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Where are the Trolls?

Wednesday, September 06, 2006 | 11:37 PM

in Markets | Politics | Psychology/Sentiment

Funny thing today: None of the Trolls showed up.

Its astonishing (but not surprising): Let the Dow rise 30 points on sub par volume, and they are out in full voice. Today, not a peep out of them.

You know I love debate, but have little patience for someone who posts 6 of these in a day:

Looks like that correction call is a loser!
When is the market gonna crash?
You must be embarrassed by that call!

Ironically, the trolls and nasty emails -- you should see the crap I get from a sub-section of Real Money subscribers -- are a great source of data for me.

Over this past weekend, I had a conversation with a friend who runs a nice sized hedge fund -- he was short and getting very nervous. "I'm about to lose my whole year's gains on this trade." He's a hotshot trader living the fast NY single life, dating underwear models (and losing his hair).

I told him my email hostility meter was spinning out of control, and that's a bad sign for the markets! Herb Greenberg always says that a sign he knows he's onto something when the reaction is fierce and obnoxious. Monday night, I laid out the full case to him for why the topping process was in full force, and why he absolutely shouldn't throw in the towel and "get forced in." He doubled up on Tuesday, buying NDX puts and betting short on SPX (I assume futures).

I rarely give unsolicited advice like that to traders -- it screws with their heads -- but he was reaching out and I wanted to make sure he didn't panic himself into something foolish.

Here's the email I got after the bell:

"B - Thanks for making me focus on my discipline and my methodology. I bet too large and it was dumb

...snip

Tell your troll buddies thanks! I covered just enough shorts today to pay for my next Ferrari. You should sell THAT as a service -- you will make a mint!

So all you Trolls out there: Kevin -- the balding guy in the red F430 spyder with the Victoria Secret's model sitting next to him -- says muchos gracias!

~~~

Kev, I know the Trolls would want to say Your Welcome.