Shareholder Updates - Archives

August 26, 2008 Trading Update

The market maker informed me that he had submitted a price quote to FINRA for approval on Tuesday, August 19, 2008. FINRA is supposed to respond in three business days, I understand, and 3 - 5 days is typical with mailing and such. Given that time frame, we could hope to see a printed BID and ASK (an actual quote) August 26, 27 or 28th.

With a little effort, you have been able to buy and sell the stock since July 29th. Since that time, there has been an unpriced quote on the stock. You would put in a purchase or sale request through your broker. He would then have to call BMA Securities to see what is available. If there is a match your broker can arrange a sale or purchase.

Very early in the trading process of any stock there are often market inefficiencies and imbalances that thrust the share price unreasonably high or crash it unreasonably low. Keep an eye on the fundamentals (the real economic value) of our stock and make smart investment decisions rather than reacting to the swings. Some fundamentals to look for are cash and cash-like investment per share, and earnings per share.

There are some summaries on the web site that may be helpful. The YTD financials give a snapshot of the Company approximately at the start of trading. Also, the 15(c)2-11 is designed to give a good basis for understanding the Company and even discusses some of the anticipated early market forces that will affect the stock price.

Our 2007 audited financials are complete and also posted. In reviewing the 2007 audit, it is important to recognize that 90% of our 2007 hedge fund revenue was deferred by certain accounting rules until the start of trading in 2008. Note 8 of the 2006 annual financials explains this in some detail.

We have also signed up for certain PinkSheet.com services. You will see various aspects of our results there, also. These will expand over time as they integrate our information into their system. Right now there is an offensive stop sign by our name because they have not yet incorporated or allowed us to incorporate publicly available information into their system. The information that will lift the stop sign can be found at the tabs to your left on this screen.

August 8, 2008 Trading Update

Mentor Capital, Inc. has secured approval from FINRA to trade our stock under the symbol MNTR initially on the Pink Sheets. We have supplied data on comparable companies and what our proportional share price should be to our market maker to help him set an initial share price. We do not know, and probably won't be sure of, the initial price until the market maker surprises us in a few days. Although we have supplied quite a bit a financial data, the market maker has asked for one last set of current financials, which we will get to him by Monday 11, August, 2008. The market maker indicated that he could then fax in a proposed bid and asked to FINRA that Monday morning. He further stated that then, in two or three days, MNTR should be clear to trade and be activated in the system. You can most easily check to see if trading has started by checking for MNTR in any system that gives you a stock quote, like PinkSheets.com, Yahoo Financial, OTCBB.com, Bloomberg, Morningstar, Google or through any broker. In a few weeks we will also try to have the quote on our web page at MentorCapital.com. Once trading starts we will send out two mailed notices, an e-mail and a press release. Until then, just keep an eye out for MNTR to pop up on your favorite financial service.

July 1, 2008 Trading Update

Two weeks ago, your CEO, Chet Billingsley, was able to speak with Ken L. Worm, the assistant director with oversight over trading at FINRA. (Mr. Worm has a reputation as a well-versed professional in the field). The assistant director was unaware that the company traded earlier (for 7 years) under the symbol MFIT. When this and a few other items were explained, he asked for the information to just be sent in.

Our attorney from the 1998 - 2000 bankruptcy reorganization penned a short, 5 page, legal brief for FINRA that was sent in today, July 1, 2008. With the combination of senior level interaction at FINRA and the legal explanation, we are hopeful we will be able to resume trading without further legal involvement.

We expect the positive word on trading could come back between July 11th and July 31st. We will keep you apprised.

May 26, 2008 Trading Update

On May 21st, we received another negative response from FINRA with regard to our request to reactivate trading in the MNTR stock. They state, "It is still our opinion that the issuer's securities as described in the fifth and sixth amended disclosure statement should not be allowed to trade until the Debtor is audited and fully reporting under the SEC securities reporting system." The many shareholders that have traded shares off and on over the last eight years may find it hard to reconcile the FINRA position with our trading history. We have found no one who was involved with the bankruptcy process who agrees with FINRA, but the regulators are firm in their position as to how the bankruptcy judge's order should be interpreted.

To resolve the disagreement, we are going back to the judge and asking if the shares we were allowed to distribute in 2000 were supposed to be allowed to trade or not. We expect that the judge will rule in our favor, since the whole purpose of issuing shares was for creditors to get a recovery for their losses. Without trading, there is no path for economic recovery.

