Thanks, Rob.
When all is said and done, I think it's pretty clear that I was being honest, and for the years I was commenting on TNT both as a holder and a non holder, I was one of the ones calling the price moves most accurately. I'm not saying that to bignote myself, but it's a really good demonstration that being honest and calling it correctly is a very effective way to be accused of lying and playing nefarious games etc.
This is something well worth watching out for in future discussions on whatever companies people are watching and holding/trading. The people who get the most praise and appreciation and not the ones who are the most accurate, they are the ones who are the most bullish, and they are the ones most dangerous and most likely to cause you to lose money if you believe and follow them. Very few people ever say "Wow, you lead me down the garden path and I lost money, I shouldn't have listened", but most say "Thanks for always being so positive and holding the faith" even when it was completely misplaced and they lost money. If the goal is to feel community spirit, sure, hate the balanced people and love the bulls, but if that's the goal I'd suggest people get that feeling from a social group or family or go cheer for a football team etc rather than forming an echo chamber with fellow shareholders. If you goal is making money, don't fall for the trap of primarily believing the people who say what you want to be true, and don't be afraid to believe things you really don't want to be true. Bias is one of our big enemies in the stock world. Regardless of what you paid, regardless of how painful it might be to admit you might have made a mistake, it pays (or saves) to accept when something is going to go down. I honestly wish it was as easy to predict when stocks are going to go up as it is to see when stocks are going to go down, but that's the way it is, and you're cheating yourself if you remain blind to it when you're a holder. Always be willing to consider what bears are saying and you're likely to save yourself a lot of money and pain. Sure, some are dishonest, but consider the quality of the content, don't judge based on what you want to be true or how much you like the person posting it. The same is true of the bullish content you want to be true - very often people genuinely believe the utter nonsense they post because they desperately want it to be true, so hey, sometimes it's even worth being sceptical of our own words!
Honestly, I think this deal was great for shareholders. Everyone here was angrily complaining about management failing to deliver and being overall very questionable (completely valid!) but most were still angry to be saved by someone else paying a premium and preventing that management from driving it into the ground. It was getting very cheap towards the end and I think I mentioned I did consider buying in because it was actually a valid takeover target under 5-6c, but oh well, I didn't take the plunge. 13c is much better than further years of pain and frustration as (mis)management continues to turn this train into a wreck. Congratulations to those who did buy up under 10c this year.
As for not liking the way I said things, I'll totally plead guilty to being prone to rambling. As for the tone, hey, I took a lot of abuse and nastiness and it's difficult to consistently remain courteous when responding to abuse, especially when the majority hold me to different standards than the people being nasty. For the most part I didn't bother posting because I knew I'd get abused, and honestly after typing posts I more often cancelled them rather than posting (people should keep that in mind when you bite the hand of the next bear trying to feed you!). Especially comical are the people bragging about putting people on ignore while losing money by going exactly against what the person they ignored is trying to tell them! I have exactly zero people on ignore.
All the best for the future, everyone!
