Try as I might to steer clear of posting any Op-Ed blog entries, sometimes, I just have to step in and be a voice of reason….or at least a voice of reality. So, here we go…..

It always amazes me how the media can find what they want to find in the data. Take today’s ‘inflation’ data for instance. I’m sure you’ve already seen the headlines…..”Stocks Trade Higher After Inflation Data“, which was within minutes (literally) followed by a dip into the red by all the indices. Typical. As I’ve said before, assigning a cause/effect relationship can be frustrating, if not downright detrimental to your portfolio.

What I have to wonder, however, is if most investors even realize which inflation data was being touted. It wasn’t the CPI-based data we’re used to seeing. Instead it was the somewhat-obscure PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation rate….which really isn’t inflation at all. The PCE data is the difference between the increase (or decrease) in personal wages and the increase (or decrease) in spending. For March, the difference was basically flat.

So, no inflation, right? Not so fast.

For the month, based on the way the calculation is made, yes - inflation appears to be nil. However, this isn’t an inflation measure. Inflation is the increase or decrease in the price of a good or service. The PCE data is only a measure of how much more or less (relatively) disposable income was spent. To use the word ‘inflation’ to describe what this data shows is being very loose with the term. The market didn’t seem to care.

Moreover, what you didn’t hear was the bigger picture data. Incomes are growing at an annualized rate of 5.7%….which is quite good, but also could allow for big spending in subsequent months (even though not in March). The annualized core PCE rate is currently at 2.1%, but the Fed has conceded their ‘comfort zone’ is a reading of less than 2.0%. The overall PCE index is up 2.4% on an annualized basis.

Point being, the overall PCE scenario actually suggests the Fed needs to tighten more than loosen. Of course, that assumes the PCE data has an impact at all. I’d be willing to debate the issue.

Take it all with a grain of salt; I think the media wrote their story first, then sought out the supporting evidence afterwards.

A few weeks ago we mentioned Challenger Powerboats (OTCBB: CPWB) had hired CCRI Financial to handle investor relations. In general we saw it as a positive for current investors, as it allows a full-time, devoted effort to be given to keeping interest stirred up - something most companies don’t have the time to really do themselves. Though I wasn’t familiar with CCRI at the time, we all may have a chance to ‘get to know’ CCRI as we get re-acquainted with Challenger….CCRI will be hosting a conference call, with Challenger as the focal point.

Honestly, I have no idea what the call’s going to be about. I don’t even know that it’s supposed to be a ‘public’ call (though they have it posted on their site, so it can’t be totally private). I can only assume it’s going to be general/introductory, presenting Challenger to CCRI’s followers - whoever they may be. Like I said, I see it as a good thing, though I’m not quite sure how good it will be.

In any case, here are the details…..

Tuesday, May 1st
11:30 am EST/8:30 am PST
Dial 1-641-297-5700 (sorry, no toll free number)
Code: 1313#

According to the CCRI site, there will also be a Challenger profile available at some point. I doubt it will tell you anything we haven’t already told you, but it’s worth a look.

A bit of good news for CEL-SCI (AMEX: CVM) yesterday…..they were finally awarded a patent for their AdapT technology.

Don’t know what that is? It’s short for ‘Antigen Directed Apoptosis’ which is the process of using two proprietary molecular constructs to cause the death of immune T-cells that are the root of autoimmune conditions (and no, I didn’t understand that either).

In layman’s terms, CEL-SCI’s AdapT technology renders the undesired autoimmune T-cells harmless by preventing one of the two activations required to make the T-cell harmful. Without the second activating signal, these cells will automatically die, and therefore not cause autoimmune problems.

The cool part about CEL-SCI’s creation is that it doesn’t harm all T-cells….just the ones you don’t want.

In any case, the AdapT platform isn’t new - CEL-SCI has been working on it for a long time. However, the patent is new, and should afford the company many years of protection from copycat competition.

As far as any impact goes, we don’t expect this to be like a winning lottery ticket. Rather, it’s an asset that is now up to the company to fully monetize. Still, an asset is an asset.

