>>>Did "Tony and the well-organized shorting parade" hurt these little guys or did they hurt themselves? Perhaps a few questions might clarify the issue.<<<
OK, Triple T, I'll give it my best effort.
>>>a. Should they have been into these scam/pos stocks in the first place? Should they not have done more DD? What percentage of their money should be in such a shakey investment?
Well, I don't know. What do you think of the quality of folks and brokerage firms that invested in CMGI and ICGE or any number of then seemingly very credible technology stocks which, today, operate under the veil of a popular term that frequently gets bandied about on this thread, a POS?
Fact is that people buy stocks for lots of reasons with perhaps the most popular among them being the stock was recommended by someone, a relative, a friend, a work associate, from chat room exchanges or whatever; some buy stocks because they see society changing around 'em and they try to fit their investment into such changes; and some buy stocks because they've been highlighted in supposedly intelligent material such as BusinessWeek, Wired or various newsletters from multiple fields of interest.
Regarding the specifics of your question:
>>>Should they have been into these scam/pos stocks in the first place?<<<
No one should buy a scam stock, especially if they know it's a scam stock. But I might point out that the language used, more than not, by shorting infestations is less than of a reaching out in nature. In fact, usually it's quite cruel and rarely is anyone led to greater understandings. I think the foul language and insult tactic is meant more to induce panic selling and to further heighten distrust.
>>>Should they not have done more DD?<<<
Well, many folks had brokers recommend stocks like CMGI and ICGE, among others. And whose this guy Michael Murphy who keeps sending me emails, over the past few months, recommending AOL as a must-have?
Remember, Triple T, not everyone's in tune and frequently folks rely on others that they feel are more knowledgable than themselves. And not everyone has ready access to paid sites that provide that extra bit of information to make the difference. How many trade stocks with Lexus software, for example?
Now if you're referring to the speculator, well, that individual is already prepared to take a hit and it wouldn't surprise he or she to see a shorting infestation appear. I think it's funny how you treat the folks described in the above paragraphs much like the speculator described in this paragraph, thinking this is the only victim. Not so.
>>>What percentage of their money should be in such a shakey investment?<<<
Well, it'd be my guess you wouldn't like losing any percentage of your money, would ya? Although it's possible and probably has been done, I doubt the very great majority of folks mortgage their homes behind a particular stock. And most who do invest have a formula of allocation between stable and risk-level stocks.
>>>b. If Tony and his crew had not shorted the stock, wouldn't the stock (in most cases) have sank from their own weight anyway?<<<
Very likely, in fact probable. However, it's easier to learn from a sensitive and comprehensive dialogue and in one where sustainable evidence is clearly presented, than it is to have a wolfpack suddenly appear shouting obscenties at ya.
But I also think that in some instances it's possible that a company may have an unmet timeline whose possibility gets decimated once shorting hordes come on like orcs and goblins. As a consequence the timeline never gets met and other connections which perhaps might have happened never get to happen due the tainting process. And, yes, when the shorters come a marchin' in, there be a whole lotta taintin' goin' on!
>>>b. Is stock shorting legitimate? Is it moral? Is any stock investing moral?<<<
Yes, it's legitimate and there are practical and fundamental reasons for doing so. Doing so is moral unless unfair tactics are implemented and process becomes corrupted. "Is any stock investing moral?" Hey, maybe we should all quit--lol!
>>>c. Can any blame be laid on the scam/hypsters?<<<
Yup, a whole lot of it, including the supposedly reputable Michael Murphy types who've been wanting me to buy AOL the past few months. I think the news of late relative to Enron, Andersen, Haliburton, Global Crossing, Tyco, ImClone, et. al. shows, if anything, that the emphasis of attack should not simply reside at the bottom of the barrell, i.e., the ECNCs or SEVUs.
But, on the other hand, I bet lots of New Yawkers kept on rooting for the Mets a long, long time before they won anything. Should Tiger fans fall prey to Detroit Tiger marketeers and promoters?
>>>d. How about the scam management/managers and their super hype news releases? Any blame on them?<<<
Plenty of blame for them. But I think its sorta the nature of the beast given our government for decades hasn't had many qualms about moving into Third World nations with promises galore, but the real intent was bent on raping natural resources. Or how 'bout how nuke plants got situated in the respective American communities. Yep! Super-hype's a very American-like quality ain't it not?
>>>e. What about yourself? Have you ever bought one of the scams and hoped that the stock could be hyped into a sky-rocket?<<<
Oh, yes. My first stock was LPTH (then LPTHA w/warrants LPTHW and LPTHZ). I had the epitomy of 'beginner's luck.' And with very good profits from this I became, like many, an everyday online stock trader where soon I found myself making the rookie mistakes.
I got taken to the cleaners on supposedly quality-tv computer advertiser ZULU ("It's gonna be better than Doubleclick," but now is belly-up); and then by TRGC, an oil exploration firm whose CEO took the money to his Caymen Island's hotel and then he tried to hide out in Colombia (interestingly, I'm still holding shares from that one--a shareholders committee took over the company and it's finally, after five long years, 'bout ready to turn a small profit).
So, yeah, I've been burned. And I changed my trading strategies as a consequence. I was lucky 'cause I knew oil drillers were at their very lows, so I bought into a bunch of 'em and gradually sold to get my ZULU and TRGC money back and this enabled me to evolve into a position trading strategy whereby I'd buy IPOs in the open market (the minute they'd begin trading); selling within hours; buying back in at the lows during the Quiet Period and then selling into strength when QP ended and the analysts parroted out the buy recs. Sometimes I'd hang onto an IPO stock for a bit of the ride, but mostly I did not.
When the IPO market went bad, I simply threw my money into a couple of prospects and have pretty much waited it out.
All in all, I'd say the politics of my experience has enabled me to learn from my mistakes. But this was more due to a trial and error, and not a result of some blabber mouth telling me I'm a POS, my thread friends are POS, my stock is a POS and POS is rampant everywhere.
>>>f. Have you ever hyped one of these scam type of stocks and it later was proved to be a scam? Does that make you even more at fault than that of the short(ers) that proved to be right?<<<
Yup! As mentioned above, I got taken to the cleaners on ZULU. When I visited NYC I put out on the thread I was gonna be at Googies in the Village at a time certain, that I'd be found on rollerblades, drinking Guinness--come join me! Well, guess who showed--none other than the CEO himself, who told us all kinds of great things about the company. Consquently, my writing skills got misused.
On the plus side to this terrible ZULU investing experience, even though I lost eight grand, I did, in fact, end up meeting my current girlfriend. You see, she, too, showed up at Googies that night and it was luv at first sight for us. But I think this had more to do with the quality of my rollerblading than the quality of the stock we both lost money in--lol!
>>>PARDON, YORE SLIP IS SHOWIN'.<<<
I've seen better humor ... what else yer got? (LOL) Triple T--I hope you enjoyed my forthright response to your questions. |
