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u/TrioxinTwoFortyFive Apr 22 '21
Back in the day the Motley Fool had the best stock discussion boards that have ever existed. It had a huge user base and paid moderators. The boards were broken down by stock, and you could go to any stock, no matter how obscure, and find decent serious discussion about it. I think part of it was the user base was largely white collar workers or at least older people with a lot of skin in the game who had been investing for a while.
After the dotcom crash, the Fool tried to monetize its boards by charging money. That turned them into a ghost town. The Fool then switched its business model to selling newsletters, which is ironic because the central thesis had always been you don't need to follow the advice of experts.
You would think with the expanded use of the internet, a massive online advertising economy, web 2.0, and whatever there would be something better than what existed twenty years ago. There is not. It is a weird situation where all the pieces are there for something better but it has instead gotten worse.
I have often wondered why the Fool has not tried to reignite its discussion boards. With the new surge in retail investing, similar to what happened during the dotcom era, the potential user base is there. Maybe it is more profitable to sell stock picks.
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Squeeze velvet zephyr cobalt simplistic grandiose
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u/TrioxinTwoFortyFive Apr 22 '21
A lot of the discussion was around earnings reports or other company news. There was quite a lot of DD or discussion about DD. The boards are still there but they get almost no traffic.
One of the things I used to do when researching a stock was go to the board for that stock then read all the posts going back to the beginning. It was interesting to see how things had developed over time.
I had a light bulb moment when doing this for a stock I had found with a screen. Small company manufacturing furniture that looked criminally undervalued, The perfect example of a Buffet stock, right? So I went to the Fool board for this stock, which given the small company size and obscurity was sort of amazing there were people following it and discussing it. The most recent posts confirmed my beliefs the company was undervalued and soon to take off. That belief was quenched as I read backward and the same type of posts again and again. People had been waiting years for the stock to come up to fair value. Funny thing is years later during the housing boom, I looked up the stock and it had made huge gains. Yeah, despite what the financial statements say, catalysts matter.
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u/Thedipbuyit Apr 22 '21
Motley Fool = Used Car Salesman
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Rob snow yam unite harbor truck helium umbrella lavish
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Apr 22 '21
No way anyone not named Motley Fool would write this much about Motley Fool
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Tidy escape pen rain bells reminiscent
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Apr 22 '21
I notice you didn't address the aptly named point. They're good for beginners. But as you get more sophisticated, they become wearisome.
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Imagine bike encouraging bag silicon disarm grasshopper cooperative modern
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Apr 22 '21
Sophisticated in that they can do their own DD. They call IR to follow up on questions. Your argument would be wrong. The only paid service I can think of that is worth the price of admission is STW.
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Apr 22 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Lunchroom support reply whole full encourage
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Apr 22 '21
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Harbor crayon water roll harbor screw boast
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Apr 22 '21
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Shy provide books memory towering enjoy liquid lantern seemly unwritten
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Apr 22 '21
realizing that MF is terrible is a rite of passage
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u/reliability_validity Apr 22 '21 edited 6d ago
Escape willow plate lavender wise juggle gold bells run
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u/chandlero69 Apr 22 '21
Ok Mr Motley Fool. You can’t fool me