By the way, the company’s flagship cancer treatment, Multikine, is not based on the AdaptT platform (not that it really matters).

For more, click here.

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Did anybody else notice Clearly Canadian (OTCBB: CCBEF) shares saw their biggest bullish volume day in weeks on Tuesday? As most of you may know, Clearly has been one of our ongoing stories since before this time last year. Though it’s had its ups and downs, we still can’t help but keep coming back to its potential.

So what happened yesterday? They released some news about adding 7-Eleven to the list of vendors who offer their new Natural Enhanced Water line, which will put the product in about 1000 more outlets. To be honest though, I doubt that news is what spurred the buying. I think the upward move was (and no pun intended) mostly organic.

Like we said in Saturday’s edition, CCBEF has been a roller coaster, but at least the ‘ups’ have been bigger than the ‘downs’. I think eventually one of those ups is going to get traction - like it did in May and June of last year when the stock flew from $2.67 to a high of $4.55.

In the meantime, here are the important lines in the sand I see….

Keep an eye on the $3.00 mark. If CCBEF can find a nest above that level for just a few days, I believe the odds of it building a base there become enormously better. A handful of rallies have been capped near this level over the last several months (an exception was made with February’s peak of $3.23), but I sense the market wants to see this stock break that glass ceiling….just to use as an excuse to start buying.

The other key level to watch, in my view, is $3.20. Like I said, we got right up to there in late February, but it’s also worth mentioning we saw this line act as resistance during most of August of last year. I think getting above that line now would be more technically significant than most traders realize.

And one last thing….notice how all the short-term and long-term averages are all crowded around the $2.80 level. In my trading career, I’ve frequently observed how periods of high volatility are followed by periods of low volatility. With all those entwined moving averages, I just have to think this is the calm before the storm. Granted, CCBEF’s storm could be a bearish one - and I’m prepared for that. However, I think this consolidation phase is more likely to result in a rally. Breaking past both of the resistance levels discussed above may be the confirmation of such an upward move.

I have to be honest here - I was probably just moments away from throwing in the towel on BioCurex (OTCBB: BOCX). The stock’s been trading really poorly, even with the not-entirely-recent news of possibly using their RECAF cancer marker in an in-office screening test. A couple of days ago we were literally just three cents away from new multi-year lows, and I really didn’t want to be around if things went from bad to worse.

And then….well, the last couple of days have up-ended my less-than-hopeful point of view. Figures.

Now, don’t get me wrong - BioCurex shares have a way of getting wound up and off to a great start, only to stall a few days later. The only point I’m trying to make is to suggest the possibility that BOCX is still in the game….at least from a trading perspective. On the other hand, it’s hardly an encouraging chart.

Take a look. We’ve seen the 50 cent mark tested as support a handful of times over the last three years. At the same time though, we’ve seen those highs get consecutively lower…creating a bearish wedge. If you fear the worst - that the bottom side of the wedge will eventually give way - I don’t think your fears are totally out of line. We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it though. In the meantime, the stock seems to have gotten a reprieve.

On a semi-side note, I think the issue here (one of them anyway) is not knowing what’s going on. The Abbott division BioCurex was working with was the one that was sold, and we learned a few weeks ago how BioCurex’s RECAF technology may have use as a cancer screening test performed at a Doctor’s office. Has nothing material been happening in the meantime? I just have to wonder what’s happening besides that (or even with that). I figured the rest of the market had the same questions, and weren’t tolerating a lack of answers.

Then like clockwork, when things looked darkest, BAM! They bought some time with me, though that’s about it for now.

I’m still a little hesitant to read anything into it though. Maybe if we can get and stay above that resistance line I’d feel a little better.

One possible explanation - could somebody know something and be buying ahead of time? As weak as BOCX is trading, we’ve seen this company issue good news out of nowhere - and drive the stock up in an instant. Maybe this is an early warning, though it’s not a bet I’d be willing to make just yet. 

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I gotta’ say, I really like the way CEL-SCI (AMEX: CVM) is trading now. It was only about a week ago they announced a major funding deal in which all the buyers paid above the current market price for their shares. We got that initial pop in share price like we usually see after news of that ilk, but the real test comes afterwards - would the new uptrend has any staying power?

