From noon on Sunday 10th. - noon on Sunday 17th. there were 415 posts to the board or about 60 posts a day. Time is short and I find too often I have to select rather than read them all. It’s daunting to find there are so many. And I am as guilty as anyone of going off on a tangent…! I am going to really try to stick to the matter in hand (very fast revenue growers and their business credentials) and not get diverted. Otherwise the board we are all lucky to enjoy, not to mention profit from, becomes badly diluted by instructions to novice investors, ineligible companies, questions of portfolio structure and other divergencies from the value inherent in maintaining a specialized theme so it can be easily followed.
YES, THAT WAS MY FAULT TOO! It’s my responsibility to cut off these off-topic threads after a few posts, and I was really derelict. Sixty posts a day, and the majority off-topic, is a board-killer.
We need to avoid the temptation to try to educate new investors, to give advice about portfolio structure and portfolio management, and to talk about stocks that don’t fit the board, and we need get back to discussing and analyzing fast-growing growth stocks.
As streina said (above), if we don’t, the board will get diluted and people will drift away, and it will die. We can’t be all things to all people. We set the board up to discuss growth stocks. There are lots of boards for advice to beginners and for portfolio management, etc.
Please help me with this. I appreciate your cooperation.
Thanks,
Saul
67 Likes
A stock idea that might be new to the board that I plan to start taking a decent look at: Coherent (ticker: COHR)
I know they are involved with lasers in some fashion, but a bit different than IPG Photonics. They had a big run-up last year and maybe in 2016 too, but have recently fallen from over $300 down to about $150-something. Not dug too deeply yet, but this drop could potentially be overdone…or maybe it is decently warranted.
Either way, seems like a possible new idea for the board here if anyone else wants to start doing any parallel research, or chime in with other already-present knowledge.
volfan84
No COHR position
5 Likes
A stock idea that might be new to the board that I plan to start taking a decent look at: Coherent (ticker: COHR)
FWIW COHR seems to trade in tandem with OLED.
Rob
1 Like
We need to avoid the temptation to try to educate new investors, to give advice about portfolio structure and portfolio management
Completely disagree. Collectively we are brother and sisters, and we were all once ignorant and hungry for knowledge. If this is going to be a collaborative board we need to raise up new investors under our wing, rather than cast them out to figure things out for themselves… only to have them return filled with misunderstandings and irrational beliefs.
Otherwise we will grow only to become and elitist board or crotchety grouchy old men who post in ALL CAPS.
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RBG - I do respect and appreciate your sentiment. But there are thousands of others boards in Fooldom, books, podcasts and Saul has provided a complete knowledge base. And posts that meet his criteria achieve your objective. You can learn by studying picks bought/picks sol. And it is called “SAUL’S INVESTING DISCUSSIONS” - as in Saul makes the rules. If it were up to be me he’d be able to delete all posts that don’t specifically address his mission, a mission that has been making people a lot of cold, hard cash. I say all this as someone who has posted stuff that might be interesting but doesn’t focus enough on where Saul wants the focus - accelerating earnings, expanding margins, protecting profits. I won’t be responding to this any longer as it is only further clogging the board.
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If this is going to be a collaborative board we need to raise up new investors under our wing…
First, I’m not a seasoned investor. I’m pretty good. But nowhere near some of you on this board. I’ve made a lot of mistakes (still do) and feel like I’m learning every day. It’s hard, and there is nothing that anybody on this board can tell me that I wouldn’t learn a lot better than by taking my lumps doing it myself.
There is something to be said for the fact that Saul has a knowledge base, which anybody can read and use to learn what they need to learn in order to participate on this board.
But if they don’t do things on their own and live through their own mistakes, they will always use what others say as a crutch to help them walk through their investing life.
I like the fact that this board is focused on analyzing good growth companies, and I don’t want anybody to here to help me with the basics. I can get plenty of this from other boards.
