Before you start investing in the stock market, you should have a clear understanding of investment principles so that you can profit from the stock market’s cycles. A simple investing principle is “Buy low and sell high,” but most of the investing public does the opposite.

When good news about a particular company appears in the press, the stock goes up. When that happens, people get greedy and buy at the high price thinking that stock will keep going up, and they can profit by selling at an even higher price than they already paid. After a couple of weeks or months, some bad news comes out about the particular company or a bad economic report or political event happens, and the stock starts coming down in price. When the price goes to less than the price they paid, stockholders get fearful and want to limit their loss or protect their capital and sell at a loss. Unfortunately after they sold, the stock starts to come up in price. Now they are kicking themselves, feeling that they sold too early.