I find it interesting how ignorant people are of the stock market and investing in the stock market.

The stock market is a means for capitalizing corporations. Investors are looking for corporations that will make money and pay dividends on their investments. While we see stock prices increase or decrease on the stock market this has very little to do with the actual corporation because the vast majority of this money relates to transactions between individuals and not the corportation. The corporation only benefits based upon new stock issuances where it obtains more capital. The value of stocks are directly related to the dividends or growth of the company (promising higher dividends) and not upon speculation of whether the stock will go up or down in value. Those that "gamble" on the cost of a stock are ignorant of sound investment practices. Don't blame the stock market for this, blame the ignorant investors. The true value of a stock remains based upon the ability of a corporation to make a profit.

If a corporation is not making a profit then it is probably a bad investment and if it is making a profit then it is a good investment.

Can you eliminate ignorant investors?

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Soldiers swear to protect and defend the Constitution with their lives.

Politicians swear to protect and defend the Constitution with someone else's life.

I dont think you are even aware how the 'market' functions.I expect such ignorance from folks on open source forums but the fact is youre just parroting what youve been conditioned to say by someone who should know better,being a grad of Columbia and Harvard and all.

Narrow short term holdings are gambling-long term holdings historically produces steady gains when properly diversified.

Its a fact.

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A stock market is merely a convenient financial device whereby: (a) companies can raise capital for expansion and (b) investors can cash out of their investments.

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

stocks are part ownership in a company. Once you lose your money in a casino it's gone. Stock prices fluctuate and usually always go back up and you always have part ownership in the company. You need to do some research about investing instead of arguing from a position of ignorance. Read some of the previuos posts, they know the score too.

People who 'gamble' arent necesarily ignorant."Its lure of easy money,its got a very strong appeal" (Don Henley-Smugglers Blues).In fact people the people who engage in these risky types of trades are generally far from ignorant.They are either greedy or connected or both.

Intrisic value of a company does lie in the fundamentals.Getting into a company while its down because its cheap and its balance sheets are f-ed up is a way of obtaining value-this does not signal ignorance.It would only be ignorance if one blindly invested w/o any research in the destination of their cash.Speculative value of the company is mainly how the street trades on a short term basis.This lets emotion and psycological influences dictate results often.Self fulfilling prophecies so to speak.

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If the stock market was eliminated, there would surely be other venues in which people can invest. It might be done directly with companies as a loan to that company, it might be with banks, it might be with government bonds, etc. There are plenty of places to invest without needing to enter the stock market.

My point is that the trading, and the swapping of shares with no assets, and all the false economy this presents, is detrimental to society.

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Did you know both our problems and the solutions can be found simply by looking in our mirrors...and...Never confuse the extraordinary stuff I think and write with that of a well-balanced person...

I'm still waiting for someone to provide a positive reason for the stock market??

It's just a casino as you say...

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Did you know both our problems and the solutions can be found simply by looking in our mirrors...and...Never confuse the extraordinary stuff I think and write with that of a well-balanced person...

Here's a simple reason.

The failure of AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and possible WaMu has absolutely nothing to do with the value of their stocks. It has to do with poor business practices by these companies. The devaluation of the stock value merely reflects the fact that as businesses they have failed due to gross mismanagement.

By way of analogy, a new Mercedes might be worth $40K but if you blow the engine in it might only be worth $5K. Would you eliminate auto sales because someone blew up the engine on the Mercedes?

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Soldiers swear to protect and defend the Constitution with their lives.

Politicians swear to protect and defend the Constitution with someone else's life.

[quote]Yeah...it takes lots of intelligence to give $500 to a broker and tell them to buy a few shares of stock.

This is true and false. It's true that initial stock offerings and further stock offerings raise capital for the company. But after the release, people are merely buying and selling pieces of paper...either inflating or deflating the stock values with no regard for the true position of the actual company.

This is the casino.

This is about 90% untrue!

This is 90% untrue.

This is 90% untrue.

Ignorant investors can't even be defined...

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Did you know both our problems and the solutions can be found simply by looking in our mirrors...and...Never confuse the extraordinary stuff I think and write with that of a well-balanced person...

It's a FACT that all investments are a gamble...

__________________
Did you know both our problems and the solutions can be found simply by looking in our mirrors...and...Never confuse the extraordinary stuff I think and write with that of a well-balanced person...