Our answer to the question is, take a look at today’s chart. We’re seeing new multi-week highs again (86 cents so far), and more importantly, yes, we’re seeing follow-through on the break-out of the wedge pattern. What I really like though is the volume behind today’s move. We might just see more shares transacted today than we did the day after the news came out…it’ll be close. This high-volume second thrust tells me there are a lot of major interested parties waiting in the wings.

From here, I think the next big step is a move past 90 cents. If that level breaks as resistance, I can seriously see all hell breaking loose in a bullish way. That would be a new multi-month high, and this time around, the company would be backed by Phase III testing of Multikine, and about $20 million in brand new funding. That may well be the catalyst needed to spur some serious buying. Perhaps we’ll see a repeat of the April 2006 surge, which by the way would have been practically impossible to jump into once it was started.

In any case, we’ve got our chart alerts set to notify us once 90 cents is passed. It could get real interesting real fast.

We had to back out to a weekly chart to illustrate the magnitude of the potential we see here.

This idea has really turned out to be a lot of fun, trading 67% higher than where it was when we picked it - and it had been as much as 96% higher than our ‘picked’ level. And yes, we expect it to at least get there again…on the way to our (revised) target of $2.00, which would be a total gain of 170%.

Of course, we’re talking about Stockgroup Information Systems (OTCBB: SWEB).

With the current trading level at $1.22, could it really make sense to jump in now with only 78 cents more to go until our target is reached? In my opinion, yes. However, we’ve also been batting around the idea of raising the target. Some research firms are looking at a target of $2.20 or higher. Point being, the 78 cent difference ‘between here and there’ may widen quite a bit ‘between then and now’.

In any case, everyone’s invited to listen in on their Q1 conference call at 4:05 PM EST on May 14th. They’ll actually announce results about an hour before that. Still, we know from the Q4 call that there’s a considerable amount of important information you can only get by participating in the call.

To join the call, dial 1-866-400-2280 a few minutes before the start time. If you’re more of a web-based investor, you can join the online webcast following the instructions available at the company’s website, stockgroup.com. Windows Media Player is required to access the online version.

For more, click here.

By the way, though SWEB has faded from the recent peak at $1.45, I see support at $1.20. That’s been the low for three of the last fifteen trading sessions, holding the consolidation phase up long enough to let the market ‘catch up’. I think the next move past $1.45 could spark another bullish leg like the one we saw in March.

Hope everybody had their stops updated - or at least took a little profit a while back - on Challenger Powerboats (OTCBB: CPWB). The stock seemed to stabilize after the company turned in a less-than-great Q4 of last year, reported on April 16th. Based on the selling we saw a few days prior to the announcement, I kind of figured the dissappointing news was already priced into CPWB. Guess not. CPWB got whacked over the last few days.

Did the stock deserve it? In my eyes, yes and no. I still like the turnaround story. I don’t like how long it’s taking the company to get traction.

The company reported seven boats were sold in Q4 of 2006, which should have been good for about a million bucks in sales. They reported only $280K in revenue for Q4. What happened? (That wasn’t entirely rhetorical.)

Now that said, you’ve heard me say this more than once….you own a company for where it’s going - not for where it’s been. So is CPWB worth owning going forward? Here’s my take - the whole point of the IMAR acquisition in January was to add $12 million in annual revenues, provide some cash flexibility, and add the 100+ dealer network to Challenger’s marketing army.

Between then and now, I’ve not heard or seen of a significant number of Challenger boats being sold. I’ve not even heard much about a decent number of Sugar Sands or Gekko boats (IMAR’s boat lines) being sold. By my math, the company should be averaging about $1 million a month - more in the strong season, and less when out of season - but roughly a million a month. In reviewing the number of boats sold in Q1 of 2007 so far, I don’t think they’re even on track to do $3 million.

Or to summarize, it seems like the company is going backwards.

