I no longer dabble with the stock markets after watching several speculator day traders fritter away their lives, lose their homes, their families, their lives, and minds. I watched them use the most sophisticated stock market trend prediction software, surf the Internet all day long looking and posting in forums, due diencephalic research, etc...you name it. My conclusion in today’s world not the yesteryear stock market - the stock market is a heavily manipulated system that induces people to invest their hard earned money despite what their common sense tells them. It’s like gambling only in a more orderly fashion where the investor is led to believe he is playing a game where he can use his instincts and intellect to make decisions that will lead to more money. What he doesn’t realize is that the system s rigged and they have already taken all of thy into account like a skilled actuary that sets insurance rates. The only people that can play to win nowadays are the ones that can afford to lose.
Benjamin Graham -- who was Warren Buffett's mentor more than 40 years ago and wrote some great books on stock market investing -- correctly pointed out that anyone investing in the stock market should know a lot about the companies they own before they buy into them. Someone who makes stock market buy/sell decisions based on some kind of predictive software isn't "investing" at all.
The market dipped to 6,600 in March 2009 and is now over 14,500. It's all being manipulated, but someone is making money. When they start cashing in a lot of others are gonna get hurt, I think.