WOW... this is amazingI have done my DD and watched the SP for some time, and the activity and passion here has me excited, let me explain. Since everyone here has the underlying motivation to make money there are only a few different approaches to accomplish that.
1. If a stock SP is going no where... then no one cares and there is no activity
2. If a stock has promise.... then we have some options, we could do our DD and invest at a consolidated SP with support (.10) and take a calculated risk and say nothing. Or we try to maximize those gains and slam the stock hard in an attempt to get more shares at a lower SP... some old guy once talked about getting a great company on sale and a margin of safety... anyway events create sales. So an artificial event can have the same results, bashing is an artificial event.
3. If we are swing traders we make our money on that movement.... regardless of the trend we find those stock that have good flow and ride it up and down. (think FX traders, they create their own momemtum). Sometimes stocks need help with the up and down so bashers and pumper use the boards. Day traders are a different breed and many don't even know the compay they are buying... they are the extreme peaks and valley's... they salivate at parabolic.
4. There are always those that fall in love and pump to no end because they can't let go but they are rare and then there are those that got burnt and have a personal vedetta against a company.... these are the best and funny to read. Rather than cut their loses they likely bet more than they could afford to lose and it became personal :(... yes I said bet... these are penny stocks.
5. There are professionals who understand all of this and try to manipulate others with fear and greed. Its a cut throat game of lies, deny, and redirect.
When you read a post you already know everyone's underlying motivation (making money) so then it comes down to what they are posting and why. Hypothetical scenerio.... someone is a big supporter of a company and always posts the good (build credibilty)... then they sell their shares and are in fact a competitor (oh scary)... maybe I should sell too because Mr. Credible sold his. Except Mr. Credible is a nameless, faceless, bunch of writing you don't know.... Mr. Credible is actually buying the shares you sell. He finds a company he likes builds credibility and then swithes gears attempting to get weak hands to sell so he can buy. This isn't his first canoe trip.
If someone truly was a competitor and had a better product... guess what they wouldn't waste their time smashing the other... they wouldn't be worried.... unless they are a competitor and actually worried.. this would lend strength to the stock they are punishing.
There are thousands of opportunites out there and no one has the capacity to read, study, and dig on all of them. So why in the good lords name would you post on a board that you no longer owned....... you WOULDN't you would move one, time is money..... Under no circumstance is it in your best interest to waste time posting on a board of a stock you DON'T own. You're either shorting because its garbarge (HPQ isn't garbage becaue its PYR doing the work here, for garbage read MNGA on Yahoo) or you want it to be a bad company and can't accept you're wrong (Herbalife).... or you didn't actually sell and you want more but don't want to pay too much.... you like your margin of safey.
So thank you for the passion and activity, its a check box on my list. Buy, Sell it matters not to me I don't care what you do. I may lose money on HPQ... I don't care, but I don't bet unless I'm 90% sure I'll make money, how much I don't know but at some point in the next 9 months this will be worth more than .10... oh wait it already is. I'm here to make money and my approach has worked thus far. Those are my two cents I'm here to ride this out, I fully expect the basher's to attack, I try not to respond unless they are lazy in their effort. The longs will give stars and the cylce continues, at the end of the day I will make money and that is why I'm here. I hope you all make money in whatever approach it is you take in this game.