The filing and notice period to come up with the interpretive order is approximately 45 days from the date of this update. As we start the interpretive order process with the court, we will also attempt to get some of the original attorneys who worked on the case or the Justice Department in touch with FINRA. Since all involved parties are united in their interpretation (in favor of trade ability), we hold out some hope that this attorney-to-attorney contact may be a short-cut to the approval process.

May 4, 2008 Trading Update

On April 28, 2008, we received the 4th request for additional information from FINRA, the compliance arm for NASDAQ and the NYSE. The Company must provide the information they ask for to their satisfaction before they will allow us to trade. Since we have been trading since 1996 and for seven years since the reorganization, we expected our 15(c)2-11 application to sail through. Your management seems to roughly recall that, back in 1996, our original application to trade took about 15 days. Much to our chagrin, to restart trading, we generally have to prove again that it was OK for us to start trading after the reorganization. This is more difficult now, because records from 8 years ago are hard to place your hands on, and key legal people have retired or moved away. Nonetheless, we have answered the questions just asked. We have asked to get approval to again trade before May 31, 2008, if possible, so you all can have a chance at getting a recovery on your oil well, ATM or other investment, as was contemplated in the bankruptcy reorganization.

Elsewhere, we have completed all of our input to complete our financial audit for 2007. This will be done soon and we will forward those audited 2007 Financial Statements for posting on PinkSheets.com and here at MentorCapital.com.

April 13, 2008, Trading Update

On Friday, April 11, 2008, we received the third set of supplemental information requests from FINRA. FINRA is the review and compliance arm of the NYSE and NASDAQ. We must answer their questions to their satisfaction before they will allow us to trade on their platforms. In response to their questions, we have gathered draft information from September 30, 1999, with regard to our Bankruptcy Court order, received a very current list of shareholders from the Transfer Agent, provided detail of the warrants and checks people used to pay for shares and explained the economic rational for anyone to exercise their warrants. Two copies of our fourth inch thick package will go out in express mail on Monday, 14 April, 2008, to the Market Maker to be forwarded to FINRA. From past counsel, the Market Maker has generally indicated that we can expect a FINRA response between April 18 and May 2, 2008. That response will be either an OK to Trade, or a fourth request for additional information. We, of course, are hoping for the former.

On the positive side, we have received our new trading symbol which is MNTR. If you plug that in to PinkSheets.com, OTCBB.com, Bloomberg.com, or other such sites, you will soon get information on the stock. At the moment, before trading, it doesn't say much and has little value. However, once trading starts, MNTR (think Mentor, without the vowels), not MFIT will be the symbol to reference.

We will continue to keep you apprised here as we seek permission to reinitiate trading.

April 2, 2008, Trading Update

On Friday, March 27, 2008, we received the second set of questions from FINRA, the review arm who must approve our re-initiation of trading with NASD. On Saturday we sent our third inch thick stack of info to the Market Maker to forward to FINRA. On Monday the Market Maker forwarded the info with his cover letter to FINRA. On Tuesday, I discussed timing with the Market Maker. He states that FINRA can respond quickly and we might even get lucky enough that FINRA could give us an "OK to Trade" letter as early as Friday, April 4, 2008. On the outside, it could be two or three weeks until we get a final question or two from FINRA, perhaps on April 18, 2008. As always, we will answer immediately and keep you apprised.

March 25, 2008, Update

We supplied the second package of information to our Market Maker in late February. They forwarded this information to FINRA (the NASDAQ and NYSE compliance arm) to get permission to trade on their platforms. We have arranged to receive weekly updates from the Market Maker. On March 25, 2008, the Market Maker indicated that he would call the FINRA examination officer to see where our approval is. The Market Maker communicated that he is certain that our trading will go through, since he has gotten much more complex or edgy transactions through, but one just needs to go through the steps. In general, FINRA takes about three weeks of process and review applications and then asks questions to which we respond in a day. Each three weeks the process is repeated with new questions until FINRA is satisfied and gives permission to trade.

The State of California has asked us to modify the wording of our 1000 to 1 reverse split amendment from saying "amended to A(1)" to "amended to add A(1)". A stamped copy is needed before trading according to NASDAQ, so we have thanked the Secretary of State for expediting their file stamping of our amendment.

NASDAQ has been asked to set up our new trading symbol. We have asked for MCAP or MNTR, and hope they will be ready by March 31, 2008.