Official ASF Policy on Ramping

[Joe Blow]

As ASF has grown the amount of ramping in stock threads has increased noticably and it has become apparent to me very recently that in order to maintain standards here I needed to put together an official ASF policy on ramping. In this post I want to outline what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to post in stock threads.

• If you state that a stock's share price is going to go up or down you MUST provide reasoning for your point of view. Posts that fail to provide any reasoning will be deleted without notice by myself or one of ASF's moderators. I understand that some will see this as 'heavy handed' moderation but the only alternative to this is to see standards of posting here drop to an unacceptable level and I am not willing to stand by and watch this happen.
  
• Posts that refer to some unidentified individual (a friend, a colleague or an insider) who has told you that a stock is about to move in one direction or another will be treated the same way and removed ASAP.
  
• Every statement you make must be able to be substantiated. For example it is not permissable to state that 'drilling results are about to be released and they will be positive' unless this statement is able to be substantiated. Posts that contain unsubstantiated statements will be removed without notice.
  
• Stocks are not to be recommended to others as a definite "buy" or "sell". As most of you are aware only licensed financial advisors can provide financial advice and recommending stocks to others as a "buy" or "sell" is inappropriate in a forum such as this. There are many other more appropriate terms that can be used to describe your view of a company's worth in relation to its share price such as "undervalued" and "overvalued", just to name a couple.
  
• All posts in a stock thread must contain some meaningful content. Bumping a stock thread by posting a smilie, a single word or an unrelated comment is not permitted and these posts will be removed without notice.
  
• Posting a series of posts that contain nothing more than a running commentary on a stock's intraday price action is discouraged as a single post is enough to alert others to a stock that seeing a significant move in one direction or another.
  
• The creation of threads asking others to recommend their 'hot stocks' or 'hot stock tips' is discouraged and these threads will be closed or deleted as they are primarily used for ramping.

It will only be possible to maintain high standards here at ASF with the co-operation of the entire community, that is why I am asking members to report any incidents of blatant ramping. In the top right of every post you will notice this symbol '

'. If you click on it you will be able to report that particular post and alert myself and the moderators to it. As we are unable to review every thread reporting unacceptable posts will help us a great deal in our efforts to stamp out ramping on ASF.

In summary, if you are not prepared to present a reasoned argument for your position/views on a stock then please consider not posting. I would much rather have fewer quality posts than a truckload of ramping posts. I suspect most ASF members feel the same way. For those who would prefer simply to ramp or downramp stocks, there are many other forums that will welcome you with open arms. Here at ASF we are determined to maintain a certain level of posting and continued ramping will ultimately result in the suspension of your ASF account.

Comments and feedback on this policy are welcomed.

 

[Porper]

As ASF has grown the amount of ramping in stock threads has increased noticably and it has become apparent to me very recently that in order to maintain standards here I needed to put together an official ASF policy on ramping. In this post I want to outline what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to post in stock threads.

• If you state that a stock's share price is going to go up or down you MUST provide reasoning for your point of view. Posts that fail to provide any reasoning will be deleted without notice by myself or one of ASF's moderators. I understand that some will see this as 'heavy handed' moderation but the only alternative to this is to see standards of posting here drop to an unacceptable level and I am not willing to stand by and watch this happen.
  
• Posts that refer to some unidentified individual (a friend, a colleague or an insider) who has told you that a stock is about to move in one direction or another will be treated the same way and removed ASAP.
  
• Every statement you make must be able to be substantiated. For example it is not permissable to state that 'drilling results are about to be released and they will be positive' unless this statement is able to be substantiated. Posts that contain unsubstantiated statements will be removed without notice.
  
• Stocks are not to be recommended to others as a definite "buy" or "sell". As most of you are aware only licensed financial advisors can provide financial advice and recommending stocks to others as a "buy" or "sell" is inappropriate in a forum such as this. There are many other more appropriate terms that can be used to describe your view of a company's worth in relation to its share price such as "undervalued" and "overvalued", just to name a couple.
  
• All posts in a stock thread must contain some meaningful content. Bumping a stock thread by posting a smilie, a single word or an unrelated comment is not permitted and these posts will be removed without notice.
  
• Posting a series of posts that contain nothing more than a running commentary on a stock's intraday price action is discouraged as a single post is enough to alert others to a stock that seeing a significant move in one direction or another.
  
• The creation of threads asking others to recommend their 'hot stocks' or 'hot stock tips' is discouraged and these threads will be closed or deleted as they are primarily used for ramping.

