My First Email From Seeking Alpha: Then And Now

It is almost six years since I published my first article on Seeking Alpha. Since then a lot of things happened. I worked for a London-based equity research firm for a year, ran my own newsletter for two years, was a consultant for a deep value fund manager for a year and now I am exploring short-selling by doing my own research and helping other investors in this space. My whole career was certainly impacted by receiving this email in September of 2014 from Seeking Alpha:

In August of 2014, I wrote an instablog on Seeking Alpha about Ur-Energy (NYSEMKT:URG), one of my favourite positions at that time. At this point, I was a university student who was glued to Seeking Alpha for some time already following authors such as Chris DeMuth or Jeff Miller with his usual weekend read (who is still going strong six years after!). There was no real expectation behind publishing this blog. I was merely trying to spread the word about this ‘exciting’ stock I recently bought. Yet when I received this email from Abby, I was hooked.

I still remember the exact time I received the email. I was sitting on the upper floor of a double-decker bus in London, at the very front where one can have a nice way of the passing city. For the rest of the journey I was thinking about how to improve the blog and what else can I write about. 144 published articles later I can see how much this email helped. Who knows where I would be as an investor and a professional without it. Where I would be without the feedback about my ability to perform due diligence from readers of my reports. Especially the feedback which pointed out possible mistakes in my analysis! Where I would be without the many contacts I was able to reach through publishing on Seeking Alpha. I was able to amass 1,700 followers since the beginning. Many of my connections are hedge fund managers, investment analysts and other relevant professionals who can be of great help.

I still remember getting in touch with VN Capital because of Breeze-Eastern (NYSEMKT:BZC) a stock we both owned and in which VN started a small activist campaign. Or the time when my article about Vulcan (OTCPK:VULC) not only likely persuaded the management to start liquidating the company, but also caught the eye of my future employer. Earning over $12,000 from Seeking Alpha along the way was a nice bonus for all this. My first ever article even helped me to land an internship at Morgan Stanley in London. I pitched uranium as my investment pick in the interview process. This article should act as a thank you to Seeking Alpha and as a reminder for others who think about writing something up. Do not hesitate and start! There is so much to gain from it!

P.S. if anyone is wondering about the fate of my first-ever article about URG, all I need to say is that two years later I published a report that has shown how wrong I was in 2014.