Hot Copper is “Australia’s largest stock trading and investment...

Hot Copper is “Australia’s largest stock trading and investment forum”. Why do people visit this page? Why do people post on this page?

From my point of view, my motivation is simple. I am a newbie. I have no idea when it comes to share trading. I want to learn and become knowledgeable. Not everyone, however, has this same motivation. Let’s pick someone at random. Let’s call them “PIGSMF”. Since 6 August 2020, they have posted a total of 352 posts in relation to shares “Not Held”:

• BRN – 60 posts
• APT – 120 posts
• CSL – 5 posts
• EDE – 154 posts
• FLT – 1 post
• QAN – 4 posts
• SBB – 7 posts
• Z1P – 1 post

In contrast, they have posted a total of 2 posts in relation to shares “Held”.These share happen to be NAB shares. What is the motivation for posting 352 messages in relation to shares not held and only 2 messages in relation to shares held?

To answer that question, I was thinking of an analogy. I read the BRN forum to learn because I have bought BRN shares. A lot of people on the forum are holders. We are like the cheer squad directly behind the goals at a footy match cheering our team (BRN) on. We are positive and we like to see the team do well. We see them kicking goals but sometimes they actually lose games. Despite this, we are still behind the goals to watch them play – ever hopeful that they will win on that one day in September. Some people have seats behind the goals simply because they love watching the footy and appreciate watching quality teams.

However, int hat section of the crowd, there will always be one or two people sitting right in the middle of the cheer squad who actually hate the team: “Gee, you call that a goal, it was a total shank and it was pure luck”, “gee, you call that a drop punt, it was a mongrel kick”, “gee, that was a crap goal, he kicked it from 70 metres out but he had the wind at his back”. Some of these people are knowledgeable and will quote statistics (“this team will never do well because their disposal efficiency is always below 75.1%”) and recite history and blame key personnel, such as the coach (“gee, that PowerPoint presentation they gave at the recent Webinar was worse then my seven year old nephew’s school assignment”). They make these comments to distract the diehard supporters from enjoying the game. Sometimes they are so distracted, they miss that banana kick from the 50 metre arc that splits the goals on the siren.

I have learned a lot from many in the cheer squad. I will continue to come and watch the team play from my seats in row 10. The comments from some who have season tickets in this same section can be annoying. I think I know their motivation.Their comments, however, won’t stop me coming here to cheer my team to victory on that one day in September. I know who to listen to. I know who I will be sharing high fives with.