Daniel,
Hypesters are people who continue to write favorable, sometimes exhuberant posts regarding a company or its' prospects, without providing VERIFIABLE, INDEPENDENT, RESPONSIBLE sources to back their statements.
Verifiable means that anyone else can get this same information from the same source(s). A telephone call with an insider/officer or a broker doesn't count. However, a published statement from an insider or officer is fine, as are AUDITED statements and filings provided to the SEC. Publications are good, such as newspapers, magazines, books, and the like.
Independent means just that, a third party perspective. Again, insiders/officers don't count. An external auditor would have some credibility. A WSJ article or a financial magazine article might have some credibility depending on the author/publication. Mass media news might be credible, again depending on the source of the news. People who are shareholders (no matter how small) are not independent.
Responsible means an individual or organization that is widely known, knowledgeable in the area of what s/he speaks or writes, and takes full responsibility for their words. Certain penny stock writers, especially those with internet publications, are widely known to trade in the same stocks that they promote in their publications. This is not taking responsibility, even if they have that ubiquitous disclaimer that says "We may or may not trade in the stocks that are recommended by our publication.".
Cheerleading a stock is hyping in it's mildest form. Providing false information is the worst kind of hyping. You'll find both forms of hyping and everything in-between in most of the penny stock threads here on SI.
Whenever an SI person puts something in a post that isn't verifiable, s/he should precede it with "in my opinion", or similar words. We don't need to get ridiculous about everything we post, but we should be very clear in our posts as to what is fact and what is opinion. We can certainly quote the opinions of others, as long as we make it clear that we are quoting, and who we are quoting.
KJC |
