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Pastimes : Brokerage-Chat Site Securities Fraud: A Lawsuit -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (2254)	7/24/2003 9:08:11 PM
From: CountofMoneyCristo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3143

Welcome, Art, to the love here at our little corner of litigation, remonstration, demonstration and consternation here at SI :-). Yes, what you said, when you say BUY, it's a rec. It also depends whether it's commercial, are people paying you for the recs, and also if it's obvious that it's a call to action, meaning everyone, such as at a site like Trading Places, knew when Merlin said Take the Money that meant sell. If you go back to some posts earlier today, the logs, these were recommendations. They said buy, they said use a stop loss, they said sell, they said lock up profits, they congratulated clients on profits (even if the clients were imaginary, ones they created to deceive their real clients). It's a bit different than just throwing an opinion out there on CNBC, like you said, I like this or that, not even close - especially when you're charging up to $500 a month for it. That was one of the big problems with the Merrill litigation that was just dismissed: if you're not paying for the advice, not a client of the adviser, then it's tough to prove reliance, that you expect certain things from your adviser, because in fact it wasn't really your adviser, just a guy issuing an upgrade on CNBC, carefully. In this case, we were all paying clients.

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (2254)	7/24/2003 11:05:29 PM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3143

" ''Investment adviser'' means any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities, or who, for compensation and as part of a regular business, issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities; but does not include (A) a bank, or any bank holding company as defined in the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) which is not an investment company, except that the term ''investment adviser'' includes any bank or bank holding company to the extent that such bank or bank holding company serves or acts as an investment adviser to a registered investment company, but if, in the case of a bank, such services or actions are performed through a separately identifiable department or division, the department or division, and not the bank itself, shall be deemed to be the investment adviser; (B) any lawyer, accountant, engineer, or teacher whose performance of such services is solely incidental to the practice of his profession; (C) any broker or dealer whose performance of such services is solely incidental to the conduct of his business as a broker or dealer and who receives no special compensation therefor; (D) the publisher of any bona fide newspaper, news magazine or business or financial publication of general and regular circulation; (E) any person whose advice, analyses or reports relate to no securities other than securities which are direct obligations of or obligations guaranteed as to principal or interest by the United States, or securities issued or guaranteed by corporations in which the United States has a direct or indirect interest which shall have been designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, pursuant to section 3(a)(12) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)(12)), as exempted securities for the purposes of that Act (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.); or (F) such other persons not within the intent of this paragraph, as the Commission may designate by rules and regulations or order." www4.law.cornell.edu