The foolish amongst us

sa1nt

I agree, it is a form of gambling, but at least if you do research (& I don't mean reading the papers tips), like looking at a companies earnings, management team, product, market share etc etc. you are greatly lessening the risk & having a stop loss at least means you know how much you are risking.
NEVER listen to the bulletin boards & don't be tempted by the brokers that ring you out of the blue trying to flog you their latest up & coming share that's going to make at least 300% profit within 6 months!
I have an ebay business & the money I earn from that I use to buy shares, but only ones I have spent hours & hours researching & watching its chart behaviourfor a while. (I have computer programs I use to do this + read loads & loads of books on investing & trading & even then have got it wrong with an unexpected profit warning so I wouldn't ever risk loads at any one time).

Best wishes
Julie