Hey everyone, @Vaughan here. I wanted to take a minute to put out a request to the community considering how difficult these markets have been this year. Many investors are underwater on their investments at the moment, and with the advent of tax loss selling season, the pressure has not let up.
What I have seen as an effect of these difficult times is a continued degradation of the decorum on this site, with users flying off the handle at each other, sometimes for things as small as having a different opinion. None of this helps anyone here and will more likely than not lead to many knowledgable investors rushing for the exits.
For my part, the attacks on me have multiplied 10 fold. I have been threatened with legal action by the FBI, ICE, SEC (none of which apply to Canadians FYI), the RCMP, IIROC and physically threatened on too many occasions to count. I have had insults levelled against me, my mother (RIP – love you always), and my wife. My email account has been blocked with similarly inappropriate messages, sometimes seeing dozens of hateful emails hit my inbox in a matter of days.
As I said to a user who reached out to me in support this morning, my emotions are reserved for my family and as such I am not phased by any of these messages, but not all users can say the same. I am happy to be a moderator here for our community as I truly do see tons of value here for our users, even among all the drivel.
Therefore, I am requesting that everyone please take a step back and remember that these boards are for sharing due diligence and information that can help us all succeed in these trying markets. It is not a platform for hate and ignorance, and those who display such characteristics are only doing a disservice to themselves and our community and will not be tolerated. Similarly, those who have been creating second accounts to spew hate will find both accounts silenced from here out, as you are hurting our community. I do not speak for the rest of the team with this message.
Personally, as an amateur investor I don’t imagine our market – the worse market in the world this year, literally – will continue going down ad inifitum, but as stated by someone much more knowledgable than I "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. " (origin of the quote still debated but often attributed to John Maynard Keynes or A. Gary Schilling).
Remain respectful, remain calm, and lets all hope for a tunaround soon.
