EDUCATE THE UNEDUCATED 2. The comment uses the anchoring principle to create fear.
I’ve covered this before, but we’ll go over it again because it’s one of their major tools Wall Street manipulators use to scare ordinary investors.
Anchoring works like this. Say your stock is at $50. It’s bouncing up and down between $45 and $55. You think it’s being manipulated. There’s an important milestone coming up, like an earnings release. Wall Street doesn’t want you to hold through earnings, because they already know it’s going to be great.
So they have their bots/paid trolls post comments like, “Going to $30 after earnings.”
Or, “I’m a buyer at $25.”
Seeing numbers like this causes your brain to start thinking that the stock might actually drop that low. Our brains become illogically attached to recent numbers.
Clothing stores are notorious for abusing this. (T.J. Maxx was even sued for it.) They’ll put a price on a shirt at $50, and right next to it it’ll say, comparable, or on sale, from $95.
Your brain is like, “Wow what a great deal. I’m saving $45!”
Wrong.
It’s just a $50 shirt. It was always $50. Actually, it’s worth probably closer to $10, given how large the margins are at brand-name clothing stores.
Now that you’ve read this, I know what you’re thinking. “I would never fall prey to this. I’m a smart gorilla.”
Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Everybody falls for this trick, unless you know how it works. (Sometimes even still.)
Here’s a test you can run on friends and family. For this test you’ll need two friends or family members.
Pick a historical figure they’re aware of, but not too familiar with.