Many of these low priced NASDAQ third tier issues will appear on the bar chart top 100 list, disappear for a while, then reappear. It is an indication that a possible mark up campaign is underway. So I don't necessarily dismiss any issue that shows up in the top 100.
All you need is a few.
Since March the S&P 600 Small Cap ETF (IJR) has advanced from 50 bucks to 100 bucks. The S&P 400 Mid Cap ETF (MDY) has actually done slightly better than 100 percent in the same time period.
What is interesting to learn is the increase in the use of margin, or borrowed money, used to purchase additional shares.
Also interesting is to learn is how short sellers have continually been chased away in the past several months.
Economic historians who discuss the reasons for economic recessions and outright depressions, far as I can tell, point to not a misuse of credit, which can be easily correctly, but the outright abuse of credit.
I personally can't see evidence at present of an outright abuse of credit. The online interviews I listen to with people who manage tons of other people's money aren't expressing a concern about credit abuse.
Since I spent more than a decade as a financial writer I know editors give out assignments and thus control the slant concerning the way stories are written. They know sensationalism gets more readers than dull, just the facts ma'am reporting. They tend to think of the average online account holder as slow-witted.
My view is the typical online account holder isn't slow-witted or a high school drop out earning minimum wage, has a gambling problem, and carries a lot of emotionally dysfunctional baggage.
The reality is quite the opposite. University educated. Above average earnings. Capable of higher order thinking. Goal oriented. Emotionally stable.
The former view were the reality, we would all still be living in the Stone Age.