Friday, March 19, 2010

The Stock Market - How It Begins

In 1653 immigrants from Netherlands built a wall on a site to protect possible attacks from Indians. In this location, they started the stock market. Thirty-two years later, a street was built to replace the wall. This is how Wall Street came about.

Before the infamous crash of 1929, people made tons of money trading and investing in the stock markets. There were absolutely no risk until then. Everyone was happy holding stocks as investments. The 1929 crash completely changed this scenario. After one particular crash in 1987, the government intervened to give more protections to investors. Unfortunately, to a great extent, this has not been successful.

The market continues to experience wild swings every now and then. A severe downturn can wipe out your lifetime savings and investments in a short period of time.

However, the market is still a very lucrative place to put your money in. What is important is that you must educate yourself in the investment world. If you are unable to spot a good opportunity and know how to identify a good stock, making money in the stock market will continue to be a fantasy for you.

There is no short cut to riches. You have to work for it.