Gee, who knew? Well those of us who have invested for decades knew this from day one. I found out almost 30 years ago when a friend of mine told me about it. He's married to a doctor and they had about 2 million he wanted to invest in the market. He figured with so much money he would get an 'inside' tip from his broker regarding some good deals. His broker laughed when my friend suggested his huge amount would be able to get a good deal. When he looked confused regarding the broker's attitude he asked what was so funny. The broker replied "That 2 million of your is just peanuts buddy compared to the BIG boys' funds which are in the BILLIONS. So you'll only be able to buy what other individual investors purchase but you'll still make money" My buddy was shocked and replied "You're implying that some of this is fixed then?" The broker replied, "It's ALL fixed my friend, all of it" So all of the rocket scientists over here are decrying the way the markets are protecting the hedge funds over the small investors. What did you expect? If it's all rigged then that is exactly what they would do. I've been investing over 30 years and have made the same mistakes most investors have made - expecting a fast buck for the return, excessive trading, buying a stock then watching it plunge and selling it at a loss, etc. It took me a while to figure it all out after a lot of studying and pondering. The facts are very simple. About 90% of all stocks move in the same way. In other words, in a selloff they will go down whereas in a rally the 90% will go up. What you have to remember is this is only on paper until you sell so if you have the patience to whether the storm you'll do good. Another thing, and this is the most important, don't expect a quick profit. The only time I ever made an excellent profit was when I sold something by accident. It was a Sirius block of stock. We were going on vacation and I wanted to protect the stock from a loss so I put in what I thought was a stop/limit order to sell if it went down a certain amount. What I didn't know was that I had hit the wrong selection and had actually put in an order to sell the stock around the price it was trading at that day. The sale triggered as soon as the market opened and my 3 thousand shares of Sirius stock. It sold at about 9 dollars a share. As far as I can recall, the stock has never gone up again to that level - at least when I was trading it. But, for the most part, you have to STAY in the market and keep a good stock for a while to get a good return on it. The best bet is to have 1 or 2 mutual funds with some bonds included for protection. I invest now solely in Vanguard Index funds and have never regretted my decision. Our returns for last year, a very choppy trading year, were over 10% and I'm happy with that. Just remember, the stock market is rigged but you can work with that if you're not greedy.