I've talked about COI in investing before. If someone holds a stock / crypto, it is always to their incentive to convince more people to buy it, as that drives the price up. This is a big part of why we see so much content out there that is so positive about highly speculative assets, despite all the warnings from governments.
While not illegal, this sort of behaviour is unethical. It shares similarities to pyramid schemes, where there is a misalignment in incentives. Since you have bought in, it is now in your self interest to 'sell' it to more people, even if it may be detrimental to them.
This video above has got to be a new low though. It seems that some of the buzz is not only artificially inflated by people who hold stocks, but also some people have been paid to promote certain stocks. That's just outright illegal, it's a pump and dump scheme.
All these people always say 'I am not a financial advisor, this does not constitute investment advice' - maybe more people need to take that phrase more seriously because it is the most important part of these content out there.
Most people I know won't fall for things like this, but some do. And it bothers me, because it's as good as scamming people, especially those who are vulnerable and desperate for a quick buck.
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