The Solution To Spam: Free Subscriptions To CNBC
Thomas Ptacek | August 25th, 2006 | Filed Under: Uncategorized
Via Slashdot, in a study at Purdue University and Oxford:
“A recent study on spam has revealed that spammers see a return between 4.9% and 6% when selling stocks they have bought low and spammed the world with.”
So apparently all we need to do is educate spammers about investment. Rule #1: factor the cost of trading and management into the return. The cost of spamming and attendant risks create a drag that must dwarf that of an S&P index fund or ETF. VFINX is up 6% over the last 12 months, and I can get that return without creating a zombie army to seize it.
[ed. note: yes, I didn’t read the article all the way through. Yes, spammers make way more than I would plowing my money into VFINX. Yes, spammers are smarter than me. Thank you for noticing.]
Matt
August 25th, 2006 7:00 pmThe paper states a 4.9% return in *two days*. If it weren’t profitable, the spammers wouldn’t do it.
newsham
August 25th, 2006 7:42 pm“The Effects of Stock Spam on Financial Markets”, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=897431 presented at a conference on Economics and Information Security (http://weis2006.econinfosec.org/, interesting mix of topics!). I’m not sure I buy all the analysis and techniques, but interesting topic anyway.
Thomas Ptacek
August 26th, 2006 1:22 amOk. Two days. I am dumb.
Dave, we’re in the wrong business.
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