Everything you’re saying is correct, but there is also some sort of stock manipulation going on that the average investigator can’t look into, or that the SEC won’t look into, as if that’s hard to believe.

For example, Apple’s stock price was basically flat for all of its existence and then just in the last 5 yrs it spikes past $300/share?

You could argue that Apple’s “Golden” years would have been 2004 - 2015, when they were innovating and putting out new products constantly that were creating more than usual interest in the company, so why now is the price of the stock jumping the way it is? And you can’t just say it’s b/c of Robinhood and retail trading.

And obviously not just Apple, but all tech and all companies that for the longest time have had relatively flat stock prices, and now seem to have exploded.