Perhaps it’s better if we can all raise ourselves to a point where we could benefit and participate in a meaningful manner.
Besides, nobody is chasing anybody away from this board. There is simply a certain focus that doesn’t cover the entire spectrum of investing.
The level of professionalism on this board has made me a better investor. But I took a lot of lumps and learned a lot elsewhere before getting full value out of this board.
Thanks Saul and others for this.
DJ
16 Likes
On all of these posts I see so many responses that say there are “so many other boards.”
There really aren’t, or I just can’t find them.
Motley Fool really only has a select few free boards that are active, Saul’s being one of them (other than stock-specific). I haven’t found an active portfolio construction board, or an options board, or many other types of boards.
It’s Saul’s Board, so I believe he has the right to dictate what type of information he posts here, but I’d suggest that the number of off-topic threads here show that there are no other boards where we could get this information. If there were other boards, we could just respond to off-topic threads with what board would be more appropriate, the fact that we don’t do that suggests to me they don’t exist.
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I’d suggest that the number of off-topic threads here show that there are no other boards where we could get this information.
On that blue line at the top of every post page, on the very top, at the right, you’ll see “Start a New Board”. If there is a topic that interests you can start your own board. It only takes a couple of minutes (really!). You’d be free to announce it here so that people who are interested could join you.
We are meeting a specific need in discussions of growth stocks here. I’m sorry, but if we try to be one board discussing all the myriad of topics in investing, each of you would have to search through tens of posts to find one that was on the subject you are interested in. It’s not our responsibility. But, again, it’s easy, really easy to start your own board and get it going with some provocative questions.
I’d suggest that the number of off-topic threads here show that there are no other boards where we could get this information.
That’s not a valid logical conclusion. Lots of us (including me) like to ramble off when an off-topic thought hits us, without ever investigating whether there is a more appropriate board available.
Best,
Saul
9 Likes
brennanadler,
There are lots of other boards that talk about these things. Some are more active than others, but they all depend upon people posting to them.
Here are just a few:
http://discussion.fool.com/options-beginners-113753.aspx
http://discussion.fool.com/options-you-make-the-call-113013.aspx…
http://discussion.fool.com/portfolio-management-100153.aspx
and an entire category of boards devoted to ‘Learning to Invest’:
http://discussion.fool.com/learning-to-invest-10102.aspx
Best,
Pete
5 Likes
Totally agreed with you and Saul.
On that blue line at the top of every post page, on the very top, at the right, you’ll see “Start a New Board”. If there is a topic that interests you can start your own board. It only takes a couple of minutes (really!). You’d be free to announce it here so that people who are interested could join you.
First of all let me say I am not advocating for people posting off topic things on this board! As I have stated many times, I believe that since this is your board, you should have the right to dictate exactly what type of information is posted here.
There are lots of other boards that talk about these things. Some are more active than others, but they all depend upon people posting to them.
Both of these comments prove my point. There are no other daily active MF boards in some of these areas! Sure people could try to make their own, or post it in an inactive board, but they probably won’t get any feedback, whereas here they will most likely receive feedback instantly. It really is no surprise they post the off-topic threads here.
People post here because they like the people here, even if people created other boards, me (and I’m assuming many others) wouldn’t check them. I’m interested in options (never posted anything about them here by the way), but I wouldn’t check an options MF board daily the way I check this. Especially if someone starts a new board.
It’s hard to build a board the same way it’s hard to build a social media business. It’s just difficult to get a good active community the way Saul has. Most people never want to build it.
On a final note, I’d once again like to reiterate that I’m only playing Devil’s Advocate, because I believe the first step in fixing a problem is identifying it’s underlying cause. You could also say this is a redundant post and doesn’t propose a solution, but I just wanted to clarify that I am not one of the people who believes they have the right to post here. In an ideal world, Saul would be able to moderate this board and delete posts he doesn’t see as on topic, but I understand that’s not likely to happen.
1 Like