Short Term Trading Weekend Lounge 11-13th Dec, page-81

Great post FF. I've been posting less lately due to study commitments (studying towards the Series 7 here in the states as I have a job lined up in the industry, just waiting on the visa to arrive), but I think this is a really good topic.

One thing you've mentioned which I think needs to be emphasized is the fact that everyone needs to realise that 99% of the time, a poster will post because of their own self interest.

Unless you have an interest in a stock, chances are you're not going to be bothered posting about it. Remember that this can be both positive (the poster has an interest) or negative (poster wants an entry at a lower price).

In saying that, sometimes I post on a stock I'm interested in but don't hold, but thats usually because I'm interested in the sector and find the companies ventures interesting (as a geologist, for me that usually means mining related stocks).

You can usually figure out if a poster is genuine or not by looking at their posting history, and over time you get a pretty good idea of who's worth listening to and who's a known up/down ramper.

I think integrity is something that's largely been lost in the financial industry over the past couple of decades. You hear stories about "back in the day" when your broker, along with your banker, was the most trustworthy person you knew, and hedge fund managers and investment bankers always had a significant holding in anything they were peddling.

Those days appear to be long gone, but I think, for the most part at least, we do a good job of upholding at least a sense of integrity here on HC, and particularly in the ST trading thread - my favourite part of HC by far.

A big reason for that is the astute management of the thread which keeps the quality posters around -kudos must go to the likes of Freehold and the other heavy hitters who keep this thread the best place on the web for quality stock discussion.

Keep up the good work and know that you are appreciated by many.