The biggest gains and stock growth one could enjoy would be when you ride a microcap from a low market cap in the flavour of the year sector that is enjoying strong growth. Retail investors have the advantage of being able to invest before instos can even participate based on their mandates. Those retail investors that held on to make multi-bags like those in lithium sector made life changing gains but along the journey they got to love and married to their stocks. It is much easier to rise from $50m market cap to $250mil and even $500mil but when the stock surpasses the $1B mark, we have the instos in the picture and the game changes somewhat in that price growth becomes tagged to instos expectations and retail tends to take instos lead. Before they become large enough for instos to be involved, retail holders can have greater influence on the stock price. So when those LT investors who held from when their stock was at low market cap, continue to hold them after it has grown into a larger company, the % rate of change in the share price would be more modest going higher , however risk going lower is much higher if the company fails to meet growth hurdle expectations. Rather than preserving their gains from the early days, these LT investors continue to subject their exposure to risk of changing winds and fundamentals, many a time losing their hard earned gains in the process. We can cite the BNPL sector, gold stocks, lithium stocks, CHN and many more including APX.
With these type of stocks that made multi-bags, the easy gains are made in the early stages of their growth trajectory path, but when the instos start investing, they have the bazooka to move the stock higher or short to move the stock lower. When the instos start playing, it is wiser to follow their lead rather than bet against them. This is the problem I see that with some stocks, it has become a me against them (instos shorters) ideology- blaming shorters for their stocks woes, when holders should instead be evaluating the sectors outlook and company's valuation and earnings growth potential. Today, this is the social media mob led/driven speculation/investing style that cares less about macro and micro fundamentals, and it is IMO rather concerning.
