lakedweller2, I think you are finally getting to the point of it.
There are an abundance of individuals who are, what is generally termed, OTHER-DIRECTED, which is the exact opposite of being "self-directed".
Typically, they do little or no DD, but buy a stock like PBLS because someone posted something on a message board, and they liked the idea, or whatever. The Power of Suggestion...
But if the stock falls down, then they immediatly move to BLAME the outcome on the OTHERs; those "evil pumpers" or those "criminal MMs", or whatever. NO WAY IN HELL will they ever step up and accept responsibility for having made a fundamentally bad decision; not as long as they can blame someone else for it.
You describe it as "...buy at inflated levels, then become bagholders...". What you are REALLY talking about are lazy losers. It is their fate to lose. What else can you expect them to do? That is the path they have chosen.
There is NO FREE LUNCH here; you have to do SOME work for your profit, otherwise you are just gambling. Posts on forums are NOT real DD; they are opinions and gossip. For Heaven's sake, see it for what it is before it is too late.
There can be a steep learning curve involved in learning how to trade stocks for profit and winning more than losing. Lazy people just don't want to do the work. If they lose it is NOT because of what someone else posted; it is because they are too lazy to learn how to win. Winning comes from Doing Due Diligence.
Anyway, Good Luck playing the "blame game".
VV
