Stocks and Why People Lose Money

I never thought i'd get serious about this blogging thing. but after watching so many people (especially college students) lose so much money in the stock market i decided to give this a try. it won't help much- many will still keep losing- but a few will listen. as full disclosure, i should point out that i own the quant trading website mentioned here- whattolearn.com - which makes it worth my while to give away "free" financial wisdom here. call it the trader's mentality. as a further note, don't take any of this as investment advice, nor as a solicitation to engage in securities trading of any kind. trading in any security or currency is risky- and especially so in certain markets, such as pennystocks or FOREX (foreign exchange or "currency exchange"). now that that's out of the way...

here's the shortlist of reasons why people lose money in the markets...

1. Lack of knowledge/preparation
2. Too much reliance on others' opinions, i.e., criminal laziness
3. False hope and false fear
4. No plan to follow, or not following the plan
5. Bragging

In subsequent blogs, i'll comment on each of these reasons for failure and return to them often. As well, i'll comment on how to succeed in the markets, which is obviously the opposite of how to fail.