Who had the Balls ?, page-113

Well said, Cracker!

I usually refrain from entering this type of personal discussion, but in my mind this one has crossed the line.

I thought the purpose of this forum was to discuss the pros and cons of public companies listed on the ASX. Yet all too often lately I find myself frustratingly wasting precious time wading through pointless discussions of when, why and how individuals post.

If you follow a particular company for a while, you don't need to be a clairvoyant to form an opinion as to the underlying reasons for people being here.

Those of you who have seen me on HC will know that although I read plenty of your posts, I seldom post myself. Why is that? It's because I'm here to learn from others. I've been investing in shares for about ten years now, with an average return of around 35%pa, but still consider myself very much a beginner. A few years ago I decided to have a look at the speculative end of the market, and that's when I decided to see if this "Hot Copper" I'd been hearing about was likely to help.

As luck would have it, the first companies I'd picked were being frequently discussed on HC by posters, some of whom were clearly quite knowledgeable old hands who were willing to share their knowledge and experience. I enjoyed the read - and quickly learnt how much I didn't know!! But the information I absorbed sure helped me develop my skills, and consequently my percentage return is steadily improving.

One of the first spec companies I tried was AJX, so I've been following the posts here for years. There are many I have learnt from on HC, and I would normally not want to single out particular individuals. But right now I feel a need to defend Pinto and Parsifal, as they have been such strong mentors for me, helping me to further understand how to go about assessing the fundamentals of a company. Pinto always manages to make me smile - or laugh out loud - and I love Parsifal's well constructed analysis. They have educated me, for sure - but at no stage have I ever felt that they were driving me to invest my hard-earned savings. They, like many others on HC, were simply providing an extra layer of information, for which I am extremely grateful!

I'm in about half a dozen companies at present, all but one of which have been doing very well. By far my largest holding is AJX - and it's going to stay that way. I'm in my 70's, so don't have as long as many of you to wait for a failing company's fortunes to reverse. But I'm sure AJX is not a failing company! On the contrary, I believe it's an amazingly successful company that has a huge future. Why do I believe that? NOT because of the "spruiking" on here, but because of my own reading and research into the company. Research that was guided - in part - by the information and links provided by many posters here - not just P and P, but people like Cracker, Ted, the LittleGreenMan, Golden6, ProWiz, Frank, SplitView, Themsta, Armch, SusieQ, and so many others. Thanks so much!

I've been involved on many health forums since forced medical retirement around 15 years ago, and have unfortunately witnessed repeated examples of the inexplicable descent into personal disparagement such as happened here this afternoon.

Come on, people! Enough already. We surely can do better than this. How about we get back to discussing the company we've invested in, just giving our point of view - whatever that may be - without trying to build our own opinions up by dragging others down. Keep doing that and we'll all end up in the gutter.

End of rant! All IMHO.

Jeff