Not to insult anyone, but you must also remember there is a learning curve or people do not have the same strategy. Newer members are more likely to make more mistakes and make bad trades. This even happens with members that have been playing a longer period of time, but have never taken the time to really learn HSX and how it works and develope a good playing strategy. As there are many different strategies to employ many seasoned players do many different things that can effect the rise and fall of various stocks. Personally, I play a pretty conservative strategy and it has always worked for me. You can see I am not poor, but I am far from the top of the leaderboard. So there are many factors is the point I am trying to say in answer to your question. Find the strategy that works for you and try to improve upon it along the way. HSX is a game of presentages and gambles. Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. Just try to make the best moves in your portfolio overall and your totals will continue to climb.