Very true, one of the best things small fish fry can do to safe guard their own real assets is to frequently take screenshots of their brokerage account screens showing cost basis and share count information as well as downloading monthly brokerage statements and/or filing hard copies from the mail, especially if you have a margin account. There are too many phantom shares and failures to deliver floating around the market these days and brokerage houses in bed with crony MMs and other firms which know all the small fry fish holders cost basis and price points. I have many times chatted with many holders of the same low liquidity stock before and then looked at the Level II to see a table of price points at exactly the various cost basis' of those traders or else a point or two away from those exact levels and nothing inbetween. These firms are specifically in the game to use psychological tactics to rattle the longs cages until they succumb to the alleged fear. You must practice detachment and train yourself to let go of that which you fear to lose, only then can you be one with the force, and a powerful ally the force is.
Another good practice is to frequently screenshot or download and save the trade confirmations from each and every trade because often brokerage houses will only store up to a certain time period worth of trade confirmations and if you hold stock beyond this time window and then something shady happens to your holdings, you have documentation to back up your claims. Do not simply outright trust these firms. Where do you think they get the bulk of their inflows? From netting small fish fry out of the sea. There are only three possibilities, you can steer clear of the areas where they fish, you can play where they fish and get caught but if you keep a pair of scissors you can cut your way through the netting before they pull you on board, or you can do nothing and just sit and bash on message boards all day from the sidelines after having lost all of your money so many times the balls drop off and you are impotent. Its your choice. I will let the reader decipher what he or she desires from the figurative meanings.
Do or do not, there is no try
