Type Internet forum Headquarters Australia Website hotcopper.com.au | Industry Financial services Owner Report Card Pty Ltd Founded 1994 | |
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HotCopper is an Australian stock market online chat forum that allows its users to discuss financial topics. As of 2015, HotCopper was in the top 170 websites in Australia and was the 5th most popular Financial Services site in Australia as reported by Alexa and the largest Australian site dealing with finance. It is the oldest of such a site having started as a bulletin board in 1994 and then moving to the web in 1995.
HotCopper is often quoted by other information services, in books and in numerous market related economic and social studies. For example, citations in the Wikipedia article Nuclear power in Japan and in trading books such as Investors Web Guide.
History
HotCopper started as a bulletin board in 1994 and then went to the web in 1995. The first recorded listing in The Web Archive is 1998.
HotCopper is named after "hot" 1c and 2c shares which derive their name from the 1c and 2c coins in Australia which were made of copper (no longer in circulation) i.e. "Hot" "Copper". The original HotCopper Logo was an image of a 1c and 2c coin.
The website first came to prominence in 1997 when an oil discovery in Manila was reported in a post on HotCopper generating 45,000 hits. The post on HotCopper caused the stock to run. The company reported to the ASX, after a price query, that the price movement was due to the HotCopper post.
By December 1999, all posts were vetted by a moderator who was a trained investment adviser to ensure the site never gave investment advice. HotCopper was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 1999 by Tony Cunningham of stockbroker D J Carmichael, who bought stake in the company from founder Ron Gully. In January 2000, HotCopper became a division of Bourse Data after it was acquired by the company for $11 million. The acquisition made HotCopper a division of Bourse Data. In 2001, Bourse Data merged with St.George Bank, which reprivatized and sold HotCopper to private interests. The Financial Arena then sold HotCopper to Perth-based company Report Card Pty Ltd through a deal brokered by Tony Cunningham in 2004.
By September 2012, the company had 170,000 members and received 6,000 posts a day. In March 2010, HotCopper was granted an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL).
HotCopper reported having 170,000 active users by 2016. At that time, the managing director was Greg D'Arcy and Steven James, Tony Cunningham of CPS Capital, and Alec Pismiris of Capital Investment Partners served as directors.