Mark, you make a very good point. I would like to add to your point the "negative" spin on that part of,

"If computers are controlling 70% of the price action of the stock, how is an individual supposed to forecast the direction of a stock? The modern part-time investor may be best served by long term investing that allows for the characteristics of the company to play more heavily into the equation."

I agree with that statement, however, playing devil's advocate, I may also suggest that if the computers are geared for making X% of profit, then how many shares can a corporation count on playing right into that scenario if they make an offer for a company with a 50 or 60% premium over the previous 3 month average trading? How many shares could that big company count on it it's bid to secure 50% +1 share to gain control? 10%? 20? Maybe even 30% of the share float being floated around in those computers trading day to day???

I would dearly LOVE to see fair value given to companies that have hard and fast assets in the ground. Noront should be way higher if that was the case. Seriously, $8 billion worth of Nickel et al and we sit at 60 cents? I don't think that is a fair value. Not even at 10% insitu. And DON'T try to tell me that this company still belongs under 10% insitu after all the prelim work that has been done to date... Not unless you want to be screamed at. I don't know where we should be but it certainly should be higher than 60 cents... unless of course Cliffs is just bluffing and they really don't plan on putting infrastructure in place for the chromite (yaaaaah, riiiiiiiight).

So computers, can they change the game??? Sure they can. If someone wants the price at a certain level, they just have to program a computer. Retail doesn't have a chance, unless that retail has 10's of millions of dollars...

So, I agree with you that long term investing is a good idea, but can the computers even trump that??? That is what I am asking... Weigh that into the investing equation too, if you want to take in all factors, in MY humble opinion...

Have a great day, everyone. The sun is shining here so life is good. God Bless all Noront Investors. For those who don't want it, you don't need to accept it. Just don't read any more of my posts... Thanks.

Herb :-}