Many people wish that they could get involved in the stock market, but are intimidated by one or more of its characteristics. First, while there is potential to make a lot of money if you choose the right stocks and positioning, there is an even bigger potential to lose money by making hasty, uninformed decisions.

You don’t have to be a trained stock market analyst to know that the past few years have been hard on the market. Even companies that were said to be too big to fail have found themselves holding worthless stock.