Hi gassed imo your last statement about non-holders shows the common assumption holders on HC stock specific threads have about posters who are non-holders, i.e. that most probably they are posting with some kind of anti-stock or anti-social agenda...unless through many posts they "prove" or "demonstrate" that they do not exhibit one of those characteristics - then they are accepted as "genuine".
On the other hand, the general assumption about holders who are posting is that they are genuine because they are holding. There can be as many under-handed reasons a "holder" is posting as for non-holders, eg ramping to encourage people to buy & push demand up to hit their target price (the obvious one).
The only difference is the disclosure and there could be any number of "holders" making that disclosure that are making a false disclosure.
So this gets down to the confirmation bias that stock holders typically have on the stock forums and the angst generated when negative views are posted about their investment (whether doing well or not, but particularly when not doing well).
This is a fundamental problem common to most HC stock specific threads, repeated time and time again. To me this only validates a lot of the psychological theory behind market price movements and a great insight into why stock prices spike up and down. As a control comparison to this notion take a look at the non stock specific threads (STT, XSO, XJO, others) that angst is almost never present. The rare times an argument breaks out its simply personalities or just a topical argument and blows over.
I truly believe after being a HC member for 10 years that this behaviour will never change. I would be absolutely gobsmacked if it did and if it did I would actually start to question whether psychological market dynamics are changing. It hasn't since Jesse Livermore wrote widely on the subject 100 years ago and I'm betting with my money every day that it won't change in my lifetime.
Cheers, Sharks.
AKK Price at posting:
0.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
