Abstract
The stock market holds a special fascination for many people who, while working at their regular jobs, try to create additional wealth for themselves in their spare time. This type of person is the small investor. He can be described as the small investor because of his individual financial stature in the market and because the small investors of America amount for less than ten per cent of the daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange. | The small investor usually trades in odd-lots—less than 100 shares—because he cannot afford to buy more. The small investor also has different aims in the stock market depending on what he wants to do and what type of person he is. There are basically three types of small investors: the speculator who is trying to get rich quick, the lone-term investor who is waiting for his stock to grow in value over the years, and the small investor who is looking for income from dividends. The small investor is not only small in his financial stature, he is small in his success in the market from whatever standpoint he tries to make a profit, except for the long-term trader who sticks with a stock he believes in. This lack of success can be attributed largely to the small investor’s approach to investment. The small investor is small because of his lack of money which means that he has to work for a living and he can only devote part of his spare time to investing rather than approaching it as a full time occupation. The small investor who expects great success in the market by investing in his spare time is a little like the athlete who expects to become an Olympic decathlon champion and only practices for five minutes a day.