Ha! The good old "Market is manipulated". The last bastion of...

Ha! The good old "Market is manipulated". The last bastion of those on the wrong side of the trade.

Easier to shift the blame elsewhere instead of looking at oneself for improvement.

Your way of thinking is extremely damaging. Especially to other retail investors that haven't spent enough time in the market. No one ever said that it was a level playing field. So I'm not particularly sure why one would expect it to be. The simple fact is that there are much larger fish than you and I. You can beat them at their own game by going long and having time on your side. Time is not on your side if you are on margin because of interest. Worse if your short, you are literally burning the candle on many ends… interest, dividends, lending fee, blind rehypothecation etc most of all counterparty risk. Lending to shorts so you can buy more of the stock cheap

Much easier if you are long. Decades long like many on CBA are. They have a point of view that If you don't need the money today why should you care what CBA is selling for today. If you needed the money today or even this year then you should never have put it in CBA in the first place. Just remember, for a sale to happen there must be a buyer and a seller. When you have time on your side you don't have to be a seller when it doesn't suit you. Even better you don't have to be a buyer when it doesn't suit you, so you don't FOMO either...