There are two type of people who visit these forums; those who...

There are two type of people who visit these forums; those who want to share information and discuss their investment (these further break down into novice and experienced streams) -- these are usually people who follow the fundamentals and the aspirations of their vested companies and those who want to influence others to strengthen their own position. Unfortunately the latter are usually T/A experts who use T/A as evidence for a trend to reinforce the trend among those impressed by their pseudo-statistics in order to maximise their short or long positions. They are trader and therefore ther are looking for quick short term transaction in their favour. HC has given these operators power because its a platform for them to get their loaded message to a wide audience which can and does respond to a compelling narrative. I understand that some think themselves TA 'gurus' and altruistically consider that they are informing the unclean, but there are a lot in these forums that really do benefit from herding the flocks like sheep dogs into a direction that suits their interests..

Unfortunately, companies like SMN, who give their shareholders little cause for security in their investments through lack of communication, misrepresentations, and well lets call a spade a spade contemptful deceit of shareholders (i.e. TC's company making announcement followed by a dump of his own holdings at the top of the excitement) enable traders to strip value from the company. Like everyone else, I'm insecure too.. there are reasons to be optimistic and there are also warning signals. Fantastic herd sentiment for cultivating fear to drive short term SP decline and feed into short positions. On the other hand I've seen over communicative (and not necessarily honest) companies like AJX enable individuals to spike price action repeatedly allowing a very reliable trade -- until it all falls into a heap and they move on.