Critical Analysis of Social Processes and Goal Orientation in an Online Financial Community

The organisation and structure of many financial forums enable some individuals to systematically cultivate and exploit the uncertainty or enthusiasm of others. The manipulation can be intentional or unintentional and is usually motivated by a desire to affect an increase or decrease in the price of some security over a comparatively short period of time. This paper reports research investigating communication in an Internet finance forum as a social interaction process viewed through a critical discourse lens. A model of communicative practices is used to empirically analyse a small set of interpersonal interactions about stock price manipulation. Our analysis highlights how finance forums can be used for both communicative and strategic action. However, unlike other CMC environments, the structure of finance forums can facilitate manipulation through the use of multiple messages using one or more user identities.