Confessions of a Paid Basher
By Tom Martin
aka “Steve Tracy”
aka “Firebird_1965”
Today I want to come clean about something I
feel very badly about. I cannot undo some of
the things I have done, but hopefully this
message will prevent other such occurrences in
the future.
I am a paid basher.
Yes, it is true. Today is my last day at this
company; I’m moving on to a new job. But before
I go, I want to explain a few things because
this just isn’t right and I won’t feel good
about myself until I expose this sham. It’s
hurt too many people and I don’t want it on my
conscience anymore. I can no longer live with a
lie.
I work for a company called Franklin, Andrews,
Kramer & Edelstein in Stamford, CT. Basically,
it’s a Boiler Room much like the one in the
movie of the same name. The idea behind my
group is to bash the price of a company’s stock
down low enough to where the group of investors
who retained our company’s services can buy the
stock really cheap and perhaps even take it
over all together.
There are approximately 70 people at the
company divided into several groups. My group,
consisting of 5 people, is responsible for
BIFS. While I probably shouldn’t give any names
of anyone working here now, what the heck, I’m
leaving here, so what can they do – sue me? Ha!
I can tell you that GUTTWRENCH was part of my
group until he left last week, as was
Richardphx. Others who have been part of this
include early bashers like Epiphonics and
Simontaz. You may be interested to know that
some hypsters, such as Amato7 and BIFWATCHER,
have also been part of the scam (more on that
later).
There are several companies engaged in the
bashing business – ours is not the only one.
However, I can tell you that not every basher
in here is a paid basher. Having done this for
two years, I can usually tell who is a paid
basher and who is merely someone having a
little fun. While unpaid bashers have a
different motive than someone like me, they can
be unwilling accomplices to helping me achieve
my ultimate goal and they also spread rumor and
confusion throughout a room, which also helps
me.
What is that goal? Well, I am merely a cog in a
much larger machine, so my bosses never really
explained the big picture to me, but I’d say
essentially, GUTTWRENCH was right. There are
several companies who are quite familiar with
SWOMI and who are deathly afraid of it.
There are three types of bashers here at
Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein:
Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner. An
Advanced-level basher (also known as a Silver
Tongued Devil) would spread false or misleading
information about the company. They would deal
in facts, countering every longs post with
articles, news reports and opinion surveys that
gave a negative impression about the company.
An Intermediate-level basher (also known as a
Serpent) would try to weasel their way into the
confidence of longs and create doubt using
rumor or innuendo.
Finally, a Beginner-level basher (also known as
a Pitchfork) would attempt to create confusion
in the room by distracting other posters with
satire, name calling and pointless arguments.
The idea was to make sure no serious discussion
of the stock could take place. A Pitchfork was
usually a basher, but not always. Sometimes, we
would throw in a hypster Pitchfork such as
Amato7 or BIFSWATCHER to create the illusion of
an argument going on. What was really funny (in Advertisement:
a perverse way, I guess) was that Amato7 and I [Image] [Image] [Image]
sat next to each other, laughing the whole
time.
I was a Pitchfork. I was paid a base wage of
$12 an hour for my services. I was given a $1
bonus for every post over 100 per day as well
as a monthly bonus of $100 for every penny the
stock had dropped from the previous month. I
was also paid a bonus for bashing on weekends.
While this may not sound like much, I made a
decent, though dishonorable, paycheck.
Each of us sat in a small half-cubicle in a
cluster with our teammates. Each group (usually
five people) was made of three beginners (two
who would bash and one who would hype), one
intermediate and one advanced level basher.
Occasionally for some of the hotter stocks, one
of the beginners would be replaced by an
intermediate depending on how much the stock
was rising. BIFS was a low-level stock, meaning
it got the 3-1-1 configuration. Somehow, I get
the feeling that JPACK2 may have worked for a
basher company or knows someone who does
because the “Basher Handbook” he occasionally
posts is eerily similar to the one we actually
use. While not a word-for-word match, I’d say
it is about 90 percent the same. We do have
certain rules that we follow.
First, we have to develop a character and stay
within that character in order to build a
“following.” My character, “Firebird_1965,” was
a sarcastic, obnoxious supporter of free
speech, but only when it came to bashers.
Next, we had to follow certain guidelines on
what we could say. We were urged to have an
“answer” to every long’s question, but we were
to frame that answer in a way that ridiculed
the questioner for asking such a question.
However, we were never to use profanity or
vulgarity because that would cause people to
ignore us. We were to make fun of people, but
in a civil way. The idea was to get “play,”
i.e. – reaction from other posters. The more
play we got, the more the room would be
disrupted. Ignored posters get no play. One
exception would be the hypster – since they
were “defending” the stock against our
onslaught, they got a little more leeway.
People would side with the hypster because they
thought he was real since he appeared to be on
their side, but was really on ours, setting us
up to disrupt the room. Padelcars is quite good
at this and gets paid very well.
I’ve worked on BIFS for about three months now.
In addition to the Firebird_1965 alias, I’ve
used a few others on the BIFS and several other
boards as well. I stuck with Firebird_1965
because it was the one that got the most play
from other posters.
In closing, I feel absolutely terrible about
this. It’s just awful how I’ve been part of a
scam designed to cheat honest, hard-working
people out of their investments all for the
benefit of a few wealthy people who already
have enough money to last a lifetime. These
greedy people MUST be stopped. That’s why I’m
posting this before I leave. I want to make up
for some of the damage I’ve done. I can’t live
with this lie anymore. You can’t imagine how
hard it is to look at myself in the mirror each
morning knowing my job is to cheat and lie.
I have to go now, I’m too broken up to
continue. I hope this confession can make up
for my sordid deeds; I would urge everyone who
reads this to copy and repost it as many times
as you can. Only by shining the light of truth
can we drive these rats back into the darkness
from whence they came. Believe me, they don’t
want publicity.
I hope all of you can forgive me and save me a
seat on that BIFS rocket to the moon. If this
helps, let me leave you with this…
GO BIFS!!!!
With fervent remorse,
Tom Martin
aka “Steve Tracy”
aka “Firebird_1965”
