I think that if you use hotcopper chatter as a gauge, in some cases it goes like this (e.g HRL)
1. The thread has 1-3 posters (in the case of HRL it was King Kev) 2. The share price rises, there is a bit or an investor relations push, etc, the stock becomes a 'hot stock' 3. Hotcopper chatter goes insane. 4. The share price runs out of steam 5. hotcoppet chatter drops back
it makes a difference to me to have the discussion though. It's prior to all the insane ramping ("omg its going up 1000%") that you get some good research shared etc. etc.
equally, the people that buy in after the stock becomes hot don't really know that much about it they are just buying sentiment. the most agile of them will make a profit, some of them will exit on a stop loss and move on.
EHR Price at posting:
1.9¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held