I would like to add that beside the threat of the bear, there are certainly many more dangers in the stock "forest".  People should not rush headlong into the stock market without understanding the perils involved. There are many ways that we could lose money. 1. Daylight Robbery - CLOB shares To recap - In the old days, we could purchase Malaysian shares in Singapore through over-the-counter trade, the so-called Central Limit Order Book, or CLOB, as the market was known. Malaysia unexpectedly introduced capital controls on Sept 1, 1998 (Asian Financial Crisis) and declared the trading of Malaysian shares on Singapore's Clob International to be illegal.  All CLOB shares investors were burnt badly. I lost 100% of my investment. Lucky that my invested amount was small as I got ......