With Q4’s numbers being delayed, and Q1’s results feeling lackluster, I just feel like there are better ideas out there than CPWB right now. I intend to keep it on my watchlist, as I really do think this IMAR deal could be something big. But, I’m kinda’ losing patience too. I don’t mind speculating, but Challenger is going to have to ’show me’ before I do it with CPWB shares again.

Short-term traders - you might find a decent bounce in all this mess.

Investors - the February peak of 12 cents might be the beginning of a ’show me’ move.

One of the coolest parts of this job is learning about an industry by watching a company go through the building process. Take Phinder Technologies (OTCBB: PHDT) as an example…our newest entry into the fold. Pronounced ‘finder’, this small cap international telecom service provider is utilizing relatively-new VOIP technology on a massive scale, looking to become the middle-man between the Latin American market and the major carriers here in the United States.

One of the most exciting parts about Phinder is seeing them - almost literally - ’start’ the service on the scale they’re thinking.

It’s a point I wanted to make first, to really set the stage for today’s news. Per this morning’s press release, Phinder (well, it’s Zupintra subsidiary, technically) has integrated a Talking SIP platform into its infrastructure. I didn’t know what it meant either, but here’s what I learned from the company….

SIP stands for ’session initiation protocol’, which is simply software that makes their service work. The ‘big deal’ is just that their capacity will greatly increase, allowing them to start offering service to the likes of AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, and others. I don’t know what was in place before the SIP, but it’s my understanding that there’s not a comparison.

In addition to the capacity, this particular SIP application also manages the billing aspects associated with its use.

Overall, I’d consider this one of the last pieces of the puzzle to be put in place before the Phinder machine really gets up and running, Like we said a few days ago, we really do feel we’re at the ground-floor, watching the company take flight - in a meaningful way - right before our eyes. We think investors are coming along for the ride.

For more on today’s news, click here.

The Small Cap Network web site also offers an e-mail newsletter to bring great trading ideas and insightful market commentary straight to your inbox. To sign up for the newsletter, find the registration box in the top right corner of this page.

We finally heard the word - Challenger Powerboats (OTCBB: CPWB) has filed their annual accounting statements, which includes full-year sales, expenses, and earnings data.

They did $280K in sales the last quarter of last year, and ended up doing $238K for the year. Yes, that means without Q4, they would have had negative sales. In Q2, they had to book a major return-to-vendor, which is deducted from revenues. They were able to increase their inventory by the same amount though. They lost 16 cents per share in 2006, versus a loss of 14 cents per share the year before.

As a reminder, the attraction to CPWB wasn’t their 2006 results. They spent the majority of last year rebuilding their name and product line, in addition to planning a key acquisition and dealer network. We still like where the company is going, which isn’t reflected in anything filed today.

On the other hand, the IMAR acquisition was supposed to be worth $12 million in business per year. Maybe they’re pulling in the same kind of figures this year, but it doesn’t seem like it of they are. Of course, we’ve heard nothing about Q1’s total yet. Guess we’ll see.

For the complete filing data, click here.

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Though it’s been less than three months, our first reader-submitted stock pick is already up 16%, and looks like it could be gearing up for a lot more. We mentioned N-Viro International Corp. (OTCBB: NVIC) back on January 31st, when shares were at $3.00. A few rounds of good news between then and now finally got traction today, pushing the stock up to a close of $3.50.

And, between the chart and our interpretation of the news, we think the strongest stock returns may still be in front of us.

After finding a ceiling around $3.00 for the first quarter of the year, then a floor at $3.00 over the last couple of weeks, it looks like the consolidation phase may have finally turned into an accumulation period…the volume behind the recent gains has been growing.

So where’s all this interest coming from? Without getting too technical, N-Viro has devised a way to make coal burn cleaner and hotter, by also burning sludge with it (talk about a win/win!). Today’s rally wasn’t prompted by any news we could dig up, which may be even healthier - it’s a sign that investors are interested in the company based on the technology, and not the hype.

If you have a trading idea you think is worth sharing, let us know. Just be sure to include a brief pitch, and disclose any interest you may have in the stock.

