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April 9, 2000
You come home after a hectic day at the office to check your investments and find one of the stocks you have invested in has fallen 15 - 20%. After recovering from the shock, you immediately go to the stock message boards and read what the "self labeled pundits" have to say searching for the reason for the drop and what to expect in the upcoming days. While some of the people posting on the board may have some valuable input for you to read, many of the people posting on the board are not to be relied upon for accurate information.
The Internet has become an amazing medium for the transfer of information. Anyone today can access up to date information on about any subject and the subject of stocks definitely has real time information being put up on the Internet instantaneously. Many of the stock message boards have the resident "gurus" that post messages explaining the recent action of the stock and the future prospects of the stock. Buyer Beware though! Anyone can post to a stock board under various aliases and never give anyone a shred of truthful information. You must sift through the "hype" and find the people who post accurate information and thought provoking analysis of the stock.
The way to find out who is "hype" and who can "help" you is to visit the different message boards for a couple of weeks straight and read the different messages posted by the "pundits". Make sure you also read the previous 2-3 weeks' messages posted. You will begin to see a pattern develop showing who is accurately posting information about the stock and who is just spewing either negative information or just hyping the stock. Follow the different posters and check their information independently to validate their posts. When looking at the previous posts, check to see who was right about the stock and who was wrong. This will give you some insight as to who to have more confidence in about their analysis of the recent action of the stock and the possible future of the stock.
On the stock message boards, there are professional traders, day traders and knowledgeable people who like to talk investments. When you are comfortable with a couple of the people on the board, initiate contact through the message board and start to ask questions that you want answered about the stock. Why they bought into the stock, where do they see the stock heading, what investments they might be considering, etc.
Check the message boards for stocks at Yahoo.com (click here to go to message board index). Enter a stock symbol in the search box at the bottom of the page and click the search button. You will be given a list of stock boards for your symbol. Click on the board link and get started.
You will find a wealth of knowledge on the stock message boards and you will find a bunch of, well you know. It's up to you to filter through the "hype" and find the "help" you need. It is well worth it.
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