h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Treat advice on "getting in at the bottom and selling at the top" with stocks cautiously: if anyone could actually do this, they would make more money selling this knowledge to brokers...a bit like crystal ball gazing, there are a lot of hacks out there that claim to be able to "pick the winners".

The best strategy to increase your wealth through stocks for those who are risk tolerant, but are not prepared to do the incredible amount of market watching that comes with being an amateur investor, is to get some advice on blue chip stocks and be prepared to hold them for a long time (over ten years).

If you look at historical charts on stocks and the stock market, short-term activity is volatile, but long-term activity usually shows consistent growth. That is, holding your stocks in the long run smooths out those times when share prices plummet, but keep going up consistently.