Well, that didn’t take too long. It was less than two weeks ago we re-introduced MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) to you, as it looked like their proprietary heart stent coating was starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. As it turns at, MIV was actually already at the end of the tunnel.

If I had to sum up today’s news with one word, ‘viability‘ would have to be the one I chose. Why? Because, MIV Therapeutics has already sold some of their state-of-the-art heart stents. As a quick reminder, the stent coating MIV developed appears to be a superior choice, as previous coatings (or even uncoated stents) solve one medical problem - but create another. MIV’s stents avoid thrombosis (scarring), and, they recently passed a fatigue test where FDA standards were applied.

More than that, they were already planning put these stent systems on the market (where they were approved) next quarter. So, we could look forward to some revenues in the second half of this year, right?

Wrong! Try THIS quarter. They’ve already delivered and gotten paid for these next-generation heart stents. (Kudos to them for even being able to keep it a secret as long as they did.) No word on where they were sold, or how many, but that’s not the point…..I think the important piece of today’s announcement is that they’re selling them at all. It all starts with the first one.

If you were skeptical of being an MIVT owner, we feel this should ease your worries quite a bit…..looks like this stent technology is for real.

For more on the news, click here.

In the meantime, we’re a little shocked to be able to say you can jump into an MIVT position at basically where the stock was when we featured it a week and a half ago. We got a good jump right after our alert, but MIVT has eased back from 67 cents to about 60 cents….for now. I can’t imagine it staying in this area for too long though, once today’s news starts to trickle down.

I see a support line at 51 cents, though our suggested stop is 34 cents. The target is still just north of $1.60. In the meantime, we may be dealing with a short-term ceiling around 74 cents. If it breaks though, then look out - this thing could end up launching like a rocket. First things first though.

With a handful of newer companies to cover now, it’s time to clean out the closet (so to speak) and officially drop coverage on some of our older names - just so we can stay focused. There are only two we feel we need to pare right now….Web2 Corporation (OTCBB: WBTO), and Siena Technologies (OTCBB: SIEN).

Web2, despite a nice run up to $2.47 in December, could never really draw an interested crowd. Since peaking then, the stock has walked all the way down to a recent low of $0.95. Granted, shares are currently trading at $1.27 - pushing off of that 95 cent level. Perhaps it’s support. We did, after all, use that level as a springboard in November before the December rally.

The thing is, we just don’t see enough gusto to say the buyers are interested again…..not that they ever really were. Perhaps it’s because they’re now several weeks behind on their annual filings. What’s up with that? We don’t know exactly, and we’d prefer not to find out what it is the hard way.

Note that we’re putting WBTO in our past while it’s still within our trading entry/exit parameters. Our target was/is $3.79, while we suggested a stop of 89 cents. We’ll leave it up to you to decide which of these is likely to be found first, though we’ll also mention you can adjust either as you see fit. 

Siena easily has one of the coolest race and sports book technologies any casino could ask for. Plus, the company can basically create any sort of audio/video technology you could imagine. More than that, we think eventually this company could be great. However, it just doesn’t seem like now is the right time.

One of the key issues we see is - despite being ultra-cool - the market for what they do might be fairly limited. And in Siena’s case, that problem is augmented by focusing almost exclusively on opportunities in Las Vegas, where they’re based. Maybe if they could branch out and do other things it would open a few more doors. Until then, we’re going to move on to other ideas, after having it on our radar since April of last year.

That said, if you have any final thoughts or parting comments/observations about these two stocks, please post them here. And, if anybody out there ever has any worthy news to share on WBTO or SIEN in the future, feel free to let us know.

The Small Cap Network web site also offers an e-mail newsletter to bring great trading ideas and insightful market commentary straight to your inbox. To sign up for the newsletter, find the registration box in the top right corner of this page.

With all the specific news items we’ve needed to cover for MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT), we really haven’t had much of a chance to offer a bird’s eye view of what MIV is, and why an investor would be interested.

Fortunately, with a little help, we can do that today.

