FINANCE
6 Stock Market Investing Tips &
Guide for Beginners – Checklist
B
ernard Baruch, known as “The Lone Wolf of
Wall Street,” owned his own seat on the New
York Stock Exchange by age 30 and became
of the country’s best known financiers by 1910. Mr.
Baruch, while a master of his profession, had no
illusions about the difficulties of successful stock
market investing, saying, “The main purpose of the
stock market is to make fools of as many men as pos-
sible.” According to Ken Little, author of 15 books on
investing and personal finance topics, “If you are an
individual investor in the stock market, you should
know that the system stacks the deck in its favor.”
At the same time, there are literally hundreds of
thousands of individuals who buy and sell corporate
securities on one of the regulated stock exchanges
or the NASDAQ regularly and are successful. A prof-
itable outcome is not the result of luck, but the ap-
plication of a few simple principles derived from the
experiences of millions of investors over countless
stock market cycles. While intelligence is an asset in
any endeavor, a superior IQ is not a prerequisite of
investment success. Peter Lynch, renowned portfolio
investor of the Magellan Fund from 1977 to 1990,
claimed that everyone has the brainpower to follow
the stock market: “If you can make it through fifth-
grade math, you can do it.”
Tips for Stock Market In-
vesting
Everyone is looking for a quick and easy way to rich-
es and happiness. It seems to be human nature to
constantly search for a hidden key or some esoteric
bit of knowledge that suddenly leads to the end of
the rainbow or a winning lottery ticket.
While some people do buy winning tickets or a
common stock that quadruples or more in a year, it
is extremely unlikely, since relying upon luck is an
investment strategy that only the foolish or most
desperate would choose to follow. In our quest for
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