The Fly is All The Buzz in Blogosphere
With oil and gas prices at current levels, the favourite blog of Report on Business readers says you’d have to be @#$%-ing nuts not to own energy stocks.
That’s iBankCoin for you. Profane, impudent and No. 1-ranked in the popularity contest that ran for the past week on ReportonBusiness.com. Last Tuesday, five ROB columnists and Howard Lindzon, a portfolio manager and founder of the Wallstrip.com website, each presented their five favourite blogs. Readers were then given the chance to vote online for their top choices among these blogs.
A total of 5,112 votes were cast and iBankCoin, formerly known as Fly on WallStreet, was the clear winner. The star here is George (The Fly) Hamilton, a professional money manager who provides a hilarious running commentary to his trading day. The overall tone: Irreverent, but on the money through the constant flow of stock picks and opinionated commentary.
Check out a posting made at the end of last week on the price of natural gas, or “natty,” as The Fly calls it. Almost none of it can be quoted here for profanity reasons, but the gist is that the rise of commodity prices is inexorable and too powerful to bet against. The Fly also provided the natural gas stocks he’s holding, and the ones he’s watching. This blog names names.
Blogs, a shortening of the term Web log, first appeared about a decade ago and initially were a way for individuals to communicate with like-minded people on topics of interest. At least one of the blogs on our favourites list, Canadian Capitalist, still works along these lines. But some others suggest that blogs, financial ones at least, are starting to develop a more business-like profile.
IBankcoin was formed last November when The Fly brought some other bloggers into his fold to create an organization with 10 writers and 300 contributors to a forum he calls The Peanut Gallery. Another example of a blog that’s more of a business than a personal soapbox is DealBreaker, which readers ranked third. DealBreaker is part of a New York blog mini-conglomerate, Dead Horse Media, that also runs Fashionista.com (on fashion) and AboveTheLaw.com (for lawyers).
“We take the irreverent, unorthodox angle to today’s business news stories,” said David Minkin, publisher of DealBreaker. “We want to cover the angles that aren’t getting enough coverage. There are lots of idiosyncratic things that go on within the Wall Street culture.”
The overwhelming popularity of DealBreaker, iBankCoin and readers’ second-ranked choice, Wall Street Fighter, attest to the appeal of the sharp-tongued approach to blogging. Wall Street Fighter collects wacky factoids from the financial world and serves them up with lots of nasty comments.
The anonymous person behind this site had a good old time the other day with what were described as the seven worst money-saving tips to be found on the Internet. Tip One: Stop buying alcohol. Wall Street Fighter’s annotation: “Well, how do they suggest we get it then? Steal it from somewhere?” Tip Two: Attend free local events you find in your local newspaper. Wall Street Fighter: “First off, a newspaper? What are we, stockbrokers from the 1930s? Get digital, baby.”
And now to a couple of more, um, thoughtful blogs. Fourth-ranked by readers was Infectious Greed, by Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and former equity analyst. Mr. Kedrosky’s background analyzing tech stocks can be seen in his smart commentary on companies in the sector, and he’s got some mildly contrarian things to say about soaring oil prices.
The fifth-ranked blog, Canadian Capitalist, represents the triumph of the informed amateur. Ram Balakrishnan, an Ottawa software developer, began his blog back in 2004 as a way of furthering his interest in managing his portfolio. “I just started yakking on financial topics,” he said. “I was surprised to see that I got some readers out of it, so I just kept going.”
Mr. Balakrishnan’s blog comments are clear, concise and right in tune with what’s going on in your life. Recent postings have covered the housing market, stock market volatility and group registered education savings plans. Like any good blog, he keeps the comments coming regularly. “I post almost every workday because people don’t tend to read much on weekends. I’m guessing they’re reading blogs at work.”
ROB CARRICK
Here is the link: The Fly is all the buzz in the blogosphere
I’ll take the bold step of speaking for The Fly here by offering the sincere thanks of all iBC bloggers to Howard Lindzon for nominating The Fly, and by default, the godly site of iBankCoin.
However, it seems Howard has realized his folly, and has offered an apology to the Globe and Mail for this most egregious nomination.
In the spirit of The Fly, fuck you, Howard.
thanks to me. thanks for linking…internet weasel
May 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pmIs this why ‘The Fly’ was not here today? Touring the “media circuit”?
On the other hand…Canada…but why?
May 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pmI heard that Fly is now in Canada as he has been chosen to sing the Canadian National Anthem for the first game of the Canadian Football League. Somebody had better tell him that it’s O Canada that he has to sing.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pmthe fly is very 2007
Down with fly
May 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pmjust noyiced the fuck you howard. ok . now we are back in biz baby.
The Globe has proven itself as a giant newspaper that gets it.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:40 pmI would have preferred the whole article be about The Fly, but in general, it was well done.
You are right Howard about them getting it.
Also, I think your spam filter ate one of my comments…
May 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pmThe Fly’s stuff is the best. Congrats to the Fly and the PG.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:15 pmSince “The Fly” is (supposedly) away, I will make several tiny “Z”’s on these Corinthian leather trading chairs……
May 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm“the Fly” had me at “fuck you.”
