Posted on 09/14/2010 4:53:41 AM PDT by Kartographer
Wild gyrations on Wall Street have made U.S investors leery of buying individual stocks and skeptical that the market is a fair place to park their money.
In an Associated Press-CNBC poll of investors, 61 percent said the market's recent volatility has made them less confident about buying and selling individual stocks. And the majority of those surveyed 55 percent said the market is fair only to some investors.
The survey confirms that average investors have been growing more concerned about the stock market as a safe place to invest for retirement. And news about the market has been unsettling for ordinary investors of late: More than 60 percent of those surveyed said they had paid attention to news reports about swings in the stock market.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
PING!!!
What is an “average” investor, and for which investors is the market more fair to than others?

The red bar is the cumulative total of how much money is being put into the market -- a very large negative number, getting more negative every single week.
Back in 2000, I recall emails which were released which showed an “analyst” who trashed Amazon in private buy gave it a “Strong Buy” in public.
He got off with a slap on he wrist.
Until this nonsense stops, NOBODY should trust the markets. If you really believe the markets are fai, you are not looking at facts objectively.
Company lying about their balance sheets and income statements seems to be getting worse and worse. This is partially a function of executive compensation plans that reward the best liars. My suggestion—no bonus payouts until five years after the relevant reporting period has ended—and base it on maintaining or increasing the numbers that generated the bonus over that five year period. Give the dust some time to settle—and get the execs thinking very long term. Oh yeah, and if they jump to another company before the five years is up—no bonus. Companies will complain that they won’t be able to get the best execs—my claim is that they will no longer attract the most notorious liars.
This current culture of “lie to shareholders, collect big bucks” adds significant risk so the risk/reward ratio for stocks are out of whack.
If you believe earnings numbers you will get burned.
One more thing.....I have often said that small individual investors need to be on the BOD’s. With more transparency, you really think we would still see these asinine golden parachutes?
Propaganda from those who fear a portion of social Security contributions might get invested in private retirement accounts
The poll is drivel
You got it.....it is easy to fudge quarterly numbers.
You should have to wait to get bonuses and bonuses should only be rewarded for multi-year performance of a stock.
“Drawing the highest number of negative reviews were real estate and savings accounts”
...not sure what the article means by ‘real estate’ as a negative investment..... a paid off mortgage on a house and some land can give you a lot of peace of mind.
What is “propaganda” about this?
Wall Street corruption helped bring this country to its knees and was bailed out not too long ago.
How soon we forget.
(and yes, .gov was part of the problem, but Wall Street was a huge part too)
I asked the question for clarification. I don't deny that there can be manipulation of markets, but generally speaking, I think the markets are reasonably fair and an investor with a small amount of education and research still has a fair chance. So many people seem to think the stock market is a place where one should be able to seek guaranteed returns with zero risk. They will most likely lose with that approach.
You never addressed the point I made in my post. Things like that happen every week, and yet there are never any ramifications.
Then why should people trust the market?
In other words, there are instances of malpractice in medicine; would you skip seeing all doctors? There are "lemons" produced in the auto industry; would you avoid a car purchase at all costs? There are shoddy builders in the construction business; would you avoid all home-buying or renovations? The answer is "no," you would not forgo any of those. Why would you stay away from any market investment?
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