Looking at the discussion boards of highly competitive companies, I've noticed a couple of things. The one thing that stands out is that each has a group of people who HATE the company. There is a board on SI devoted exclusively to trashing TWE. The question is why? You'd think by the acerbity of the remarks that the company pimps on the side, kicks little dogs, and feeds babies to gators.
You know, everybody has bad experiences with online brokers once in a while. I've had my share that have cost me a decent amount due to poor executions, etc. but none on a consistent basis. In fact, with the OLBs I trade with, I'd say that I was completely satisfied 95% of the time. Of course I realize that has partially to do with my style of trading, but I think the majority of customers feel the same way too.
Some things to think about:
1) Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.
If it's not working for you, move on and don't look back. If you keep getting burned, its your own fault.
2) Missed opportunities in stocks are a cost of doing business.
I remember knowing that a stock was going to head into the stratosphere and put in an pre-market order to sell it way above the previous day's close. The OLB computer at the time wouldn't let me do it because it said the price was too far away from the current price. Sure enough, the stock hit that price the next day, only to close down for the day and never hit that price again. Needless to say I was pretty upset at losing that opportunity. But hey...you know what?...next time I talked to a broker directly and put in the order directly with him. Problem solved.
The key was to acknowledge the deficiency (no one's perfect) and find an alternate solution instead of constantly complaining about something that happens over and over again.
3) Existing and potential TWE shareholders need to realize that many (I'm not generalizing to the whole crowd) of the people who bash a stock on the discussion boards have ulterior motives. Either they are short the stock, or more insidiously, they are hired by competitors to bad mouth the company and give them a bad reputation. One of the oldest tricks in the book made worse by the relative anonymity of these boards.
We all get upset by companies that are run poorly and stocks that don't perform. Sometimes you just have to acknowledge defeat and move on. I learned that the hard way.
Tom C. |
