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Post of the Day
October 22, 1999
Board Name:
Canada
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|
Subject:
The Health of the TSE 35 Boards
Author: NooNoo |
The Patients
I have chosen the Toronto Stock Exchange 35 (TSE 35) index as a base to assess the general health of Canadian stock boards, because they represent the 35 largest companies in Canada, most have listings on American exchanges and they are widely held by Canadians. Changes are good that you have an interest in all of these companies if you hold an index mutual fund, are a member of a company pension fund or have whole life insurance.
Let us start by introducing the patients. Figure 1 lists the Companies that make up the TSE 35 index along with its Toronto Stock Exchange ticker and the Motley Fool ticker.
Figure 1
Toronto Stock Exchange
TSE 35 Companies
18 October 1999
Company TSE Fool
---------------------------------- ----- ----
Abitibi-Consolidated A A
Barrick Gold ABX ABX
Alcan Aluminium AL AL
Bombardier Inc. BBD.D -
BCE Inc. BCE BCE
Bank of Montreal BMO BMO
Bank of Nova Scotia BNS -
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM BCM
Canadian National Railway CNR CNI
Canadian Pacific CP CP
Canadian Tire Corporation CTR.A -
Canadian Occidental Petroleum CXY CXY
Dofasco Inc. DFS -
Imasco Ltd. IMS -
Laidlaw Inc LDM LDW
MacMillan Bloedel MB MMBLF
Moore Corporation MCL -
Magna International MG.A MGA
Inco Ltd. N N
National Bank of Canada NA -
Nova Chemicals Corp NCX -
Noranda Inc. NOR -
Nortel Networks NT NT
Petro-Canada PCA PCZ
Placer Dome PDG PDG
Renaissance Energy RSE -
Royal Bank of Canada RY RY
Suncor Energy SU SU
Trans Alta Corp. TA -
Toronto Dominion Bank TD TD
Teck Corp. TEK.B -
Talisman Energy TLM TLM
Thomson Corporation TOC -
TransCanada Pipelines TRP TRP
Seagram VO VO
If you know of one of the patients (TSE 35 companies) finding a
bed (board), please let me know of the room number (Motley
Fool Ticker).
The Examination
Now let us look at the activity of these boards over the last three months to see how active they have been. Figure 2 shows the number of posts as of 19 July 1999 as compared to 18 October 1999.
Figure 2
The Motley Fool
TSE 35 Boards
19 July 1999 to 18 October 1999
Posts to Posts to New Monthly
TSE 99-07-19 99-10-18 Posts Average
----- -------- -------- ----- -------
A 2 2 0 0
ABX 96 153 57 19
AL 6 8 2 <1
BBD.D - - - -
BCE 7 14 7 2
BMO 2 2 0 0
BNS - - - -
CM 13 13 0 0
CNR 9 12 3 1
CP 2 7 5 2
CTR.A - - - 1
CXY 0 0 0 0
DFS - - - -
IMS - - - -
LDM 7 35 28 9
MB 1 1 0 0
MCL - - - -
MG.A 10 16 6 2
N 41 45 4 1
NA - - - -
NCX - - - -
NOR - - - -
NT 323 511 188 62
PCA 5 5 0 0
PDG 26 29 3 1
RSE - - - -
RY 4 5 1 <1
SU 7 7 0 0
TA - - - -
TD 107 117 10 3
TEK.B - - - -
TLM 1 3 2 <1
TOC - - - -
TRP 6 13 7 2
VO 15 25 10 3
-------- -------- ----- -------
Total 690 1,023 333 111
======== ======== ===== =======
The Diagnoses
I find that from 15 to 150 posts a month is a good activity level for a message board. At this rate there is something interesting every week and there is not too much information that results in skipping over posts. Remember you can't spend all your time reading, you got to write as well.
As Figure 3 shows only two of the TSE 35 boards can be considered healthy with over half either on life support or have not been admitted to the Foolish Hospital.
Figure 3
The Motley Fool
TSE 35 Boards
19 July 1999 to 18 October 1999
Health Level Monthly Post Range Number
------------ ------------------ ------
Hyper-Active More than 150 0
Healthy 15 to 150 2
Critical >0 to 14 14
Life Support 0 7
Not Admitted No Board 12
Treatments
If you own stock in any one of the TSE 35 ailing companies and would like to nurse it back to health, I would recommend one or more of the following treatments.
- Get admitting privileges. If you have not done so register
with the Motley Fool so that you can post your messages to the boards.
- Admit your patient. If yours is one of the companies
without a board the first thing that must be done is to get one.
- Put it on your rounds. If you have not done so click on
the little heart to put you company's board on your favourite board
list so you can check on it as soon as you login.
- Blood Transfusions. Post links back to your company's
board every chance you get, but be careful to type match or
you could lose your licence to practice because of Spaming.
As a general rule if someone talks about your company in there post, it
is aright to reply with a link to your company's board. Use the Motley
Fools search engine to find posts on other boards that talk about your
company.
Good results can be attained if your give a brief summary of the post you are referring to when you provide the link and this post should be relative to the situation being discussed. If you have to write the post yourself then reply.
- Study the X-rays. Take advantage of news reports to write
a post. When you see something in the Global and Mail, the National
Post, or another newspaper, write a summary of it and tell where you
saw it and if possible provide a web link to it. Don't forget to
include your take on the article. Did you find the article negative,
positive? Where you expecting it? What do you think the company
should do? What will they most likely do?
- Get the lab reports. Review the annual and quarterly
reports for interesting topics for discussion.
- Call for a second opinion. A question always begs an answer and people will answer it even if they don't know the answer. Others will see it as a challenge and head straight to the annual report to try and find the answer.
Well that's my Medical Report. Anybody care to give their diagnoses?
NooNoo
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