Monday, October 1, 2012

Financial Education and the Share Market

When the stock market falls, it scares people away, causes them concern, and worries them if they thinking about buying stocks and shares. That makes sense, as essentially your money is going to go the way of a rat on a sinking ship, straight into the deep blue ocean, never to be seen again. When the stock market is rising and the profits are easy to make, people become less wary, perhaps hear stories of other people making a profit, and thinking they can to make some easy money on the stock market. People's perceptions are constantly changing depending on certain factors, and that is why many people make mistakes in the share market.
As the share market rises, the media will often start speaking about the growth and profits made by people, as well as companies speaking out about their profits, projected profits and how much their shareholders. This speaks to a lot of people who are either struggling for cash, have debts to repay, have a family they want to more time to spend with them, or just want to make large amounts of money in a quick amount of time. The problem is that when the market is rising, it is going to fall at some time, and many average or first time investors won't see this coming. Their first few losses will come as a shock, and if they aren't careful all their invested money could be lost before they realize anything is amiss.
Read Books and Educate Yourself
Before anyone begins investing, buying, selling and trading on the stock market, it is highly recommended, no matter your situations or what you've heard other people have experienced with shares, that you do your research from various books, online sources, and possibly also starting a course in the stock market and shares. Many people think that trading in the stock market is more luck than skill, however, like all professions and careers, it requires a lot of previous knowledge to be able to 'read' the stock market, and be able to have some idea of how to predict what 'trends' are happening at the time. Like an accountant, marine biologist, session musician, essentially any specialist job, being involved in the stock market takes education and learning from various sources for many years.
Know and Understand the Language
The stock market has its own language and terminology that can cause confusion to untrained people. Do you know what it means to 'read the stock market', have you heard about the 'trends' and have no idea what it means? Do you know what a 'raging bull market is', or a 'bear market'? Likely you've heard these terms before in the news, whether in print or on television. Hearing the words used are one thing, but actually knowing what they mean to you and the share market is quite important. It's like going to a foreign country and just knowing enough to ask for a train ticket and order a meal, you'll be able to get yourself from A to B, but you won't be able to have any meaningful conversations with the locals.