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What about a stock promotor (or “influencer”) in a conflict of interest? First of all, often a conflict of interest may be perceived by some and not by others simply depending on one’s perspective, ethics, background, education, experience, and so forth. Often one sees “letters” after a name and/or references to years of successful experience and translates that to a high-level duty of care being applied to the typical retail investor when in fact that may not be true at all. If the person is not, for example, an accredited Financial Advisor, a Lawyer, or an Accountant then the duty of care may not be the same as it is with those three example professions. The most common definition of a conflict of interest is that opinions, recommendations, advice, etc ..:
unimpaired professional judgment and objectivity, and shall be seen to be doing so by a reasonable observer. The confidence that professional judgment has been exercised depends on the unbiased and objective state of mind of the reporting accountant, both in fact and appearance. Independence is the condition of mind and circumstance that would reasonably be expected to result in the application by a member of unbiased judgment and objective consideration in arriving at opinions or decisions in support of the member’s report.
That specific definition can be found in the publication “Guide to Canadian Independence Standard” (2016 edition) put out by the
Chartered Professional Accountants Association. You can quickly search “independence in fact and appearance” for other examples from other associations, best practices, and so forth. At this time I want to reiterate that oftentimes valuable information and awareness of companies