What percentage of Americans understand the stock market?

I know that ___ percent own stock but that does not necessarily mean they understand why stock prices fluctuate and how the market runs.





What percentage of Americans actually understand the stock market?|||To understand the market is to understand how to manage risk and very few people do. Many people who own stock, through mutual funds or retirement plans have other people managing their investments I would say between 5 and 10 percent and that includes professionals.|||Understanding the stock market involves understanding all of the many factors that produce the risk factors that control every aspect of the growth of a given stock. One fact that everyone needs to be aware of today is that the various fund managers control 90% of the capital in the markets. That percentage has grown continuously over the past 15 years because many people feel incompetent when it comes to investing in the markets. And they are right, the markets are a treacherous place to invest when the average market making fund manager has $1 billion+ in resources to use to manipulate any individual or block of stocks. Many individual investors are being manipulated by the large fund managers like puppets. Just ask the individual investors who were down 50%+ last year. In order for each of them to recover, their positions will have to grow 100% over next ----- years to get back to where they were in 2007.|||If I polled every American in the USA on if March 2009 was a good time to buy stocks, and it was conducted in March of 2009, I wouldn't be up almost 50% in the stock market I know that.|||Less than 5% of Americans understand the stock market. I think less than 10% of "investment advisers" do as well.|||A better question might be "what percent of Americans who think they understand the stock market actually do".





I'm glad it's so low because that's how I make my living...trading against them.|||Not as many as who think they do.





Just look at all the questions that mention "short term" and "investment" in the same sentence.|||whats 'stock market'? doh!!!