It will only be possible to maintain high standards here at ASF with the co-operation of the entire community, that is why I am asking members to report any incidents of blatant ramping. In the top right of every post you will notice this symbol '

'. If you click on it you will be able to report that particular post and alert myself and the moderators to it. As we are unable to review every thread reporting unacceptable posts will help us a great deal in our efforts to stamp out ramping on ASF.

In summary, if you are not prepared to present a reasoned argument for your position/views on a stock then please consider not posting. I would much rather have fewer quality posts than a truckload of ramping posts. I suspect most ASF members feel the same way. For those who would prefer simply to ramp or downramp stocks, there are many other forums that will welcome you with open arms. Here at ASF we are determined to maintain a certain level of posting and continued ramping will ultimately result in the suspension of your ASF account.

Comments and feedback on this policy are welcomed.

I for one am totally for these rules Joe, we have all noticed the ramping getting a bigger and bigger problem I am sure. JPR was a prime case where some ASF members got sucked in.

If people want to make money by ramping stocks to unsuspecting newbies while they get out, then try another very well known forum that is 95% rampers.You all know where to find it, if not PM me and I'll give you the link

 

[rederob]

It's a hard sell.
Can't see them buying it!

 

[2020hindsight]

OK I'll stop ramping my LEG up.

I guess if you had a premonition that something was going to go up, that wouldn't truck either. Where does "Zen" sit in this policy?

Gee Yogi is going to be in trubel lol.

PS I guess we all get thousands of emails (usually USA origin) recommending stock that are "sure to go wild" tomorrow etc ! They're wasting their time sending them to me - I mean it's not as if I don't BELIEVE them , it's just that I cant afford USA brokerage !! lol.

PS Joe - question - How about " I read an article , source unstated , that claims XYZ will do well in the next 6 months - take it or leave it, do your own research!", Not meaning to be difficult - (you da boss lol) - but you don't say what we CAN say - only what we can't. mmm maybe you would disagree (must provide reasoning )... mmm my mother in law couldnt reason her waay out of a paper bag . (seemed such a GOOD idea at the time )

 

[laurie]

I may have enthusiasm for a certain stock which may be confused as ramping but as always D Y O R . I thought it's a must! if people are silly enough to follow the pipe piper then how far must one go to protect them

cheers laurie

 

[sails]

Hi Joe,

I think this is a great move to introduce such clear guidelines covering all ASF posters and draws a clear line in the sand of what is acceptable and what is not at ASF. Well done!

Cheers,
Margaret.

 

[Julia]

Hi Joe,

I think this is a great move to introduce such clear guidelines covering all ASF posters and draws a clear line in the sand of what is acceptable and what is not at ASF. Well done!

Cheers,
Margaret.

Ditto Margaret's comments from me, Joe.

Julia

 

[Mumbank]

Thanks Joe,
I'm with Julia and Sails. FWIW I have learnt lots from this forum, I don't always post unless I have something to say, but have enjoyed what I have learnt and the links for research etc. I think that the posts with 1 or 2 words, 6 times a day take lots away from what the majority find useful about this forum.

Keep up the good work.

 

[nioka]

I may have enthusiasm for a certain stock which may be confused as ramping but as always D Y O R I thought it's a must! if people are silly enough to follow the pipe piper then how far must one go to protect them

cheers laurie

I guess there has to be a balance. I have a lot of enthusiasm for a few stocks at the moment and I want to hear other opinions. I make an assesment on the spion doctoring by checking, usually in the announcements, and I have found a lot to be correct. I hope you won't be too hard Joe. Yesterday I started a thread on Lynas. I got some information from a close friend who works in the area where the mine is located. On his advice I researched the company and, in my opinion, it is a goer. I bought 10,000 shares and thought I'd share the info. I would expect anyone interested to do there own research. Is this acceptable?

 

[Happy]

I concentrated Joe’s post to -

If you state that a stock's share price is going to go up or down you MUST provide reasoning

Every statement you make must be able to be substantiated.

Stocks are not to be recommended to others as a definite "buy" or "sell".

All posts in a stock thread must contain some meaningful content.



If we comply with these, we have right to post.

 

[rub92me]

Joe, from what I've seen from your posts so far, I expect you will be reasonable in applying this policy. However, it does raise the question what is considered a 'sufficient' reason to be positive or negative about a stock.
Say my 'method' for picking a stock is tossing a coin or throwing a dart. Will you delete the post if I specifically state that that is how I came to my choice? Are stars, tea leafs, crystal balls allowed? Some people would consider these to have equal predictive power as a chart....

 

[silence]

Joe, good policy.


