 |
|
Where have they gone? Stock market disarray has silenced one of the Internet's most consistent voices - scores of amateur investment 'pundits' who flocked to online message boards with their own brand of financial advice. Discussion groups dedicated to stocks - a reliable cache of oddball tips during the bull market run - have grown eerily quiet since the glory days. The Net has now become home to a hard core of wiseacres, bemoaning slumping markets and slipping in advice for good measure. Frequented by investors with varying levels of experience, "stock boards" serve up a mixed bag of investment advice, heated rants and often, humorous observations. They became wildly popular in 1999 and 2000 as stock markets soared and individual stock pickers enthusiastically hunted the backwaters of the Net for whispers of the next big thing. Message boards even turned ordinary persons into celebrities. During the dot-com boom, Manhattan burrito seller-turned stock picker "Tokyo Joe" Park had a loyal following that hung on his every message board posting. But with faith in the world's global stock markets waning, enthusiasm for posting to the boards has fizzled too. Not surprisingly, the
doom and gloom is denting the popularity of financial Websites, which
attracted a dedicated following of online traders during the boom years.
Traffic to British, French and German personal finance Websites dropped
sharply between May and June, according to Internet measurement firm
NetValue. The number of users
heading to US online trading sites, also tailed off in the first four
months of 2002, according to Nielsen NetRatings. |
||||||
 |
||||||
