Replies to post #19680 on The Question and Answer Board (IHUB)

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Something else I would like to mention, I also don't think that ADMIN should be talking about stocks or their picks.

Good point. This is actually part of a rule I imposed on myself at SI, legal liked it, tried to make it even more restrictive, then eventually backed it off to the way I wanted it to be.

My rule, and I stated it publicly a number of times, was that I would not (and Legal later made it "could not") take any position, long or short or options, in any companies actively discussed on the site. The closest I came to the edge on this rule was THDO, which I very actively (and quite profitably) traded for about 2 years. It had a board on SI but that board wasn't what I would consider "active". I was an occasional active participant in the THDO board on Yahoo, under an alias that didn't reveal that I was SI Bob. My posts there were sometimes opinions of the fundamentals, but mostly just calls of tops and bottoms based on what I'd learned of its patterns.

Being an active stock talk participant and being the Admin just don't mix. Actually, Legal at GNET for a while completely forbade me to trade in any stocks at all, but I finally got them to back off and let me trade ones that weren't actively discussed.

The problem is that the Admin, even if he's giving lots of assurances of no bias, can't afford to let there be a lot of speculation that he's biased or make people suspect that he may be booting someone for speaking ill of a stock he's long.

A person should either be overseeing the conduct of all the participants of a stock message board, or participating in the stock-related content, but not both.

[Mattu]

>>Something else I would like to mention, I also don't think that ADMIN should be talking about stocks or their picks. That can be misconstrued. I think that you have to make a decision ie you want to talk about stocks or you want to be the OWNER/ADMIN of the best stock discussion site on the net. IMHO, I do not think the two can co-exist.<<

Some folks would say the Jail is crazy and there is no way a suspension could co-exist with jail where you can still post.

Go take a look at the stocks I trade in. Besides one, none of them have boards here. And none of them have active boards. For the longest time, I did totally shy away from trading BB stocks. Last month, I think, I picked up one. Probably to smell that sweet smell of tax writeoff again. My point being that I trade in no stocks that it could be considered I'm biased in with the participants. If a board did strike up that was active in MTON or CGO, I'd sell. No questions about it. Or before I had to make an Admin move, I'd sell. This has never been an issue and we are really discussing something here that doesn't exist.

Plus, I'll be honest. Do you have any idea what it's like to start a site because you like/love discussing stocks, then not be able to for 3-4 years? Shoot, I finally caved in. Granted, I'm no Zeev, but I do like keeping a trading journal of my successes and screwups. This is the best place to do it. I'd be wasting years of productive trading lessons to just sit here and Admin and that's it. Keep in mind, this isn't a normal job. Not like I'm drawing a monsterous salary and getting stock options. While this is no longer a hobby, it's still very much a small business.

Put simply, I see no reason why I can't discuss stocks (basically, to myself anyways) on my own board. Note that I do not go onto the individual boards as Bob was talking about and discuss them with the natives. I stick to my own board as well as 1-2 more club boards.

BTW, as far as some of the other comments from the other posters here, Ive read them all and am absorbing them. Once I've heard from all, I'll come up with a general reply.

MB