If you don't understand s#$t about the stock market or Wall Street etc...

What is a good way to start learning about it?

I was in the investment world for more than 25 years. My best advice is this - read everything you can get your hands on. I would start with these 3 books -

(1) The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason - this puts everything into perspective - I will personally send you a copy of the book if you want me to. It made a difference in my life and I used to give it out to every client I ever had.

(2) One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
(3) How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil.

These 3 are easy to read and will cover most of the basics. Successful investing is all about common sense - knowing who you are and exactly how much risk you want to take. Good luck.

Save your money, 

to learn the basics  go here.

INVESTOPEDIA

awesome and informative site.

study price and time like a science, and use it to build a better ground for confirmation of trends. 

......and when you figure it out, please let the rest of us know.

"when everyone figures out the key to the market, they change the lock" - Art Cashin

who is they?

the goverment, the investment bankers

no i don't think so...........

GOD decides when nations fall

Clean sheet of karma will do first before we talk #'s

There is no new thing under the sun, and what will happen has happen before.

The entire universe is runs on cycles

and this is just another coming up too.  GL

 

RickeM,

Check morningstar.com everyday & go to the forums because people have all kinds of questions and valuable information....

Wish u the best....

 

Keep it simple, in a nutshell, for the most part, earnings drive the stock market.

When earnings are rising and continuing to improve, such as we have now, the stock market comes along for the ride.

The biggest mistake people make in my view is they think the economy needs to be doing well for stocks to rise and that's not true.

Look at the big picture of where we came from and where we're going.

If we're coming off a few years of upside in the market then yes the economy needs to being doing well for earnings to continue rising over that period and into the future for the stock market to rise.

But if we're coming off a period of large downside such as we just did then stocks become very cheap relative to earnings, then stocks can go up without a economy doing well, one that's improving is all that's needed and that's exactly what we have now and have had for some time and it's exactly why the stock market has gone up.

Basically, the 3 key elemets that pretty much tell you stocks will rise are, low interest rates, (when interest rates are low investors have very limited options for investments ), a low price to earnings ratio, ( in other words stocks are cheap relative to earnings), and last but not least, earnings rising, they don't need to be great just rising, improving. When earnings are rising that means the price to earnings ratio falls lower or stocks become even cheaper.   

If the stock market goes up faster than earnings then the price to earnings ratio goes up and stocks become more expensive.

Stocks can and often do  continue going up with a high price to earnings ratio, for this to happen, then yes, without question the economy must be doing very well.

With a lower price to earnings ratio has we have now the economy must be improving for stocks to rise.

In the middle of march the price to earnings ratio reach a low of around 12, in other words, stocks became  very cheap. We haven't seen stocks this cheap since going way, way back into the early 80's.  Over stock market history when stocks become this cheap and earnings begin rising, the stock market has gone on torrid runs that in some cases have lasted for years.

Since the middle of march the stock market has been performing exactly as it has over history, myself, I don't have any clue how the analyst missed it.

Fasten your seat belts folks coz we're going up from here !!!!!!!