Beware reckless link posting

[csgray]

This is a cautionary tale for all Puna webbers about why it is reckless to just reflexively post links to articles, without carefully checking them out and evaluating the source.

Today United Airlines stock tanked 76% on a day when the market was rallying overall, just because someone posted a link on a financial forum to an article that stated that UAL was declaring bankruptcy, the article was 10 years old. The guy just didn't notice the date on the article and posted it, as a result a whole bunch of stockholders just had their investment severely dented, for absolutely no reason except that some guy with an internet connection and a laptop was careless in his rush to post a "scoop". I'm no fan of United, but the stockholders are mostly retirees like my parents, or aspiring retirees like most of us, who own shares in mutual funds invested in UAL. These people shouldn't suffer just because this bozo wanted to be the first to post on a topic.

What really burned me was his "don't shoot the messenger" flippancy about his actions and the consequences for innocent people. So remember, nothing goes away on the internet, and the page 5 retraction doesn't get connected to the inaccurate article when you use Google. Before you dredge up articles and post links, please make sure they are valid and accurate. For the sake of truth, and out of concern for those who can be hurt by this, please think and verify before you post.

Stepping off my soapbox now, have a great evening or whatever it is where you are.

Carol

[David M]

Thanks Carol. I've seen it happen locally although a different forum. Someone posted an answer to a question by linking to a newspaper article. Article was a few years old, but everyone read it as current and posted accordingly. We do need to post AND READ carefully.

David

Ninole Resident

[Guest]

I'd also like to add in...

"Be careful who you are insulting"

It may haunt you later.[^]

-------
Glob

[Andrew]

Sorry Carol:

Whoever would sell their position because of a tip on a message board without checking out the validity of the story is clueless. United did have a crazy roller coaster ride today but I find it really hard to believe it was because of a post on a message board. By the end of the day the stock rallied and only ended down 11% which is still quite a bit but was a huge rise from the drop it experienced earlier.

I do agree that people should try to post accurate stuff but to sway a huge corporation stock valuation because of some loon on a message board is a bit hard to believe.

Do you have a link to any news story to substantiate your claim?

Respectfully,
Andrew

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[csgray]

Andrew,
This was the first link which showed up when I back tracked to find a link. I also saw it earlier on BBC online, NYTimes online, LATimes online, and CBS Marketwatch. As you can see if you read the article, it wasn't individuals who dumped their stocks but "professional" money managers. However, they aren't playing with their own money, but with the money of individuals who have their savings invested in mutual funds and 401Ks so they have limited direct control over where the money is invested. The market is a weird beast, companies will announce better than expected earnings and then the stock will go down because the fund managers get in a snit because they didn't get a heads up. Go figure!

www.business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article4710018.ece

Carol

[Andrew]

OK the story makes a little more sense. It says: "United said the reports were “completely untrue" and were the result of the "irresponsible posting of a six-year-old Chicago Tribune article by the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper website with the date changed”."

It was a newspaper that published the outdated story. I thought you meant just some Joe schmuck on some Yahoo finance message board or something.

What a crazy story.

Andrew


______________________________
DiveHilo Dive Club Website:
http://www.divehilo.com/

[oink]

I would like to add that as a routine courtesy, posters should be careful that their posts are not constructed or placed in ways that could cause them to be perceived as threats by readers.
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Here is the Sun Sentinel comment on the original mess, for a bit more clarity:

"A Chicago Tribune story written in December 2002 regarding the United Airlines bankruptcy filing that year was apparently picked up by an investment advisory and research firm and republished as though it was current," said a Tribune Company statement released Monday



Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[Jon]

ummmm... reader beware is normally the rule on all BB sites.

or we could adopt rules like in China where it you post the wrong thing, you disappear.



Transplanted Texan

[Hotzcatz]

A lot of that could be caused by automatic trailing sales triggers. After you've owned a stock for awhile and it has increased in value it is prudent to put a "stop-loss trigger" or a "trailing" sales trigger on it. If for some reason the stock drops to a certain pre-set lower price than it is currently trading then it will automatically be sold. Mostly, that is to keep you from waking up one day and finding one of your stocks has gone bankrupt, but it also gets triggered in a case like this.