Well, I can appreciate your honesty. However, I've noticed on this board that most people get the cold shoulder when they first start. I've never posted on a board where I needed an introduction.
Speaking as the guy who used to drive the Welcome Wagon, I think your "cold shoulder" opinion is biased by the noisier posters who arrive in a big splash and depart in a spectacular trail of flames. Most of the people who posted in "Hi, I am..." over the last couple years got a good start with answers to their questions or a few suggestions. Many of them lurked for a few weeks or even months, getting to know the board before they started posting. Or they asked for advice instead of telling others what to do.
So, let me see...I posted about annuities, which would seem to me to be very near to peoples' hearts around here...
You're joking, right? Or did you really not take enough time to search for the keyword "annuity" and then gauge the board's comments on the subject?
Did you just leap right in and support a financial product that has legitimate applications yet has been so oversold and abused, only because you think it's important to board members who've managed to achieve financial independence?!? Have you tried that act on the Bogleheads or the Diehards to see if it's just this board... or just you?
Then I posted some short ideas suggesting GOOG, which is down almost 200 POINTS since, and I've gotten a lukewarm reception on that thread.
Ah, the one where your analysis rested mainly on mutual-fund companies being able to divest themselves of the stock when it became fairly valued? I've read a lot of books on shorting, and I've spent a few years practicing what I've learned, and it seems to me that you're basing your analysis mainly on the technical indicators of the charts.
If you're so good at it then you don't need us to make you feel better. You need to go on margin, short some more, and then pick the bottom to make a killing on the way back up. Wouldn't that be a little more life-affirming than the applause of a bunch of strangers over the Internet? Heck, with your profits you could just buy the board and install your own set of moderators. Or, better yet, start a smarter stock-analysis board than this one.
So...how about you tell me what kind of information you like to get from fellow posters and I'll see if I can oblige.
OK, I'll take the bait. Maybe some other poster will read this and accept the constructive suggestion.
For shorting, how about indicators like short interest, options ratios, executive defections, major insider sales, adverse publicity, or leading indicators that might adversely affect their customers or industry segment. Even Ascensio or Chanos' editorials would be interesting, or material discussed in Kathryn Staley's "The Art of Short Selling" more than by Stan Weinstein or Bill O'Neill.
For going long, how about an analysis of financial data that's been overlooked by the media, major insider purchases, rising dividends, discounts to intrinsic value, assessments of book value or price/sales ratios or even other more traditional financials, or even trading at a discount to a long-term average. Heck, you could even go with Seeking Alpha. "Significant upside potential" is easy to come by on Yahoo! Finance or Cramer.
Another good response-evoking tactic is castigating the rest of the board for not giving you a response quickly enough. Does the quality of your analysis stand on its own merits, or does it depend on the amount of controversy you're able to whip up?
If you're really unhappy about the way you're being treated here (and not just trying to raise another ruckus) then I'd suggest you post on M*'s "Hands On" board or one of their other stock boards. Be prepared, though, because some of those folks know of what they speak...
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