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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Rocky Mountain Int'l (OTC:RMIL former OTC:OVIS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (32657)	1/3/1998 7:40:00 PM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 55532

Part Three from Kiplingers: Penny Stocks on Parade Stocks in start-up companies carry the biggest risk to investors. Nevertheless, there's huge enthusiasm for these stocks online. Hope springs eternal--and it invariably leads to one little company after another being labeled "the next Microsoft." "They may be great stocks, and they may be junk," says Jon Tara, creator of the Stock Club, an Internet site. "The problem is when they're presented to people as if they trade alongside IBM." Consider this recent bulletin-board exchange concerning Trinity Biotech, an Irish maker of quick-result HIV tests that reported its first quarterly profit (.001 cent per share) for the quarter that ended June 30. Investor Mike Sawyer sparked an online donnybrook by proclaiming little Trinity to be The Next Big Thing: "They will sell thousands of cases of HIV tests every month! . . . Every person receiving medical care MUST be treated as if they have AIDS! So every doctor and nurse in the country will want to know for sure before they work on you." A disbeliever who signs his notes JTR filed a riposte under the headline "Time to Get Fleeced": "Give em the whole story mike: lousy balance sheet, not even applied yet for FDA [approval] while others have it, not a home test. . . . How much are you in for/at what price?" Sounding like a gentleman ready to call for pistols at ten paces, Sawyer defended his honor: "I have always given the whole story as I know it! But you sir have not the slightest idea what is going on in the world of 'rapid result' testing!" Soon bystanders were taking sides: "Who in the world are you, and why are you so aggressive and angry at Mike?? Your posts make you sound like a real jerk." Mock combat is always unspooling somewhere on the Internet. But these semicomic confrontations can serve the serious purpose of exposing weak reasoning or correcting mistakes. Skeptics can also frustrate attempts to hype a stock, which Tara says is a central problem online. "It's cheaper to push this stuff on the Internet than it is to buy radio time," he says. Tara identifies those who seem to be hyping stocks on the Stock Club's "pump and dump" page. One recent inductee was a man who posted rapid-fire love notes about one company on several bulletin boards. "I finally sent him an e-mail: 'Do you work for investor relations in this company?'" Tara says. "His response was, 'I'm a director of the company.'"