Wiktionary
n. (context US finance slang English) A shareholder left holding shares of worthless stocks.
Wikipedia
In U.S. financial slang, a bagholder is a shareholder left holding shares of worthless stocks.
The shareholders could be caught up in a corporate bankruptcy and accounting scandal, as was the case with Enron and Worldcom, or the victims of a pump and dump scheme, in which naive and unsophisticated investors fall victim to e-mail spam, rigged stock tip forums, or other tricks used by stock touts to drive up the shares of worthless penny stocks.
The term has also been applied as a term of derision to real estate investors.
The word is derived by combining shareholder with the expression "left holding the bag."
Usage examples of "bagholder".
Most of them came out of the cocaine-dealing fraternity, and they retailed stolen calls with the same street-crime techniques of lookouts and bagholders that a crack gang would employ.