To get a very recent investor fact sheet, click here. We just reviewed it for ourselves, and it was thorough, yet easy to read (not to mention perfectly brief). For more in-depth data and multi-media presentations, go here. Your name and address may be required.

Can you say ‘validation’? We think it’s turning out to be a pretty fair assessment of our suggestion to become owners of Stockgroup Information Systems (OTCBB: SWEB). Since we jumped on board in late January, we’ve seen a lot of growing interest in the opportunity - and more and more of that interest appears to be of the institutional variety.

The best of it, however, may well be today’s news. A couple of major Canadian financial firms have agreed to serve as underwriters for a public offering of Stockgroup’s shares in Canada. Getting the fund-raising help from two top-tier names (Cormark Securities and Jennings Capital) is nice, but the conditions behind the deal speak volumes about Stockgroup’s stature. The underwriting is a ‘bought deal’, meaning Jennings and Cormark bought and paid for the entire lot of 3,333,334 shares for sale.

So what? Usually an underwriter will agree to sell as much stock as they can, but doesn’t necessarily guarantee a particular amount of capital will be raised by investors interested enough to make a purchase. In this case though, the ‘bought deal’ means Jennings and Cormark paid for the whole issue, as they’re confident enough they can sell all 3.3 million shares.

What does that tell you about the company? Is this a case of putting your money where your mouth is or what?

(Almost) needless to say, if these two firms are making that sort of indirect endorsement, we think we made a good choice in suggesting SWEB a few weeks ago.

Our target price was originally $2.00, and we’ll stick with that for now. However, we do want to let you know Cormark’s target price is $3.25 (Canadian), which in U.S. dollars is currently $2.86. We’ll let the market digest today’s news first, but don’t be surprised to see us push our $2.00 goal upward….Cormark is a reputable firm, and we may do well to follow their lead.

For more details on the bought deal placement, click here. 

We mentioned it was in the works a few days ago, but here it is…..the ticker symbol for Orchestra Therapeutics - the old Immune Response Corporation - is now ‘OCHT‘. The old ticker may work for a while (or not), and/or the new one may work (or not), depending on your data feed. Soon though, you’ll have to use OCHT instead of IMRP. The symbol switch changes nothing about the share value, and changes nothing about the number of shares issued and outstanding.

You might recall the whole purpose of the name change was to better reflect the company’s new focus on treating autoimmune conditions (like MS, diabetes, and Lupus, just to name a few) with their impressive FOXP3+ cell research. The HIV program is being phased out. We’re presuming the risk/reward pendulum of carrying both trial programs was just swinging in one direction - in favor of NeuroVax, the company’s autoimmune disease treatment currently in Phase II trials.

For more on the ticker change, click here.

Last weekend when we said MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) looked very close to bringing a cutting-edge heart stent to the market, we had no idea how close we really were. Yesterday afternoon, MIV announced that not one, but EIGHT new medical devices are now ready to drive revenue in several global markets.

Among the newly-launched products are two stents, and all the necessary equipment to implant them. All the devices are already approved for use in Europe, India, and Asia. The roll-out will take place over the next few months.

And on a side note, that’s the value of a company that’s thinking globally. In our experience the United States is relatively slow in getting new medicines and biotech advancements introduced; the FDA’s pains-taking approval process doesn’t speed things up either. However, the rest of the world usually seems to be considerably more progressive in getting good products on the market.

As we read between the lines - and even in taking the news at face value - it’s clear to us MIV has a substantial overseas opportunity. Like the press release said, we’re talking about billions worth of medical product dollars up for grabs.

And, we don’t think we have to pound the table too hard on the benefit of MIV’s technology - they seem to have solved one of the gigantic problems with heart stents, which is thrombosis (scarring of the artery wall). It’s true - a heart stent coated with MIV’s hydroxyapatite recently passed the FDA’s fatigue test.

Given that this test was passed, and the rest of the world has already deemed the company’s stents fit for use (per yesterday’s news), we feel there’s a very strong likelihood MIV’s new technology will eventually be approved in the U.S. as well.

But in the meantime, we feel investors (and heart patients for that matter) would be justified in a little celebration.