Congrats Fly and all you damned tabbers.
-DT
May 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pmnice job to the tabbers and the PG for taking over headline status. no traffic lull at all
May 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pmDT, if you keep this up, I may just have to fix your link.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:50 pmwith Fly’s new popularity, are we gonna have to tolerate comments here from nobodies?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:14 pmDanny,
I’ve been hoping for a berth among the “best education blogs,” mainly because I have a schoolteacher fetish.
-DT
May 13th, 2008 at 7:54 pmThe funniest thing is, none of you realize the Fly, Duc and Bilderberg are the same person. The daily twists and turns are more predictable than a Lifetime movie.
A very talented writer indeed.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:15 pmClear winner? You beat wallstreetfighter by 30 votes and we made up 900 votes in the last 8 hours. Wonder how we got so many votes? I wonder. No thanks to that Lindzon guy you’re talking about. You still deserved the win but one more hour of votes and you would have been Hillary instead of Obama. PS thanks for the kind words, you writing is like poetry
May 13th, 2008 at 8:24 pmListen up Shane Fucker:
You were voting via proxy. Do not think for a second that “The Fly” would let you win. I have warehouses full of “illegal Mexicans” waiting to vote for me.
Honestly though, behind every great man, is a great woman. So, for this win, I would like to thank my wife…..smooch to ya sweety!
May 13th, 2008 at 8:26 pmSenor Tropicana,
We got you some comments karmas or something, boss. 300 of them, see?
-Martinez.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:33 pmBest comment section of all time….
-DT
May 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pmYeah DT, it seems like a lot of karma points were given to Fly for showing his senstive side!
May 13th, 2008 at 10:14 pmA disruption in the Force, I sense.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 pmThe funniest thing is, none of you realize the Fly, Duc and Bilderberg are the same person.
Two out of three ain’t bad. And Bilderberg hasn’t posted in six months, but thanks for being an observant commentator.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:47 pmThe Fly’s name is REALLY George Hamilton????
May 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pmJake, seriously, Fly is neither Duc nor Bilderberg.
I know who Bilderberg was(is), and I promise it was(is) not the Fly.
For Hannah- I have received emails from a New Zealand IP address (Duc’s) within a very short time period of receiving a Fly email, with a U.S. IP address. You do not have to believe it, but it is true.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pmWoody,
That makes this even more hilarious… I can almost hear him in that granite filled kitchen, with that godforsaken radio blaring away as Howie Rose does the play-by-play, “smooch to ya sweety!”
Meanwhile, Ducati and “the Fly” are both crazy, but definitely two different kinds of crazy.
-DT
May 13th, 2008 at 11:20 pmDT- maybe The Fly and Green Writer were hanging out all day today. You know, pullin’ tubes.
As for Fly and Ducati, I will not compare him to his arch enemy, in honor of Fly’s victory in the Globe and Mail.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:29 pmShed — I know Fly is not Bilderberger. He is the servant, Rag, which is what Hannah meant, I believe.
She has not been here long enough to remember the Bilderberger tab.
(That was either Danny or Jeremy, as I recall, no?)
May 13th, 2008 at 11:33 pmThe Fly’s name is REALLY George Hamilton.
I’m going to guess that’s an “Uncle Howard” joke.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:34 pmBilderberger was not Danny or Jeremy. Bilderberger was Bilderberger.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm“Honestly though, behind every great man, is a great woman. So, for this win, I would like to thank my wife…..smooch to ya sweety!”
I didn’t write this, Woodcheddar did.
Revenge pending.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:54 pmC’mon, embrace your fancy side!
May 13th, 2008 at 11:55 pmJakeGint is Bilderberg. Look at the writing style:
http://www.ibankcoin.com/peanut_gallery/index.php/author/mr-bilderberg/
Tell me that’s not Jake.
-II
May 14th, 2008 at 4:16 amWoodshedder-
Do not put too much weight into the origin of an email. There are services that do email forwarding, and the REAL origin address does not show up in the headers.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:48 amIndustry –
Nope. Not me. In fact, I hadn’t even read quite a few of those you linked to.
I have not the grasp of the “special effects” that guy features (which leads me to believe he’s an iBC insider, probably its CEO).
May 14th, 2008 at 9:05 amJake, come clean…..name all your names you’ve posted under.
Good Contest for a T-Shirt? No
May 14th, 2008 at 9:08 amWow! Congrats to the Fly, the tabbers ,etc. Like Danny once said, “God I love this site.” When I voted Fly was in 2nd–behind by about 40 votes. And he didn’t even have to open a single illegal Mexican warehouse.
Believeme, Fly is not Ducatti.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:15 amhannah, when people leave comments, it also records IP address. Again, the IP addresses for the comments matches the fact that one is in NY and the other New Zealand.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:21 amKC — I don’t know if I could even do that, as I don’t remember all of them.
Best I can do is say “yeah” or “no” to queries. I can say “no” to Bilderberger, though.
Jeremy probably has a list somewhere.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:51 amFly,
You truly are the man. Congrats. Keep up the good work and
May 14th, 2008 at 11:47 amI’ll keep up not working.