Sunday, May 4. Before the news hit, the Bre-X thread at the Silicon Investor web
site had the aura of the Last Chance Saloon at High Noon.
All the suspense of a gunfight in bright sunlight. Everyone knows everything. Nobody
knows anything. There was only the waiting until the word - "draw" and the thing would
be settled in one second.
The Bre-X saga has been shaped by all the forces of a modern myth, Fear, Greed,
Death, Deceit, Struggle, and finally, the Truth.
The amphitheater for this passion play has been the computer screen on desks around
the world, as thousands tuned in to the Silicon Investor web site to read all the latest
posts. All the world IS a stage, and all the men and women who partook in this
discussion group are true players.
In the month prior to the announcement of Strathcona's independant drilling, 10,000
messages were posted to the Bre-X thread. Thousands of different visitors would come
to read the postings each and every day. This location on Silicon Investor's hard drive
had become, by common consent, the worldwide clearing house for facts, fiction,
opinions and emotions about Bre-X.
The Bre-X saga will come to be known as the demarcation of the Internet as the
weapon of choice for investors. The thread gained a life of its own. News releases were
copied from all sources and left on the thread for all to see. When some important new
item hit on TV, radio, or newspapers, everyone at the thread was quickly informed. The
Net subsumed all the other media. As it grew in stature, the other media began to look
to the thread for fresh information. Rumors on the thread were quoted in the press.
News came from every source. Rumors from brokers, rumors from people in bars or
geologists on planes were posted to the thread. Rumors surfaced, were hung out to dry,
and began to smell bad, as some members cheered the rumors in their own gungho
postings and others shot the rumors down.
Plans were hatched to send representatives of the thread to scout the bars around the
annual meeting of Freeport McMoran and troll for information. In the future, the threads
will have their own sources of information.
Contributors became experts in geology or litigation or market psychology and posted
their carefully researched observations.
The battle between bulls and bears got real personal. Disembodied persona did battle,
slinging insults and innuendoes. Odes and Poems were written. Posters vowed to eat
their computers if the reserve results proved other than their predictions. There were
nervous little messages of fear and hope. There was pain as investors wrote openly to
complete strangers about sleepless nights and how they had bet more than they could
afford to lose. There were exultant cries of victory, before any such thing. The unfettered
emotions of the players were there for everyone to witness, in sharp contrast to the
pervasive pinstriped buy-and-hold blandness pitched by most investment professionals.
The spirit of "open systems", always prevailed. The difference between the thread and
the press is clear. Everyone on the thread has an agenda. They are either long the stock,
or not. Some might be short. Opinions and facts are always suspect because there is no
accountability. Everyone who comes to the Last Chance Saloon knows better than to
think that people here are their friends.
But alliances are formed. Group efforts are made to support one argument, or the other.
Any accurate information is welcomed and those who present it are thanked.
In the final days before the release of the Strathcona report, Bre-X believers took over
the thread with a cultish zeal. An us-against-them mentality was directed at the media
which at the same time accelerated efforts to scoop a scandal on Bre-X.
A prime reason for the lack of faith in media coverage was the fact that the media had
missed the story when Bre-X was at its peak. At that point, the press was praising the
company and no doubts were raised. As the drama unfolded, the press belatedly moved
to uncover irregularities.
The Bre-X thread has wound down and eventually only a handful of posters will return
to leave a message for old times sake. But one thing will endure. On other threads at
Silicon Investor, or another web site or newsgroup, more investors are turning to the Net
as their source of investment information. Once they begin to read and post messages
and become active in the debate, they are hooked.
The theatre is open. The stage is set 24 hrs. a day. There is always an audience. There is
no turning back.
Additional Reading:
Bre-X May 4th Press Release
SI Discussion Forum: BRE-X, Indonesia, Ashanti Goldfields, Strong |
