Now that the crazy volatility of the past few days seems to be calming, I have been reflecting on a position discussed in many of the recent posts which queried the level of influence our comments may have on the actual share price.

My initial thoughts we’re that, even as a collective body there is no way our posts and expressed feelings can compete with the power of the MMs. However after recently having had this discussion with a friend and fellow investor, I believe I had underestimated the importance of these forums as a source of information and DD to the average retail shareholder.

Unlike professional investors with all the toys to aid their research, I believe that the vast majority of retail investors seeking information have so few alternative sources they would eventually come to a forum such as ours. But as there are only a very small number of such forums (3 when I last Googled it) they must represent the significant majority of our ilk.

These forums in my view can therefore be regarded as look into the collective soul of the retail investment community.

So back to the question at hand, do I see us as being able to influence the share price by selling into the bid as the MMs do with their mega bucks? No. But as described above these forums are the primary advertisement bill board to the average Joe, and if our collective message is positive or negative we will, rightly or wrongly, have an influence on people decisions to buy or sell.

I for one don’t want to make the MMs lives any easier by dancing to their tune and doing their job for them. But as we are all susceptible to advertising, believe our best form of defence is to keep emotional commentary to an absolute minimum and not spook or excite the herd.

All IMHO