Also, don't be afraid to temporarily ban people who do it. This forum software has options to ban people for 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week, etc as
I'm sure you know. I am a member of another forum with 65000+ members and this happens often when members abuse others, make threats or talk about illegal software, etc, and keeps people in check very well. They tend to learn quickly.

 

[laurie]

Joe, from what I've seen from your posts so far, I expect you will be reasonable in applying this policy. However, it does raise the question what is considered a 'sufficient' reason to be positive or negative about a stock.
Say my 'method' for picking a stock is tossing a coin or throwing a dart. Will you delete the post if I specifically state that that is how I came to my choice? Are stars, tea leafs, crystal balls allowed? Some people would consider these to have equal predictive power as a chart....

very true like my "Gut Feeling" arh well looks like I will just be a passive viewer here now

cheers laurie

 

[son of baglimit]

but porper, without my NMS ramp you'd never have got involved.

ok its been a loser for some, but surely things are looking brighter - this aint a ramp !!

 

[krisbarry]

The past couple of weeks has seen crazy amounts of ramping going on from within government ranks stemming from the Prime Minister down.

The government has ramped the guts out of TLS

This week we have seen the media ramp the guts out of PBL

...and in the latest SmartInvestor magazine we see them ramping the guts out of BHP, RIO, Woodsie etc

Of course they all give good reasons, scenarios, forcasts, etc...

But it is nothing more or less than simple rampings!

 

[Joe Blow]

Firstly thanks to all who have offered their support for this new policy. I think it will make ASF a much more useful, valuable resource and it is very pleasing to see that so many others want to maintain standards here.

PS Joe - question - How about " I read an article , source unstated , that claims XYZ will do well in the next 6 months - take it or leave it, do your own research!", Not meaning to be difficult - (you da boss lol) - but you don't say what we CAN say - only what we can't.

I would prefer it if you could say where the article was from (or quote some of it), but aside from that I can't see a problem with posting something like that. As far as I am concerned it is all about contributing something to the body of knowledge that each stock thread contains. Even if that contribution is as small as an interesting question. What I am trying to do is eliminate blatant, shameless ramping which I think most of us can agree is anything but useful.

Joe, from what I've seen from your posts so far, I expect you will be reasonable in applying this policy. However, it does raise the question what is considered a 'sufficient' reason to be positive or negative about a stock.
Say my 'method' for picking a stock is tossing a coin or throwing a dart. Will you delete the post if I specifically state that that is how I came to my choice? Are stars, tea leafs, crystal balls allowed? Some people would consider these to have equal predictive power as a chart....

I want to make it clear that I do not want ASF to turn some kind of a police state. All I am trying to do is:

a) Get rid of serial rampers who contribute no content at all, and;
b) Maintain a certain level of posting. I don't really think anyone here wants ASF to be over-run by rampers. The most valuable posts are always the ones with meaningful content and they are the sort of posts I wish to encourage.

I would have some difficulty with the coin tossing, dart throwing and tea leaves scenarios, unless of course they were tongue in cheek. :

I hope you won't be too hard Joe. Yesterday I started a thread on Lynas. I got some information from a close friend who works in the area where the mine is located. On his advice I researched the company and, in my opinion, it is a goer. I bought 10,000 shares and thought I'd share the info. I would expect anyone interested to do there own research. Is this acceptable?

The mods and I are going to be firm but not too tough. In the example you gave I would be more interested in your research than the information from your friend, although if you included both I can't see a problem with this. I would have a bigger problem if you posted, "My friend who works in the area the mine is located says the price of Lynas will triple by next week!". As you said, it's all about balance.

 

[Joe Blow]

Also, for those who missed it please take a look at this thread on posting price targets for stocks, as it is very much related to this new policy.

 

[Sweet Synergy]

Hi every one! .... I've just joined ASF and think it's a great forum. Would love to see it stay that way .
Like your ideas on the new rulz Joe!!! ... I think it's all about sharing and learning >>> so asking us to explain whats behind our post is a great idea. Thanks for the guidance

 

[chops_a_must]

This ramping thread share price is going to go ballistic today. I am sure of it.

 

[nelly]

Hey Joe...how goes it...?
You know I don't post for or agains't a stock.... I do have a small investment and that I do read em all and am on a steep learning curve......but am not personally stooopid enuf to really listen to a ramp....hopefully no one else is either.....I hear you and love this forum because of the standards.that are set.....of course DYOR is paramount.......whether it be crystal gazing, meditating or hanging by the b#lls.....each to their own........luv ya!
Fully in accordance.....
Cheerful.....
ps MERRY XMAS!