The term bagholder is an informal slang term used in financial markets to refer to the shareholders left holding shares of worthless stocks.[1]
The shareholders could be caught up in a corporate bankruptcy and accounting scandal, as was the case with Enron and Worldcom, or the victims of a pump and dump scheme, in which naive and unsophisticated investors fall victim to e-mail spam, rigged stock tip forums, or other tricks used by stock touts to drive up the shares of worthless penny stocks.
The term has also been applied as a term of derision to real estate investors.[2]
The word is derived by combining shareholder with the expression "left holding the bag."