Unhosted chatrooms are a thing of the past. The Fool Portfolio has under-performed the market this year. Iomega, in spite of good news, seems to have lost its zip, hovering down at $16 a share. 3Com is disconnected too, down in the 30s also. Does this mean the end of Fooldom?
No.
The purpose of Fooldom is to inform, educate and amuse. Nowhere does it say, "join the Motley Fools and get rich." However, we had Iomega, which reached stratrospheric heights before it finally corrected to equally irrational lows. Watching CNBC, you got the impression Iomega and the Motley Fools were one. We were referred to as a cult, and more attention than was necessary was placed on the Fool Portfolio.
I came this way to learn to invest. I'm in a cyclical business (construction), and while I'm currently employed by the government, I wanted to build a cushion for leaner times. After watching my IRA stagnate in a variable annuity, I decided to learn to invest for myself. In the process I found a more fun place to write than the drab engineering magazines to which I used to contribute. The lower performance of the Fool portfolio and the closing of the midnight unhosted chats doesn't change this.
Chat rooms have always been particularly difficult late at night. The first chat I hosted was at 2 AM, which was a big mistake on my part. It was like being in a bar full of mean drunks. A number of the participants used the rooms to promote penny stocks, or wildly overvalued stocks of legitimate companies. Presumably, these people were using Fooldom in a hope to get rich, or a forum to insult everyone else.
At the same time, there have been chats that have been particularly informative. I've learned about biotechnology stocks; of course what I learned was they weren't a suitable investment for me. That is also part of learning. I've followed different stock message boards, and learned a lot about different companies. I've argued endlessly with others (in a very polite manner) about the value of Coca Cola. It's overvalued, HA! I got the last word! (sorry, I couldn't help myself) I've hosted chats on "Investing on a Budget," in which I think I learned more from the participants than they learned from me. There are investment opinions published with the Evening News, the portfolio write ups, and the industry areas that I personally find fascinating. These things are Fooldom.
The Fool Portfolio hasn't done so well (actually rotten) this year. Do you always learn from things that go right? I don't know if Tom and David will agree with this, but better I learn about stock-picking mistakes with their money instead of mine. I'm sure that makes them feel better. Unlike newsletter writers that only talk about their successes, the Gardners are holding out for all of us to see their failures, too. Hopefully, we won't make the same mistakes.
The Motley Fool will not make your teeth whiter. It won't make you rich. It might not even make you happy. However, it will teach you how to invest. In the process, you may learn a little something about different industries, how companies work, and have some fun in the process. I hope that I can make you laugh in my Fribbles, and I think I can speak for the other Fools when I say each and every one of them hopes to give you something you can use in your life. As time goes on, this forum will change. Some of the changes we'll like, some we won't. In the end, I believe we are succeeding at what Tom and David set out to do.
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