Alloy Steel Inc. (fka AYSI)

[DaveinHackensack]

Good points, especially this:

In fact, the individual investor would be doing the right and honest thing to disseminate the information so that he doesn't have an advantage and so that the information cannot be considered "insider info" - thus, enabling him to invest lawfully once made public via a blog, etc.

I always thought the point of Reg FD was to keep any investor from having an unfair advantage by having info other investors don't. But if you hear info and publicly disseminate it before acting on it yourself, that seems to be in line with the spirit of the law. I'll ask my attorney just to be on the safe side.

One safe way to handle this, IMO, is to do what another company I own (USEG) does. A couple of months ago, they issued a press release with big news, and then called me the same day to elaborate and answer my questions on it. I then posted notes on our conversation on my blog ( http://thehackensack.blogspot.com/2009/08/conversation-with-useg-management.html ). I think this is where conversations with bloggers or journalists can be helpful: not in announcing new deals, etc., but in elaborating on and clarifying information they already made public.

What annoyed me about the anonymous commenter on my blog is that it seems to be he is using fears of Reg FD to discourage the sort of communications most public companies engage in. Yeah, they don't all chat with bloggers, but that's because they have other outlets (e.g., going on CNBC or Bloomberg). Small companies should get a chance to clarify their stories as well.