Anyone that thinks otherwise has no idea what goes on with the big money. The unsuspecting public get burned left and right and keep coming back for more because the media says you must invest in equities for long term growth. What a bunch of nonsense. I would bet 99% of people lose in the stock market.
Yes its a scam. SPX is one of the most manipulated indexes in the world. Institutions traders / hedge funds/mutual funds/ various other sundry pin stripped ghouls on Wall street play it every day. That is why you see it stop on a dime and do not crash, cause no one would like to kill their golden goose and start working at the local car wash...
Whether the market is as crooked as a Dog's hind-leg or as straight as an arrow. There are people who couldn't trade it successfully if their lives depended on it.
IMO anybody who gets their investment advice from the media deserves to get burned. Trading by headlines will make you buy tops and sell bottoms.
The stock market is there to create liquidity and help the listed companies raise funds for their operations. It was never invented to provide easy money for every man and his dog.
"Stock Market Is A Scam" of coarse, wtf else did you think it was, purchasing a portion of a company at it's current value? try to think like a scammer, how would you move the market to get the most out of the average trader? if you wanna do real business you gotta think 'legal scams ' and 'legal market domination', see what people are demanding, give them what they want, but in a f*cked up way so you make the most profit out of it, if you have big money you can create false desires in humans and once done feed them with the new shit they desire if you can't beat them join them somethings you just gotta do the way it's done, not the way it appeals to your emotions, put away nonsense like conscience and morals, there are no such things, this world is a bitch and pretty much everyone in it is a bitch too, so you'll lose if you're not one
You think the fact that they drop weak companies and add strong companies all along might cause a perpetual up bais.