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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Patriot Scientific - PTSC -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew Ghezzi who wrote (4131)	12/31/1997 10:25:00 PM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8581

Andrew, I'd suggest that you write that school that advertises inside the match-book covers and ask for your money back for that mailorder psychology degree. Or, maybe you'd want to trade the course in for their spelling and grammar refresher. ;) I sometimes read and post in threads of stocks that I have no investment in and have no intention of investing in. I'm sorry for you that your "what's in it for me" attitude apparently prevents you from doing so yourself, as there is much to be gained from doing so. It is partly to learn, and partly to contribute - as "pay back" for the contributions of others. When I read and participate in the thread of a company that I am invested in, I would hope that there are some knowledgable individuals on the thread that do not have an investment and so can be more objective. I welcome these people. I am sorry that there are those here that would drown them out. The learning I see as mostly learning how to "read" sentiment in a thread. What (if any) is the correlation (positive or negative) between sentiment in an online forum and stock performance? I learn about that more effectively when I don't have an investment. When I do have an investment, what I hope probably gets in the way of what I observe. (A natural human tendancy...) Penny stocks in particular seem to develop threads where there is only positive opinion. I suppose one reason for that is that there isn't anybody posting who have short positions (because the stock is not marginable - market-makers and some other professionals can still short, but I suspect their participation here is minimal). There also tends to be an over-emphasis on "concept" and a sweeping under the rug of messy details. By participating in a few threads that I'm not invested in, I can do a small part in balancing the discussion, and perhaps help somebody along the way by providing information that would otherwise not be brought to light. So, that's it in a nutshell, certainly no dilusions of grandeur. If you'd like to see an example of another thread I've participated in that is somewhat similar, see CRTM. (Arm yourself with a chart, and look in on the discussion at various key dates.) You will see the same "defense of the turf" by a cadre of regulars, the same intolerance of differing opinion, the same disbelief that discounted debentures would tank the stock, the same personal attacks against me and others, the same accusations of "short!", "market-maker!" "crazy person!" (in that order, as each one fails). And, sadly, you will see a large number of people who invested their life savings in the company (and lost nearly all of it). You will also see that I was right. (The stock went from over 2 to 0 1/8, and is now trading just above that latter figure.) And, as well, you will see that I have no enemies there today. I can tell you that every individual there who ever had a beef with me for my posts has subsequently either thanked me or apologized. (And I can't think of anyone there that I think of as "that so and so".) Why? Because I gave them the information that should have warned them off (some did act on that information, and perhaps I helped save their life savings from near-total loss), and didn't rub it in when things turned out the way they have. I had no agenda, other than to observe and help where I could. On the rest of your post, which was barely comprehensible, rest assured that I don't derive my worth as a human being from these threads, and that I do have a life, one that I am quite happy with, thank you. I also do not post on this thread 365 days out of the year as some do. I do have fast, constant, Internet connection, and type VERY fast. :)