I am a Managing Partner and the head of our investment committee at Investor Relations Intl. (IRI) www.irintl.com, a small but very effective investor relations/management consulting firm based out of Los Angeles (Disclosure: We do not ever purchase our own clients' securities). I also used to run a small but highly successful hedge fund for approximately five years before folding it due to other opportunities at a larger fund. My 17-year career in investor relations and a stint in the hedge fund world has educated me in ways that I would never have been able to experience in almost any other industry. My job to consult a multi-billion dollar CEO on how best to increase shareholder value at his NYSE-listed company would typically be followed by one of my favorite hobbies, reviewing and analyzing SEC filings for signs that could help our investors make a investment in, or in most cases against (i.e. short-selling). It is this broad spectrum of experience that has enabled me provide insightful commentaries on not only IRI's cleints (within Reg FD of course) but also that of others that are simply full of smoke and mirrors. I encourage anybody that decides to follow some of our ideas to feel free to call me and discuss the investment merits of any given stock as we could always use intelligent feedback prior to publishing our ideas.