I think if you will remember more, you'll recall that most of Tony's picks that were mentioned in Bears room were done so in a derisive fashion, like, what a stupid call that is, or, we were in that a week ago, or, I guess someone finally tipped Tony to that one. That was the case, Tony's site was usually one of the last to get info., and the more unstable he got, the worse it was in the shorting community. The pattern became, see a turd stock, short the pump, it dumps, collect profits, or see a turd stock, short it, see tony's site foolishly pound bids, cover into their shorting, for the squeeze of them that follows, reshort, make more money. Except when it was, short a turd stock, oops, it's still going up, better do some DD, wow what a total fraud this is, time to give the info. to Tony so he can pass it to the flock and they can hit it. I would say 90%+ of Tony's picks were of this type, where someone else did the DD and Tony took credit for it. This was mutually beneficial, since most shorters do not like the lime light just the profits, and on the other hand Tony always sought attention. He was being used, and the flock was as well, but he and the flock got what they wanted, good info. on good stocks to short. Shorters got what they wanted, truthful information brought to light when the likes of CNBC were too busy only giving part of the story, because they were basically too stupid to do any real research, or because most journalist or their editors are too scared to do much more than puff pieces, for fear of lawsuit and the SEC is the slowest moving govt. agency ever.
But like I say, the more unstable Tony got, the more bad things came out about him, the less his effect was on stocks, so he got less and less info. and it was on crappier and crappier stocks, he became more a last resort item rather than a first.
This was what eventually left me to leave. I was thoroughly disgusted with what the site had become. It started out to be a safe haven, or for folks from the Arabic part of the world, an oasis for shortsellers. It was to be a place where shorters could gather together and share info. on turd stocks, without worrying about the crims seeing what they were looking at. It had turned into anything but that. It was all day, trading in and out of NVDA for a buck or two, or pics of chandeliers and Bentley's while people were upside down and losing their ass in a bad "call." It was people that should never have been on the site to begin with, rambling on and on and picking fights with long time members. It was dropping coverage and banning the mention of any stock that went up, then as soon as it cratered, miraculously it was a huge winner for all. And then finally it was, everyone sign this form that basically says any info. you provide to the site becomes property of the site, except the site maintains no liability for any of it. So if I post something, the site owns it, but I can still get sued for it. Preposterous, who in their right mind would post any info. under those conditions? No one did, they just emailed it to Tony, and he could choose to pass to the flock or not. When Tony tried to get me to stay on the site, he mentioned SLPH and their lawsuit, and what a pain in the ass it was. I told him, yeah and you're making a few million a year off the site, and that should buy you a lawyer or two. That's another thing, originally the site wasn't meant to line Tony's pockets, it was supposed to be exclusively for shorters, and everyone would go through a background check, or be recommended by someone. It became, got $600/month, sure come on in. Scummy promoter? No worries mate, just as long as the check's good. Bear's group is small, but i'd rather hang with a small group of good, smart people, than a large room full of greedy ignorant scum, with some really good people mixed in, and that's what Tony's site had become.
As for Tony, I think almost everyone except the turd stock buying dog loser types that we've seen so much of on SI since his arrest, that saw their pet stock fall into oblivion, genuinely hoped Tony had everything turned around after he got out of jail. I put myself in this group, I really hoped the guy had everything right, and would keep it that way, but, he started cutting this corner, and then that one, and one thing was too much for one guy, another too much for someone else, and pretty soon this person gave up on him, and then that one. I know a lot of people that really wished his site could be his site only without him there. They paid the money and logged in every day for the other people there that they had became friends with, and not for Tony's calls. When I was booted for not signing the revised terms of use, I personally missed the laughs I got from a few people there the most. I know others that would not play his calls, because they were always losing on them. Death shorts, that ramped 200% and then were banned from discussion etc., but they really respected the opinion of some of the other traders there.
I wish rhansen luck with his new site, but I really don't see paying for something that can be had for almost nothing. If you don't do audio stuff, Mirc works fine, even better in some ways, and it's free. Tokyo Joe ran his site as a mirc site, and I don't remember hearing about them having tons of trouble. As for message boards, that's impossibly easy. Rent some netspace for a few hundred a year and there are freeware boards that are as good as SI actually, and there are pay ones for only a few hundred that are used by huge corporate sites. They're very easy to set up, i've done it myself. I think a lot of people are sick of paying the money and getting very little in return, over what they could get for free. Some people need their hands held, and need to be coached on trading, and taught certain things about trading, and sites like Shaidkins I take it, provide this, but for most long timers on Tony's we didn't need this, we just needed a nice private place to exchange ideas and a joke or two, and Bears room fits this bill nicely. |
