Bulletin Boards

Celticheart Investor

A beginner's guide to trading and investing

Although I have mentioned Bulletin Boards (BB's), also known as Discussion Boards in the past, I feel it is worth looking at some of the positives and negatives of posting messages on these boards.

In theory they are meant to be an outlet for investors and traders alike to exchange information and discuss the various merits and pitfalls of companies that are either invested in or are considering investing in.

There are many excellent and well researched posters out there from whom you can learn a great deal, not just about investment but about the technicalities of the companies involved. I am interested in oil and gas production and have learned a lot about the specific terminology used in exploration and recovery of both. When investing in any company it helps to have a decent understanding of how they function.

The problem is that as well as genuine and knowledgable posters there are others that have other less savory motives for posting. These can range from cynical exploitation to the modern day phenomenon of Trolling.

So what exactly is a Troll, well to quote an extract from Wikipedia:

"In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

The problem is, those that facilitate the boards don't always read or moderate what is written but what they will do is respond to a direct complaint through their neighbourhood watch facility. Some boards are better than others and as a result are less prone to abuse. My advice is simple, don't get involved with these people, they want a reaction, that is their sole purpose for being there, to disrupt constructive discussion.

Sometimes it is hard to understand why people would spend so much of their time posting on boards where they have openly declared no financial interest simply to tear down the company's shareprice in any way they can.

I have heard it said that these boards do not influence the shareprice but I disagree, the sheer volume of posting some of these people indulge in pushes the discussion up the search engine rankings so new investors researching a company often come across negative and false information.

Beware also that responding to these trolls can draw the attention of the facilitator/moderator to your own posting, often resulting in suspension of your right to post. I sometimes feel that this is the true reason behind the trouble causing posters, the removal of any positive sentiment that might counter what they are trying to achieve.

If you feel that a fellow poster has been wrongly suspended for a period or even banned for responding to these people, let the moderator know either through neighbourhood watch or via e-mail. If enough supportive posters do that then those wrongly targeted will be re-instated.

Continue to post on these boards as sharing valuable research and information is helpful, particularly to those relatively new to the world of investing just be careful who you trust and take nothing at face value

A cautionary note, trading and investing in shares carries a level of risk, these blogs are only meant as a basic guideline to investing and trading, always do your own research and base your decisions on what you can afford to lose. This blog is not intended to provide financial advice as I am not qualified to do so, it is simply designed to provide information about how the markets work that might be of some help to private investors like myself.