Martin Svanda, CFA

I write a blog on Substack called Short Ideas. I never have a position in anything I mention. Nothing is advice.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

@John_Hempton @ProphetKG @tZERO It's been 9 years, actually, since he went over to the dark side and buddied up with Patrick Byrne.

If @tZERO was going for one of those really slow rollouts then they have succeeded stupendously.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

If you're into crappy Chinese names, $MAAS may interest you. Formerly traded as PUYI, shed all of its assets, reverse split down to 4M shares, and now sits at 442M shares after buying a variety of companies owning "premium tea," "ginseng roots," and of course AI.

https://t.co/tnyPIL9mYX

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

@alpha_exposure "Fit Energy is backed by Fit Ventures, the single-family office of David Baazov."

That's a colorful character.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

@michaeljburry Anybody else's mind immediately go back to the former owners of the WBD ticker symbol, Russian milk and yogurt producer Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods?

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Navitas Semiconductor ($NVTS) issued 3.3M of their shares the other day to the SPAC managers after successfully satisfying a contractual “Triggering Event” by having its shares close above $17 for 20 days.

The next “Triggering Event” will see the issue of an additional 3.3M shares if they can manage to keep the shares above $20 a share for at least 20 days.

We are now on day 19…

https://t.co/G1N5YBhMwB

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

@fleckcap @turtlespeed2020 For some reason the $PCT story brings back memories of EarthShell Corp. and their clamshell trials with $MCD back in the late 90's.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Pretty incredible. $BGM is raising $12M by selling 200M shares and 200M warrants at 6 cents a share, and yet the stock is still trading at 27 cents.

"On May 15, 2026, BGM Group Ltd (the “Company”) entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Securities Purchase Agreement”) with certain investors (the “Investors”) for a private placement (the “Private Placement”) of 200,000,000 Class A ordinary shares of par value US$0.00833335 per share (the “Class A Ordinary Shares”) at the subscription price of US$0.06 per Class A Ordinary Share (the “Per Share Purchase Price”) and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 200,000,000 Class A Ordinary Shares (the “Warrants”)."

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Back on February 9th 2026 the Galkin’s filed their most recent 13D/A with the SEC regarding their holdings of $NEGG shares.

In that filing they disclosed:

“A total of approximately i)$116,231,190 was paid to acquire 4,625,197 shares of Common Stock; and ii) $2,387,051 was received as payment for the sale of 161,274 shares of Common Stock reported herein (resulting in ownership of an aggregate net total of 4,392,812 shares of Common Stock).”

Aside from the math not quite working out on the share count details, assuming they paid ($116,231,190 - $2,387,051) $113,844,139 for their current 4,392,812 shares, that works out to an average of around $25.92 per share.

With shares currently trading for $25.67, the Galkin’s are now slightly underwater on their position, a far cry from the windfall (on paper at least) they were sitting on when their average cost was in the single digits and the stock was breaking through $100.

Between the Galkin’s, Zhitao He, and the original founder’s holdings, over 98% of the company’s shares reside in “friendly” hands.

The founder, however, has been a recent seller (both forced and unforced), and Zhitao He has run afoul of the Chinese government, leaving the Galkin’s in something of a quandary.

Squeezing the shares of a low-float, money-losing internet retailer seemed like such a simple thing, but it has turned problematic for the Galkins.

I can’t believe this is how they thought things would go.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Fire the Auditors!!!!

Back on March 26th the management team over at $VERI pre-announced 4Q2025 revenues would be in a wide range of $18.1M-$30.0M, depending upon what the accountants determined to be the correct revenue recognition policy for an in-kind transaction.

If they allowed the entire amount, revenues would be at the top end of the range, while if they disallowed most of it, they would be at the bottom end. Either way, revenues for the year were slated to be up between 1% and 14%.

On April 1st the company filed an NT10-K with the SEC, telling their investors that their accountant had not yet finalized their financial statements.

On April 14th they filed an 8-K saying that their Q3 2025 financial statements should no longer be relied upon.

On April 15th they filed a 10-Q/A where they corrected the revenue recognition for some prior transactions, lowering Q3 2025 revenues by around $2.5M.

On April 15th they later filed a 10-K which contained Q4 revenues that were a bit under $20M, at the lower end of their prior expectations, and revenues for all of FY2025 were now a touch lower than revenues in FY2024.

On April 28th VERI fired their auditors, Grant Thornton, and engaged CBIZ in their place.

The 8-K notifying the SEC of their decision naturally contains the boilerplate statement “there were no disagreements with Grant Thornton on any matter of accounting principles or practices.”

I think firing the auditors speaks plainly enough.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

@herbgreenberg I pointed this name out to subscribers a couple weeks ago.

They also dumped their auditors, btw, before the new owners transferred their entire stake to the current owner for 53 cents per share.

https://t.co/bocVIlaj7X

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

A quick performance recap of Q1 Short Ideas. A complete interest list and names added and removed are available on my Substack.

https://t.co/h1PAfGuLbR

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Did $VERI even check with their accountants before issuing their pre-announcement just last Friday?

On Friday they gave us their expected Q4 revenue range of $18.1M-$30M.

Today, they lowered it to $18.1M-$21.8M.

That $13M "barter" contract for some intangibles? Zip.

Not only that, they may have to restate the last few quarters.

"potential revision or restatement of the Company's previously reported financial results for the quarters ended June 30, 2025 and September 30, 2025"

And to top it all off? A going concern statement.

"the Company expects that management will determine there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern over the twelve months following the filing of its Annual Report on Form 10-K"

And the stock is only down a nickel. Did anyone actually read their filing?

https://t.co/GCfuNXfkMC

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

My premium "Founding Members" were treated to the $GPGI and $RHLD short ideas back in November, before they became popular and their short interests spiked by 200% and 100%, respectively.

https://t.co/mwoYTO6f0g

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

A few cautionary thoughts regarding todays bullish reports on shares of $HIMX

https://t.co/tjyWKo86w5

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Curious timing on the $BYRN CEO resignation and transition. CEO's rarely resign and give up their board seat for no cause.

Their first quarter just ended on February 28th and they typically "pre-release" some results a few days later. In 2025 that was on March 5th.

Perhaps the CEO is taking his 545,000 out of 600,000 restricted shares in anticipation of some news.

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Why do you think Unity Software ($U) removed the "Key Metrics" section from their recent 10-K filing? They used to disclose "Customers Contributing More Than $100,000 of Revenue" and "Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate" but no longer do. Wonder why?

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

Shares of Unity Software ($U) are down 27% this morning after announcing Q4 results and underwhelming Q1 guidance.

Shares are down close to 60% since I first mentioned the short idea to subscribers of my substack back in September.

For new and interesting short ideas, subscribe here.

https://t.co/s68TmbECNB

[Martin Svanda, CFA @msvanda]

You can try to warn people about the underwriters who foist companies like $THH onto US markets, but you just can't make them listen.

https://t.co/IXfVf7Ynvm