You are absolutely correct. What I think happens (primarily to what is called a newbie here), happened to me to some degree, is a friend says this is a stock you should buy and really pumps it. So people go out and open an online account and buy some shares. At this point they are totally trusting: they are unaware of boards like this one, Caveat warnings, gagged TA's, and on and on. They have full time jobs. So they are learning this stuff slowly over time - year or more just to learn the basics (stocks are a lifelong learning endeavor). Who really knows how to read 8ks, 10ks, Forms, Sec rules,etc (no one in a less than a few years)? You have to join a board like this one to get the in puts so you can start piecing it all together. And, particularly in pennyland, reports and DD is so very important. The unskilled eye thinks a report is okay, not realizing they need to be a bit skeptical if, for instance, it is unaudited. You also need to be, as you alluded to, a quasi super sleuth to dig in and get information that is not readily available. Had I known two years ago, what I know now -....well I didn't so I lost nearly 3k. I am really happy though, because I am going forward a much smarter guy today then in the past. But it was a lesson learned the hard way. Now if I hear someone say they want to get into the stock market - the only advice I give them is study first, go to ihub, and learn about dd and the things you need to research. Be PATIENT! If you miss one, there will always be others, but be patient. Everyone thinks stock X is the once in five life time stocks.....so they are in a hurry (greed) thinking they will lose the opportunity - so they jump in and sooner or later it becomes a very costly lesson.
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