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Pastimes : MANIPULATION IS RAMPANT --- Can We Stop It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BWAC who wrote (96)	5/12/2002 1:11:17 PM
From: Dave Gore	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 589

Re: Yahoo message boards, they and RB are ugly battlegrounds... of nameless, faceless Internet posters who will say about anything to get what they want. It sure appears that many are paid to post what they do. The worst thing about Yahoo and RagingBull is the unlimited, free aliases that one can create. This allowed practice by Yahoo and RB instantly creates a potentially corrupt system. One man can become an army of deceit. Why anyone gives these boards any credence at mystifies many of us. After all, it's clear that facts, fundamentals and T/A matter less then wild, unfounded rumors. We can all understand stocks losing 50% of their value overnight if a company projects future earnings to be half of what the street was expecting, or more if some horrible corruption took place like Enron. Anybody can. But to be able to simply start a wild, unfounded rumor or to shout one-line scare tactics over and over by the same posters, or their aliases, nearly 24 hours a day, and be successful in creating panic buying or selling is beyond belief. I personally witnessed two particularly foul-mouthed "shorters" violate Yahoo's posting policy over and over, with no action taken after they were reported. Of course, if they were sanctioned or kicked off the boards, all they would need to do is create another alias. Heck, it only takes a couple minutes. How much influence Yahoo message boards have is up for debate, but from what I can see by the sheer number of posts is that they could have a lot of influence. Way too much influence, if you ask me. If people want soap operas, vulgar behavior and ugly confrontations there's plenty of daytime TV they can watch.

To: BWAC who wrote (96)	5/12/2002 1:34:29 PM
From: Dave Gore	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 589

ANALYSTS E-NAILED! ----- A Must-Read from "Money Magazine" this month. I just got my "Money" Magazine, June 2002. In an article entitled "The People v. Wall Street", big time analyst Henry Blodget and Merrill were exposed, royally exposed. Here is what he allegedly said privately by email v. what he said publicly, in an apparent attempt to sacrifice all ethics and morals to get a firm's Investment Banking business. In "Money Magazine's" own words ..."Merrill Lynch analysts said that the following four stocks (I mention 2 of them below) were poised for growth and assigned them all long-term buy or accumulate ratings. But internal e-mail written by those same analysts tell a very different story. Of the four companies below (again I mention only 2), only GoTO.com (now called Overture) trades above $2. Stock: Lifminders (LFMN) Public Statement: "We think LFNM presents an attractive investment" - Research report, Dec. 21, 2000, short term rating: Accumulate Internal E-mail: I can't believe what a POS [piece of sh-t] that thing is." - Blodget, Dec. 4, 2000 e-mail ** Stock: Excite At Home (ATHM) Public Statement: "We do not see much more downside to the shares." -- Research report, July 20, 2000; short term rating: accumulate Internal E-mail: "ATHM is such a piece of crap!" - analyst Henry Blodget, June 3, 200 e-mail ** Infospace and GoTo.com were also cited. One a statement by Blodget again and another by Kristin Campbell.