Smarter Money: A 'Do-It-Yourself' Attitude Can Be Perilous

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National mea culpas are no fun. On CNBC's "Squawk," Mark Haines asked me whether I, champion of the do-it-yourself investor, think I went too far, given the losses that individuals have suffered doing it themselves in this market. I could have given the standard line about how great democratization is and said that the individual will come back stronger than ever. That would have been so simple to do.

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But I have been feeling terrible of late about the outsized losses that people have experienced. Of course, people who used brokers also took heavy losses, but I think that the do-it-yourselfers took on too much margin and never understood the sell call and tried, basically, to be like me. And I can tell you that I valued brokers very much at my old job. They helped me immensely. ...