We’ll just leave it at this…MIVT looks to be one of the strongest biotech opportunities we’ve seen in a long time. Better yet, eight of their products just now entered the revenue-bearing stage in multiple geopolitical markets. No waiting for approval is necessary - the possibility is now a reality.

Click here for the press release, and if you missed our original profile on MIVT this past weekend, be sure to take a look by clicking here - good stuff.

The march continues for the recently-revamped Challenger Powerboats (OTCBB: CPWB). In the fall of least year we learned the old Xtreme Companies would be re-named ‘Challenger Powerboats’, reflecting the decision to focus exclusively on the performance boat line using the same moniker. And early this year, the acquisition of IMAR added the Sugar Sands and Gekko lines to the company’s mix.

Since then, we’ve seen tremendous success from the new Challenger, with more evidence coming today.

We don’t have Q4’s results yet - you might recall they announced a delay a few weeks ago. However, we’re ball-parking about a million or so in revenue for the last three months of last year. We also saw a lot of new sales come through in Q1 of this year. In fact, here’s our tally…….

• 2/22 - $330,000 in Challenger orders
• 3/1 - $120,000 in Gekko orders
• 3/6 - $725,000 in Sugar Sands orders
• 4/10 (today) - $450,000 in Sugar Sands orders

That’s at least $1.1 million in Q1 sales on top of our Q4 estimate of $1 million. Today’s order will go into Q2’s revenue total. And, we have a feeling we’re only hearing about the big orders….there may be smaller ones received every day. The point is, however, that we’re seeing some life here. Had it not been for Q4 of last year, Challenger’s net sales would have been basically nil (IMAR did about $12 million in sales last year). So far we’re seeing good results stem from the combined companies, and it’s not even the busy boat season yet.

On top of that, four more Sugar Sands dealers were added recently, further widening the Challenger net. All in all, we still see a company making good progress post-paradigm shift.

In our view, despite getting sold off in a big way yesterday, the stock has a huge amount of upside potential. We feel our edge is knowing and understanding the story behind the story, which the rest of the market may not yet. But once they do, don’t be surprised to see CPWB run.

No, not literally…..but yes, figuratively. Clearly Canadian (OTCBB: CCBEF), as part of their revitalized distribution plan, has brought two California distributors into the fold. Saccani Distributing will cover the northern half of the state, while Valley Wide Beverage Company will cover the southern half.

This is a big deal. California, aside from being one of the more highly-populated states, is also a big ‘better for you market’. We think these two major distributors will be able to capitalize on the best of both of those realities, reaping some nice revenues for Clearly.

And by the way, we haven’t looked at CCBEF much recently, as a wave of big news from several of our companies has washed over the site. However, we haven’t forgotten the potential here. We still think Clearly Canadian has the potential to be an enormous winner over the next few months, as the company continues to execute its growth plan.

For more on the new California distributors, click here.

Though we have nothing specific in mind when we recommend keeping an eye on CEL-SCI (AMEX: CVM), we still think it could be prudent. Just call it a hunch. The stock has been resilient the last few days - and the last few weeks for that matter - as the sellers have tried to wage a war. The buyers, however, seem to keep winning the battles.

The end result of those skirmishes appears to be a wedge, framed below by a falling resistance line and a rising support line. Eventually the chart’s going to be squeezed outside of that framework - one way or another. When it does, it could do so with a vengeance.

And, based on the support we seem to be finding at the 20 day and 50 day moving average lines, we tend to believe that ’squeeze’ will most likely result in a move to the upside. Beyond that, a move above the 90 cent level could be an even bigger upside catalyst, as it would be a new multi-month high.

Aside from the chart, the fact that CEL-SCI’s head and neck cancer treatment (called Multikine) recently entered Phase III testing - the last testing stage before the FDA makes a yes/no decision - leaves open a lot of possibilities for encouraging updates. Plus, knowing the company like we do, the recent lack of news or announcement from the company may well mean something big is just around the corner. See, CEL-SCI has a habit of coming out with something when the market isn’t expecting it. When they do have some news though, it tends to be something major - and usually good. Be ready.