The "pump or 1-star" mentality, and why it mattersSup,
I'm BaconIsBad. I have made it a goal of mine throughout my life to get under people's skin with opinions that aren't popular, but need to be said (can you tell from my username)?
I am an investor in Aphria and in no way want to see the stock price go down. However, I am cautiously optimistic with all of my investments. One thing that people don't like to hear, but is 100% true is that they cannot predict the market with a high success rate. There is a key difference to make a stament like "I think Aphria is a solid investment that will make you a good amount of money if you're long" and "Aphria will be $8 tomorrow, goodbye to $6, can't get prices this low anymore". Time and time again, people who make the latter statement are generally wrong, but still receive a 5-star rating at the time they make their "prophecies". People like "good news" (even though a random investor thinking the stock price will go up the next day is not news) and will therefore give anything of that nature a positive rating. Yet statements like "I don't think it is a good idea to buy more shares today since the budget meeting is in a couple of hours" or "The TSX uplisting is already taken into consideration in our stockprice, I don't see the stock price raising up too high tomorrow" is 1-starred. This shows that logic and difference of opinion are not welcomed on this board, but pumping and cheerleading, no matter what the context, is encouraged.
Why does this matter? Believe it or not, we are seeing more new investors of Aphria. Some of these people may even be brand new to investing in general. On a new board, most people don't have the time to compare the Aquatics to the sunnys of the community by basis of reading their content. The quickest way to see what the community thinks of a person's post is by looking at the star rating it received. While it's nice to see posts of optimism, it should be equally as nice to see the other side of the coin as long as there is some sort of merit behind it.
When someone who is brand new to investing asks if it is too late to get into Aphria, and instead of saying "BUY NOW! $50 in 5 years!" they give cautious optimism, it shows someone's true colours to 1-star it. New investors need to know that nothing is a sure bet (see 2009). New investors need to know the risks involved in any investment they make, and need to be reminded that they have to be strong mentally incase their investment plummets. This isn't "bashing", this is something called "reality".
One of these days there might be writing on the wall that a smart investor will be able to sniff out before it effects our share price. Wouldn't you like to know about it? Or would you rather ignore it and give it a 1-star rating? Ignorance seperates the good investors from the bad ones.