OK, I'll apologize again, and I'll address your concern.
Your concern, as I understand it, is that under this particular circumstance, an April Fool's gag might have resulted in some actual pain for someone, somewhere.
Your concern is, I suppose, valid. It is possible.
But, with all due respect John, you might be missing the real picture here. I mean, let's be real. I'll give you a real example.
One time, many years ago, I was channel surfing and I stopped on an ad for a new razor. One with three blades. I thought, "That's absurd."
I thought it was real for a minute!
Now, let's say, for the point of argument, that I also thought it was a great idea. Let's say I turned off the TV, and I called my broker, and I sold my CSCO at 28, and I went to the store to buy some of these new razors.
What I didn't know, because I turned off the TV, was that it was "Saturday Night Live", and it was a phony commercial. No razors at the store. I get back home, and CSCO is up a buck.
(And, 20 years later, there really is a triple bladed razor!)
That's a good analogy. That's close to your argument, I would say.
Was I hurt? Yes. Did I lose money? Yes.
Should somebody at SNL have warned me that it was a gag? Should someone sitting next to me have said, "No, don't sell your CSCO!"
Maybe. Who knows for sure. It was a gag. The argument breaks down at this point, because we don't have enough information to make an informed judgement.
We can, however, argue that my trades are my responsibility, to some greater or lesser extent. If you really are new here, and you really are interested in learning, then you came to the right place. There are a lot of really sharp people on SI.
But underlying your post is this idea that the more informed should bear some responsibility for the less informed; that someone who understands things should have a moral and ethical responsibility to at least make an effort to help those that are less informed and less able to make informed and accurate judgements.
I agree with you on this completely. Completely. So does everyone else that I have friendly dialog with on SI. It is what a good person would do.
But you also hint that the person who "understands" is, or should be, responsible for the person that does not, regardless of who they are or what they believe. And here is where we may have a difference of opinion.
If your suggestion is that I, having a good knowledge of the stock market and how it works, should make decisions for you, who does not, then we disagree.
One cannot have it both ways. One cannot be ignorant, make his own decision, get screwed, and then say, "It's your fault because you knew and you didn't help me." You either drive the bus, or you sit in the back. That's the way things are. I like to drive. The bad part is, if I crash, I can't sue the driver.
What I do is try and help people to learn to make their own decisions. I want them to be more informed. I think the more you know about the stock market, the better off you are. I think that if you take somebody else's advice and act on it without doing your own homework, then you are cutting your own throat.
There is a 15 year old kid on SI that gives out penny stock picks. Somebody asked him recently how he chose his stocks. He refused to answer, and said, 'if I gave that away, I'd be useless'.
I am not making this up. That's all he has to say, as far as I am concerned. He wants me to sit in back and not to ask questions about his cheap sunglasses and the gum and that narrow bridge up there that I see and he doesn't.
I'll pass.
So, if you, or anyone else, pays any attention to that kid after he makes that statement, then here is what I choose to do:
I choose to ignore you and your pleas for "help". I have the opinion that you have decided to be ignorant. I choose to allow you to be responsible for your own decisions. You choose to listen to someone who refuses to tell you how he chooses stocks, so you, in my mind, are not worth helping. I want to help people that want to learn, and become more responsible for their own decisions. You see what I mean? You get boned because you listened to that punk, and then you come to me and say, "Why didn't you warn me?"
Sorry, pal. I'm not here to be everyone's friend. I'm not here to explain everything I know about the stock market to anybody that asks me. You want to know my next pick? Sorry. You want to pay me to coach you trade stocks? Fine. You want to know if I have ever seen a signal on Welles Wilder's RSI that works pretty good. I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I pick stocks. In fact, all you have to do is check around SI and you will find plenty of very knowledgeable people, people smarter than I am, that will be more than happy to help you. Information is doled out every day on SI that people would pay very large sums of money for. That's the truth.
I want to talk with people that I can learn from, and people who want to learn from me. I'm not interested in some things, and I really really don't like some things. I guess I'm pretty much just like you.
Now, back to the April Fool's gag.
Suppose I had an understanding of how criminals and other bad guys steal money from people that don't understand what they are doing in the stock market. Suppose I was actively involved in exposing these criminals so that people knew who they are. I don't get paid for it, I don't get compensated. I do it because I have an honest desire to help other people, and because it is fun. Let's say that's true. (It is, by the way, and anyone who doesn't believe me I suspect is a criminal.)
Suppose I thought that one way to capture people's attention and help them learn was through the use of humor. Let's say that I wanted to help someone understand that this 15 year old kid was a numbskull, and my opinion as a sophisticated investor was that you would be much better off ignoring this kid.
I could do a couple of different things. I could post on his thread and expose his bullshit. Or, I could make a joke about him, so that anyone that read the joke would be inclined to at least question him, and maybe start learning for themselves. My personal choice is the latter, because it's more fun. I like jokes. My favorite jokes contain Art. It's tough for some people to define Art. I don't bother trying to explain all this to other people. I just do the funny Art. Take it or leave it, up to you. You don't understand, that's fine. You attack my Art, you move to the top of the waiting list.
Some people don't like this. Paid touts, people who run scam companies that are stealing money from investors, people who believe the paid touts and scam company officials, all of those people don't like me.
They think I am hurting them. They think I am being paid to short their stock, or whatever.
I don't care! I look at it real simple. If you are a criminal, or you work for criminals, then you are my target. If you are a jerk, or you are scamming people, or you are a menace to ordinary investors, then you are my target.
If you attack me, I assume that you might be a bad guy. I check you out, I talk to you, and I know right away, either you are on the good guy team or the bad guy team. If you are a good guy, then maybe I was wrong. If I was wrong, I admit it and apologize. If you are on the bad guy team, then you are a menace to ordinary investors, and you are my target. If you have no sense of humor, then it's a blinking warning light.
When I say target, I mean I might tell a joke about you. I might do something that will warn somebody that you might be a menace. And they will be laughing while I am warning them.
I'm not so weird, lots of people think like I do. Mr. Bill, for example. Jeff, Janice, lots of people. Lots. I don't agree with everything that Jeff says, or Janice says, or Bill says, or anybody else says. That's not the point.
I'm a day trader. Last summer, I saw what looked to me like a pump and dump one day. I watched it, and it looked to me like somebody took about 275 million dollars out of the stock market in about an hour.
Now, John, that is a lot of money. You with me? And I don't think that's right. I think the people that maybe did that maybe should be in jail, and the people that got their money stolen should get it back.
So I will continue to do what I do; make jokes and help people learn about the market. And if somebody that is ignorant gets screwed in the stock market in the meantime, I feel bad.
But it's not my fault, John. It's their own fault.
Drive, or sit in the back.
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