What about following tipsters or taking ideas from forum buddies?

The trouble with posting live trades, or following live trades and hoping to make money off them, is that in the first instance although it might raise discussion the discussion tends to have one side rather entrenched by the very nature of the commitment and in the second instance it’s never a good idea to follow someone else’s live trades, in the very least because you only learn by having the same level of commitment.

Most assessments of certain metrics’ significance will differ person-to-person and would have evolved through experience and it can often be unhelpful to knock that sort of decision making process.  Much better, IMHO, to discuss the strength of different types of indicator in different classes of stock in different trading environments and not let debate be too tightly focused on any one individual person or stock, or indicator.

Anyway how to whether a person on a forum is reputable? Loads of investors/traders on bulletin boards are happy to discount industry experts/advisors and state it’s sour grapes why they have a particular view but a faceless poster is deemed reputable. For balance and fairness of course the real experts do get it wrong as well but I would rather listern to their views and then make a calculated decision with all the other information available. Clearly the real experts have to get a good amount right otherwise they would not retain their professional status / reputation for long.