They couldn’t possibly get away with this, right? After 200 days, I guess they have. Krucialmix weighs in on his journey of waiting for a stock to trade.
I remember that morning. December 9, 2022. I set my alarm for 6:25 AM and rolled over in bed, grabbed my phone and fired up the E-trade app.
As the clock turned to 6:30 AM I was watching the $MMTLP chart. This was it. This was the exact moment we were all waiting for. To clarify, I never got into TRCH or MMTLP for a short squeeze. I got into TRCH and MMAT for the oil and gas assets, and the dividend play. It had been a year and a half already. Sure, the “short squeeze” just became a potential bonus and I’d have been an irresponsible investor to not let it play out.
My plan on that morning was to monitor my shares and if the price went higher than what I thought the oil and gas assets were worth, I’d sell some of my shares. Probably not all of them as the opportunity for long term dividends could eventually outweigh even a short squeeze.
It’s now 6:34 AM and either my Internet is out on my phone or this thing isn’t moving. I started to panic. What fu**ery is someone up to? Why isn’t this trading? I didn’t have many people to talk to about this, but at the time I had previously posted a few messages on Stock Twits so I went there to find out what was going on. Someone had posted the FINRA halting notification.
My still sleepy-eyed thoughts were
How could they do this?
Could they get away with this?
It has to start trading soon, right?
and those thoughts eventually turned to
This is how they’re saving themselves.
I should have known better.
The market is corrupt.
Turns out, everyone else was just as confused and livid as I was. What the heck is a “U3 Halt” and why has it ruined my Friday? I tried to remain positive. For days after I still had hope someone would just turn the faucet back on. I went back to the fact that they couldn’t possibly get away with this, right? Well after 200 days, I guess they have.
As Friday trading hours came and went, it was a long and rough weekend. Frustrated with the negativity on Stock Twits, I started to explore my mostly dormant 50+ follower Twitter account that was opened more than 10 years ago. I read any tweet with $MMTLP in it. After Monday came and went, I really crashed and burned.
More social media began to fill the void. It was helpful to realize I was not alone. I then discovered Twitter Spaces where I could actually listen and talk to people who were just as frustrated as me. People that sounded smarter than me assured me this would be over in a few days. Then by Christmas. Then by the end of the Year. They can’t go past the end of the year for tax and reconciliation purposes, right?
And all the sudden it was 2023. That was the last time I relied on a date from someone that sounded smarter than me. Was I smarter than them? I became obsessed with Spaces, and tuned in while I was working, fell asleep listening nightly, and even listened while driving. I remember hoping I had unlimited data. I grabbed a mic very infrequently, only if I had something interesting to share. But I gained comfort in hearing from such a diverse community.
As I headed to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, I was excited to visit the MMAT booth because I was still invested in that. Although considerably less since I did what it seems many community members did – sold much of MMAT to put into MMTLP – planning to buy it back later. This was a sure play. Until it wasn’t.
I was impressed with the Meta booth at CES. I got to meet George Palikaras. Should I ask him about MMTLP? Even something simple like “Are we going to be OK?” Distracted by a clear view microwave oven he told me about, I never brought it up.
In the weeks following the trade show, I became frustrated that I wasn’t doing more to solve this problem. Listening to spaces wasn’t enough. I became much more engaged with Twitter users and started to really feel the #MetaFam, as it’s called, as a true community that I wanted to be a part of.
This led to making phone calls to congress, the SEC, and FINRA. I created a document “MMTLP 1-sheet” to try and help people focus on what had happened when sending out our story.
I wanted to do more. #OCCUPYSEC was being discussed online and I decided to go. It was great to stand side by side with people I hadn’t even met but shared a common tragedy. The tragedy of getting screwed by the very people that were supposed to protect us. While in DC I pulled out my video camera. I wanted to document this event. Share our story. If more people knew, more people could help I thought. About 4 days after my return to Los Angeles I posted the very first MMTLP video highlighting our story.
The video was gaining traction and currently sits at just under 100,000 views. Videos seemed to spread quicker than most of my regular tweets so I kept creating. Some were my specialty comedy videos and posts. Humor was helping me through this. Some people didn’t want to laugh with me but for me it was therapeutic.
The longer the saga had lasted, the more I had hoped to hear from Next Bridge Hydrocarbons themselves. Two hundred days later, they are essentially silent on their owner’s plight.
As time marched on and we passed 60 days, 90 days, 120 days and more I stayed depressingly positive. Yep, that’s a thing.
Along with my videos, In March I decided to fill a void that the community had. I create a website for shareholders, media, and politicians so they could get all MMTLP information in one simple place. And MMTLP Resources was born.
In April, along with the communities help, I created our first national commercial that aired on Connected Television stations including Fox News. This “Faces of MMTLP” concept was born from community member Patito and it introduced our story to more than 16,000 new households outside of the Twitter bubble. It also earned a retweet from Charles Payne.
As we pass 200 days and my Twitter followers have surpassed 1,000 – surprising for a kid that was always picked last in junior high gym class – I still remain depressingly positive. The more I learn about the market (and the world) the sadder I become.
But yes, as of Tuesday June 27th, 2023 the 200th day since the halt, FINRA has won.
But this fight is far from over. We are not giving up. This must be reconciled. Will it ever trade again? No one knows.
I firmly believe that we will all be compensated in some way, shape or form for what we own and what we’ve been through.
It won’t satisfy everyone. But it will satisfy many. And we also may change the market for those in the future. This is big. $MMTLP is big. I realize many are hurting. And I feel for every one of them. But this could take some time.
This post wasn’t really put up to tell everyone about all the things I have done. It just seemed fitting on the 200th day to recap where we’ve been and where we’re going. And the best way to tell that was my own personal journey.
We all know there are plenty of community members that are doing far more than me, and I salute every single one of them.
Find these people on Twitter and follow every one of them.
Roza Tawil. John Brda. Wes Christian. Mark R. Basile. Richard Hofman. Anna Trades. BusyBrands. Cyntax. Smokey. Kurtis. Huckleberry. WINston Fitz. Ali. Patrick Keaveny & MMTLP Studios. Houston Wade. Hollywood Henry. qntainmnt. Tony. Bird Lady. Frank Nez. JunkSavvy. JoRL. Alain. DrewDiligence. William Farrand. HAM. Doku. x2 Sean. Marduk. Terry.
And so many more. Apologize if someone is left off this list.
I can’t say how long this fight will last. I can’t say exactly how it will be resolved. But what I can say is….
We have no choice but to fight.
We did nothing wrong. And eventually we will be rewarded.
