Here’s one Carasent buyer. As I already mentioned in my message, the purchase was made purely to jump on the hype train (“I also grabbed some below 25, not much idea about the company, but probably small profits from the hype train.”). I noticed the Carasent thread on the forum in the morning, where it was mentioned that RedEye had started tracking it. On top of that, Aston’s messages about the matter ensured the forum’s reaction.
For me, this is not investing, but betting. I have allocated a certain portion of my portfolio to similar acquisitions, meaning shares are bought in hopes of quick profits after a certain catalyst (two of which, in this case, materialized), and then sold after a certain period. This tactic has worked surprisingly well this spring. I am aware of the risks involved, which is why my position is usually small compared to the size of my portfolio. Thus, potential returns also remain smaller, but I cannot mentally bear a large risk (for example, my largest position is 12.2% of my portfolio’s value).
But I do share your concern about the “bullero” behavior you mentioned, where people blindly follow more well-known forum users or buy companies without proper research, often in hopes of quick profits. This was noticeably prevalent in May-June, which is why I created a separate thread for speculation stocks. It sometimes makes one a bit pensive when all sorts of companies are thrown into the speculation/SPAC threads and bought simply in hopes of the next rocket to the moon.
I would love to see a summary of the forum’s new users this year (e.g., as relative values) combined with, for example, an SP500 index chart. There seems to be a lot of new, ignorant, even indifferent money in the markets. RobinHood users are buying this and that bankrupt company and even committing suicide when they don’t understand their own investment situation. What kind of snowball effect will be created when the market direction changes and dumber money panics? I don’t know if it will ultimately matter much, but I’m just throwing the thought out there. In any case, a large number of new players have entered the market, blinded by this spring’s returns and seeking similar returns with high risks here and there. I’m not claiming this is necessarily the case on the Inderes forum, but it would be nice to see how the number of users has grown this year (ping @Verneri_Pulkkinen).
EDIT: I’d also like to add that I think certain forum users should consider their buy announcements with low-volume stocks. As mentioned above, they could possibly be written outside of exchange opening hours. A message can result in even +5% or +10%, solely based on a message written on the Inderes forum. Carasent doesn’t fall into this category due to its trading volume, but these cases have been seen. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the activity, but I think it’s starting to become ethically questionable.