Virtus Oil and Gas Corp f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL) Pumped Some More

It all started on June 24 when a Seeking Alpha contributor who goes by the nickname Stone Fox Capital decided to share his opinion on Virtus Oil and Gas Corp f/k/a Curry Gold Corp. (OTCBB:VOIL). He disclosed no compensation, but said that he views VOIL as an “intriguing” investment opportunity. We’re not sure if “intriguing” is the right word to describe Virtus. “Dangerous” and “risky” are probably better alternatives, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

A few days after the Seeking Alpha article came out, a link to the specially developed landing page started flying around discussion boards and social networks. It leads to a report written by a certain Charles Moskowitz who discloses in the annoyingly fine print at the bottom of the page that he has received $5 thousand for putting a $7 per share initial price target on VOIL. Whether that’s the whole promotional budget remains unknown.

Whatever it is, the effects on the stock are certainly evident. VOIL registered no less than seven consecutive green sessions. The run is not as explosive as the ones seen by other pumped penny stocks, but the fact remains that after it added 1.5% yesterday, the ticker stands at $1.39 per share. This means that the market cap currently hovers around the $66 million mark and that’s where the problems start to appear.

Although VOIL‘s press releases certainly sound positive, $66 million is too much for a company that has never registered any revenues and has a total of $162 thousand in assets according to the latest report.

Another thing that you should bear in mind is the fact that currently, the stock is supported primarily by the paid promotion and, as you probably know, such campaigns never have a long-lasting effect which means that a drop could come at any time.

There’s one more threat – the one coming from the SEC. The Commission has been on something of a hunt for promoted companies over the last two quarters. Warnings have been issued and more than a few tickers were relegated to the Gray Market after becoming the target of a paid pump.

With that in mind, we should note that we won’t be too surprised to see VOIL (and, more worryingly, its shareholders) having a taste of the SEC’s wrath. And that’s a risk you should definitely keep in mind before putting your hard-earned cash on the line.

As you can see, there isn’t a whole lot that could support the ticker at its current levels. Which brings us on to a very interesting question: “Who can profit from pumping VOIL?“.

Some people who know about the promotion might be able to time their entry and exit points right and, if they are lucky, they might walk away with a smile on their face. Playing a penny stock pump, especially in light of the SEC suspensions, however, is very risky and while some investors might end up cashing in, a lot more could get seriously burned.

Any other, safer ways of making money out of the pump?

In 2009 (when VOIL was still under the Curry Gold Corp name), twenty-two investors bought a total of 1,300,000 shares of common stock for just $13,000 ($0.01 per share). Last year, VOIL effectuated a 14-for-1 forward split which means that the aforementioned twenty-two investors now hold 18,200,000 shares of common stock, each of which cost them just $0.0007.

If you are one of those investors, then yes, you can certainly make a lot of money from VOIL‘s inflated price. If you are not, you should probably think carefully about the risks involved in playing with pumped penny stocks.