SH, I don't disagree with all your comments, but I do take exception to this: You guys have so much faith in equities thinking that they're supposed to always go up. It takes an EMLX hoax to smack so-called investors on the side of their heads to realize that stocks are risky assets.
Risky assets are one thing, when the stock price is driven by legitimate news, company performance, and market conditions. When out and out fraud is involved, "faith in equities" is not the issue. Risk is not the issue. A smack upside the head is not what is needed, but instead, more controls on fraudulent news are required or else the hoaxsters will take over legitimate markets and manipulate them. (and yes, they can be manipulated both up and down, I'm not favoring longs or shorts here)
And I'm not talking about pump and dump or bashing on stock threads, that stuff is largely ignored by liquid, non-BB stocks. I'm not even talking about companies that make fraudulent claims (at least you can sue them, and usually you can find out if they are legit BEFORE you invest).
I'm talking about the big anonymous frauds you mentioned: PAIR and EMLX, where no amount of DD can prevent a loss. I can accept legitimate risk in equities. If we accept fraud as commonplace in our markets, however, people will lose trust in them and the legitimate investors will be replaced by those interested only in Las Vegas gambling, where the players get to stack the deck whenever they feel like it. |
