dick, I think you missed this one...
wsaccess.com
"The cybersleuths here, often dismissed as kooks or crooks, recently received some vindication from regulators. Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading for 10 days on six over-the-counter bulletin board stocks after they suddenly rocketed even without any material news. The impetus to halt trading came from Steve Pluvia (not his real last name), a well-known poster on Silicon Investor who has seen his fair share of controversy. On Jan. 25, a full week before the SEC halted trading in four of the stocks, Pluvia started a thread titled "One Big Scam? CTRN, ECTS, IVHD, SMEK and MALB." The stocks subsequently halted by the SEC included Citron (CTRN:OTC BB), Smartek (SMEK:OTC BB), Electronic Transfer Associates (ECTS:OTC BB) and Invest Holdings Group (IVHD:OTC BB).
Pluvia and his cyberassociates, who use Web names such as Bear Down, Floydie and Tastes Like Chicken, represent a new breed of sleuth/investor in search of instant gratification. Perhaps this breed owes its existence to the rampant bull market and evolving computer technology. Ever since Silicon Investor -- now owned by Go2Net (GNET:Nasdaq) -- started more than three years ago, Pluvia has used the chat boards to communicate his findings as he tracks small-cap companies that fall beneath Wall Street's radar." |
