Pat, yes, they can and they definitely do.
There's no law against expressing one's opinion publicly, no
matter how self-serving that opinion might be.
If you could prove that the public opinion was knowingly false,
AND if you could prove that you were hurt by it, AND if you
could prove that the opinion expresser had a vested interest
in hurting you (or a class of people like you), you might
have a cause for action. If you had a very large hurt, you
might pursue it yourself; otherwise you would have to pursue
a class action.
Many might view this as a breakdown of responsibility requiring
regulation. My personal view is that the regulation is the
worst way to go about it and being informed about how these
things work, and potentially taking advantage of it as investors,
is the best way to regulate it.
This kind of discussion, to my mind, IS the solution. We
become informed, we act on it, and either it becomes unprofitable
to express such opinions or we profit by it.
These same groups make liquid markets, or contribute to liquid
market makers, and as such they provide
an essential ingredient to the equities market. So if we
regulate them out of business, we regulate ourselves out of
available markets. Sorry--this is going on too long and I will
stop now.
As a final comment, I don't mean to impute anything
to you (or any posters here) as to your opinions. I'm merely
expressing mine, and if I seem argumentative, please put that
down to generally prevailing opinions with which I disagree
rather than anything I've read on this thread. This thread
(by which I mean its contributors) is very constructive,
and I'm not criticizing. Just adding my very few cents worth.
Regards
Spots |
