The stuff that makes this a pyramid scheme is all the stuff around the trading.

> influencers usually make their money by selling private courses

> are paid by brokers each time one of their followers opens an account

It doesn't matter what the product is when operating a pyramid scheme, so long as the rubes buy the idea that it could make money. The scam has nothing to do with Forex trading.

It's not the trading that's a pyramid scheme, it's the multi-level selling of "training" on how to trade.

If you are stuck holding Apple stock, specifically, Apple is profitable and has a history of actually paying dividends.

Pure price speculation on stocks, without at least some cursory net present value calculation on the expected lifetime dividend income and a rough estimation of the liquidation value of the company's assets kind of is a Pyramid Scheme in that the only value of the asset is a hypothetical Greater Fool

Apple makes money. It will pay you off the value of the investment in about 20-30 years depending on how well the business goes. If you get that money as dividend, stock buyback or someone else wanting the stock doesn't really matter much besides liquidity which is always a nice to have.