The Next Leg of the Supercycle is Coming - Here’s What One Speculator is Planning

Optimism is running high in the resource space, and speculator Lobo Tiggre is ready to take the bull by the horns.

Tiggre, who is better known by his pen name Louis James, worked at Casey Research for over a decade, writing the company’s flagship publication, the International Speculator. Now he’s branching out on his own with the goal of making money and helping his readers do the same.

“I see a cycle shaping up here that I think is going to be fantastic,” he told the Investing News Network via phone. “I think not only is the next leg of the supercycle continuing upwards, but there’s a very good chance that we’ll see all kinds of records broken — that what we saw from 2001 to 2011 will turn out in retrospect to be the warm up.”

During his time at Casey Research Tiggre shared investment recommendations with thousands of readers, but for the last three years, was not permitted to invest himself. “I understand why my former employers had rules prohibiting editors from investing in what they wrote about,” he said, but “the whole idea [now] is that I write about what I own … [people will] sign up because that’s the interest they want.”

He added, “I don’t want to just write about it or watch it happen — I want to make money, I want to invest and be able to benefit directly alongside my readers.”

Tiggre’s new business is called Louis James LLC, and his newsletter is the Independent Speculator, a name he says has a double meaning. “I’m absolutely independent,” he said. “The other part is [I want to] make speculators become persons of independent means.”

So far Tiggre has received overwhelmingly positive reactions to the Independent Speculator. “The response … has been very, very positive,” he said. “People who have been readers for years have come up to say, ‘oh, I’m so happy, this is great.'” And, he was quick to explain, there are no hard feelings between himself and Casey Research — in fact, Casey Research founder Doug Casey is on Louis James LLC’s board of advisors.

That said, he admitted there’s been a little pushback on the tone he’s taken on his site. “I’m looking for elite subscribers,” Tiggre explained. “I’m looking for savvy investors who understand the difference between speculation and investment, and who know what they’re doing and know the value of what I have to offer.”

In other words, he’s not looking to take a “big box” approach. “I have great respect for the bigger publishers that have fantastic marketing machines and can generate thousands and thousands of leads per day — but A) I don’t have that and B) I’m not temperamentally suited to that kind of marketing.”

His plan is to develop a small list of subscribers, and he believes that the nature of his service will allow this list to become a focused tool “that can really help deserving companies.”

In terms of what he’ll be covering, Tiggre said metals and mining will be at the forefront. “I am still very bullish on precious metals, [and] I am very keen on the energy minerals,” he said.

He sees those sectors as offering a “win-win optionality” — if the economy goes up, that will be good for energy minerals, and precious metals will benefit from their role as commodities; if it goes down, precious metals will “save our bacon as safe-haven assets.”

More specifically, Tiggre said he remains interested in prospect generators and in preproduction stories. Speaking about the former, he commented, “exploration has that explosive potential that experienced resource investors and speculators love so much. So I like that a lot.”

Looking at the latter, he pointed to his past research on a concept known as the Golden Runway. As Tiggre has explained previously, the idea is that once a company makes the decision to build a mine, there is a high probability that it will be successful in building that mine. And during this ramp-up period many companies see impressive share price gains.

“That research is solid. I really believe the math there is powerful,” he said. “That’s very much a sweet spot for me going forward. I will be looking at those types of commodities again and I will be doing due diligence trips to those people that are building their first mines.”

That said, he emphasized that he wants to avoid being pigeonholed. “I have broader interests, I have expertise that I haven’t really drawn upon for some time,” he said. “I am a technophile, I love new technologies and reading about them and plan to speculate on them.”

Tiggre noted that as he examines these potential new opportunities, he will be extremely selective. “I understand my limitations, I understand that I don’t have the same experience in these areas as in others … [but] if I don’t have the expertise, I’ll find someone who does.”

In closing, Tiggre commented, “my business is built on trust. I have built up a reputation in the industry, and I have the trust of a lot of people … I take this very personally.”

He added, “I’ll be in the trenches there with them, I’ll be putting my money where my mouth is … I want to do my best, and I’m really excited to be able to launch this at what I think is going to be a terrific cycle for resource investors.”

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.