Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Mr. Pink's Picks: selected event-driven value investments -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pink Minion who wrote (16809)	7/31/2002 4:15:27 PM
From: Kevin Podsiadlik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18998

You mean FirstPlus (FP). << that one finance company out of Dallas >> Remember 125% mortgages? And the staggering swiftness with which that stock fell apart -- that told me that this guy just might be someone worth listening to... Tearing Down the Internet's Anonymous Posters By Gregg Wirth Staff Reporter 9/22/98 4:09 PM ET thestreet.com "SELL SELL SELL SELL. . . This doggie is going into the toilet. Salvage what's left of your investment." -- Mr_Pink_esq, on a Yahoo! message board for FirstPlus, Sept. 14. Since stock message boards came into being, Internet posters have slung anonymous missives like blackjacks to bludgeon the shares of target companies. Now, the companies are fighting back, starting a trend that could change the very nature of the message boards. In several cases, companies have sued to unmask the anonymous posters, whose identities Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - news) and other companies that run the message boards routinely hand over when faced with court orders. Once the posters' real names are discovered, the maligned companies have sought legal and financial sanctions against them. For example, as far back as 1996 a lawsuit brought by Fonix (FONX:Nasdaq - news) against an online poster was settled in an unusual way: The poster not only had to apologize online, but also was required to buy shares of the company. The issue pits Americans' right to free speech against companies' right to protect themselves against false and misleading statements. It also pits the Internet's Wild West culture against the staid corporate world. Just last week, FirstPlus (FP:NYSE - news), a Dallas subprime lender, issued a press release saying it had identified a short-seller who "disseminated false and misleading information about the company over the Internet." FirstPlus, which hasn't identified the individual or said how it obtained the information, is forwarding the results of its investigation to the Securities and Exchange Commission and reviewing its legal options. [...] The most recent situation with FirstPlus brought some heated debate on the Yahoo! message board, including a laughing, I-dare-them-to-sue-me series of posts from Mr_Pink_esq himself, the person FirstPlus is believed to be targeting. In a mock transcript of the case of "FirstPlus vs. Mr. Pink," a poster called justgivememoney jokingly relates the difficulty FirstPlus would have convincing a judge that sophisticated money managers actually sold their shares based on anonymous Internet postings. The stock price of FirstPlus fell by about two-thirds in less than two months, from around 47 in mid-July to a low of 15 Sept. 11. It has since rebounded and was near 22 1/3 at midday Tuesday. (FirstPlus also recently announced it was beginning talks with potential acquirers about a purchase of the company. Trading in both its stock and options have been active lately.) The subprime lending arena has been hit especially hard in the recent market downturn. For example, two other subprime rivals, United Cos. Financial (UC:NYSE - news) and Southern Pacific Funding (SFC:NYSE - news), are down 34% and 81%, respectively, over a span in which the benchmark S&P 500 fell 10%. So whether the Internet messages actually hurt FirstPlus' stock price is open to debate. But the investigation, and similar ones by other companies, could make bigger waves. (Gee, whatever happened to that investigation...?)

To: Pink Minion who wrote (16809)	7/31/2002 11:05:46 PM
From: MAELING	Respond to of 18998

Crims go to ground. That's what it means. They put out info that's plausible and designed to deceive. Then shear the lambs, and disappear. Straight investors dig out facts and erect probabilities. They tend to be brutally honest about themselves and others. Pink's a smart guy. I was hoping he had something to add aside from a silly pronouncement. I hope he's not a crim. I personally want to make money WITH you, not OFF you. I'm hoping Pink feels the same. (I can name other failures, but who cares? This aint religion. It's just capital allocation.)

To: Pink Minion who wrote (16809)	8/26/2002 9:25:55 PM
From: Doug R	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18998

ACRT went from 12 to 42 (not quite sideways). before the WHOLE market cratered. From 12 to the top was 30 points. So far, after a good long profit, pinky's direction is a whopping 8 point gain. If one had the margin leeway to sit on it short through the move to 42. Not too tough, at this point, to have been right about ANY stock going down ALOT. Just another stopped watch call. I especially liked Fleckenstein's "YES!!! THIS IS THE BEAR MARKET" post in....1998 during the nasty pullback. He had to go back and stomp on his watch again til he was SURE it was stopped.>gg< It wasn't until mid 2000 that I posted the Dow was going to 7900 in Sept 2001. At the time it seemed a bit drastic. It was...I missed by just under 200 points intraday. The call also pointed to a 30% bounce from there and afterward the chart to become a real mess for a couple years. Y'know...there's a post on this thread where pink tells about a call he received from DC one day. He goes on to say that he received info that there was a LARGE amount of insider selling on a company. He was privy to and relayed this info BEFORE the info was in the public domain via proper SEC notification. I believe that's criminal. Whether it's morally right is probably debateable but that's not the question sometimes.