Carl, you are correct. The fact is, the fundamental stance of any shareholder on any message board is a biased and even dishonest one. This is a fact of human nature that we cannot escape.
A shareholder wants to ultimately sell at the top. Once a shareholder becomes involved in the kind of battle for mindshare that most stock discussion forums are, his goal becomes that of convincing others that the stock is more valuable than he, himself thinks it is.
Unfortunately, MOST users of these discussion boards misunderstand their purpose - to the extent that it is impossible to use them for their intended purpose. The intended purpose, of course, is to foster an interchange of information and ideas amongst shareholders, potential shareholders, shorts, potential shorts, and non-shareholders.
And, so, misunderstading the purpose, users turn these boards into a proxy for the marketplace itself - viewing it primarily as a means of influencing buying or selling pressure, rather than as a place to exchange information.
Ideally, there should be at LEAST as many non-shareholders as shareholders on a message board. Why is that? Most investors are constantly evaluating many investing ideas - for each investment actually entered-into, an investor may investigate and ultimately reject a dozen or a hundred.
Given that, these boards SHOULD be rife with non-shareholders seeking information and opinion. They should outnumber shareholders by perhaps 10 to 1.
Instead, they almost always are simply a fan club for the stock, with shareholders chasing-off anybody who doesn't share their viewpoint.
This is why I view these boards as nothing more than entertainment. The thought behind them is a noble one, but one that I doubt can ever be implemented as intended, human nature being what it is. |
