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September 1, 1998
THE MARKET TURMOIL: INVESTORS ON LINE
Misery Loves Cybercompany but Has Little Sympathy for
Market Losers
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By AMY HARMON
eavy Internet traffic slowed many online investment sites Monday as panicked investors mobbed
cyberspace, checking their stock prices and then sticking around to commiserate.
"All the bears are patting themselves on their backs now, saying 'We told you so!' But they don't really
care, do they?" said one investor on a Yahoo discussion forum called Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
"I'm back to where I was sometime in the middle of January. I'll go slit my wrists now."
The sense of calm expressed amid market chaos by many of middle America's typical mutual-fund
investors was nowhere in evidence in Internet forums and chat rooms, where participants tend to be
active investors and where emotion is never quite as tempered as it is in other environments.
On America Online, where chat-room convention dictates a cheery demeanor, the tone Monday
afternoon had turned decidedly somber. Investors kept one another up to date on what was happening
on CNBC. ("Shoot the jerks on CNBC," one suggested. "Nothing but bears, one after another.")
A typical exchange went like this:
ROWNAROWNA: "Hiya Cohen -- how are you doing?"
CohenInvGr: "Not good. Bleeding."
ROWNAROWNA: "We all are."
Fozziebare, another regular in the America Online investor forums, complained, "Can no longer afford
my AOL subscription."
David Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool, one of the oldest investment sites in cyberspace, said
that among the most popular discussion groups on the online investment Web site Monday was one
titled "Living Below Your Means." Another was "Communion of Bears."
"In the past, what characterized that conversation is they had to team up together because they were
so marginalized," Gardner said of regulars in the bear forum. "Now they're just calling for blood."
Indeed, sympathy for the market losers did not run deep on several popular message boards on
Monday.
"I have told you people for some time now Dell is going to the dogs!" FantomBoy wrote in a discussion
group about Dell Computer. "Dell lost all its recent gains, and you folks call Dell bullett proof!
BAWHAHAHAHAH."
Dell's stock, which had held out until Monday, suffered a 16 percent decline Monday. The rout for
technology stocks was particularly hard felt by online investors who had remained optimistic among the
warning signs in recent weeks.
"If this isn't a free fall for the markets, and Dell, then I don't know what a free fall is," wrote Stock
Bull, a previously bullish investor. "Wish I had a parachute on."
David Zgodzinski, who writes a biweekly column for the SiliconInvestor Web site that is based on
conversations in the discussion groups said online investors had been harder hit because they typically
owned stocks in individual companies rather than in mutual funds.
"In general, the reaction is shock," Zgodzinski said. "These people are more enthusiastic and more
tuned in, and they're feeling the loss more personally. The man on the street hasn't had the perception
of how bad the drop has already been."
One participant in a SiliconInvestor forum called "The Big Kahuna" drew on the immortal words of
Star Trek's Dr. McCoy to convey his feelings: "They're dead Jim, they're all dead. Japan, Russia, and
now China and Hong Kong. ANY BUYERS OUT THERE??"
A relatively new investor on a Yahoo discussion group wrote: "Gotta love this investment language. I
figured I'd need to learn about Fibonacci sequences and 10-Ks. Instead, I end up with catching falling
knives and dead cat bounces."
Still, there was an occasional clearing of the cybergloom on Monday as investors reassured one
another that this was in fact a buying opportunity, and that they were in it for the long haul. The Motley
Fool's "post of the day" was an impassioned exhortation from a Dell investor to look on the bright side:
"Subject: Self Fulfilling Prophecy
"Author: rj610w
"With all due respects to those on this board who are so far above me that I can't see the light of the
sun coming over their heads, let me sound a note of concern. I am concerned that the bottom doesn't
have to fall out from under us less we beat ourselves into believing it's coming and stampede in fear.
Once the panic starts, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. I think a lot of our future is in our
own hands and how it turns out is up to us. A little more encouragement and a little less scare talk may
serve everyone better."
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