Hello, one thing I hear a lot of people say when it comes to buy stocks is “I don’t want to lose my money”. This isn’t completely off-base. If you don’t understand the risks involved with investing in stocks and take appropriate action to mitigate those risks, the stock market can certainly be a risky place to put your money. On the other hand, if you have a good working knowledge of the risks involved in stock investing, and invest accordingly, the stock market can be a lot safer than you might think. But, even the most stable stocks can fluctuate quite a bit, especially if the economy hits a rough patch. And as a whole, the stock market is quite risky over short time periods. It’s common for the market to fluctuate up or down. However, as a whole, and over long periods of time, the stock market is not very risky. As we’ve seen, the stock market tends to deliver consistent, strong performance over long time periods, so if you’ve properly diversified your portfolio and have a long time frame to work with, you shouldn’t be too concerned with the risk involved.