldiers in Flanders, and Spain wants their coins back.

While OMR insiders are being coy about their find, and what it consists of, the one thing that they cannot ignore is their requirement to file their Form 4's, commonly known as an Insider Trade report. Since the find was made insiders have been selling. They know bloody well that they face a long legal battle to keep what they've found and with the stock trading at all time highs recently, they've been cashing in.


Frankly, aside from anything other than news driven day trading, this stock is a Strong Sell because it's going to be a long time before shareholders see two copper coins, never mind any gold or silver.