Stag's a DragA little harsh on the 15 year old con man, don't you think. I've been "stealing" music since the cassette tape came out, and enjoyed the ability to create a tape of "non-filler" (as I define it) music, which is often the case on an album (two good songs, four mediocre, the rest crap, except for Hot August Night! :) ). This is an unrelated discussion, IMO, since being profitable and being moral are almost mutually exclusive events (despite what the ethical funds salesman tells you).
Anyone who thinks the 15 year old Lebed kid is a crook, but the adult joker at CIBC World Markets (Todd Copeland) is an OK guy can go fly a kite! (Or do something to themselves that is more fun.)
Anyone remember the $200 a share target price for WIN? Or the revised $25?? The point made in the article is valid - the analysts pump and dump as shamelessly as the kid did, but with the "illusion of knowing what the hell they're talking about" and having CIBC World Market's good name after it instead of "Stockdogs/com".
Personally, I think the former, with the pomp, ceremony and legitimacy of being an authentic "Analyst" is a far greater crime, because we should expect useful information, as potential investors, from a supposedly knowledgeable, unbiased and respected source like an analyst at CIBC World Markets, compared to the anonymous picker at Stockdogs.
The jerkoffs who lost money from following "advice" at Stockdogs.com deserve to, in the same way that anyone who "won" by following OLDPRO's advise got lucky. They trusted anonymous, and therefore potentially biased and ignorant, sources to make their stock picks.
Not true with the saps who follow Todd Copeland advice. He shoved it at us in the mainstream media and on all their fancy Recommendations. The more experience have learned that, in a way, they are both crooks, but the professional crooks are employed by the brokerage houses and get paid millions to fleece the ignorant and innocent. I say, better to be screwed by an amateur than a pro - less chance of catching a communicable disease along with the other costs!
In a watered down way, we have all, including the JKAY and SERIOUSMONEY's on this board, subscribed to the tactics of Lebed to support our personal positions in Wi-Lan. I think, in fact, some of the posters went to the same school as that kid, judging from their posts. "Let he who has committed no sin cast the first stone"!
Personally, I wish I was up a half million today like that kid.