Learning about the stock market is crucial to your understanding about the world of finance and money and how they inter-relate with each other.

Learning about the stock market means learning about:

1. How the stock market functions and what factors influence its movements

2. The stock market's past performance and history

3. Money management and personal financial management

4. How to select and run with winning companies

How the Stock Market Functions

Stock markets are fairly volatile places where prices fluctuate literally every second while business trade is happening. Many factors affect the demand and supply of stock and hence their prices. In general, the economic outlook, the individual company's stock prices, any pending news (good or bad) and announcements by the company, regulatory changes to the market, breakthroughs and product or technology innovations, and other factors like calamities, weather, etc are all stock market influencers. You should subscribe to a local newspaper or read an online service such as MarketWatch to find out about the factors influencing the stock markets globally as well as locally in your region of the world.

Understand the Past Performance and History of Stock Markets

Learning about the stock market implies learning about the historical data of the stock market so you can learn from the mistakes of others. You should brush up on the history of fundamentals such as accounting and finance terms, what has caused the stock market crashes of the past and what has led to stock market buoyancy. Understanding these factors will help reduce the learning curve ahead of you.

Money Management

Understanding the basics of money management and getting your personal finances in order are some of the crucial first steps to learning about the stock market. You should have a basic understanding about economic and finance terms such as savings, investment, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, balance sheets and more.

How to Pick Winning Companies

Most of all, stock market investing is about choosing to ride with the winners. You must have a good antenna for spotting winners in the market; companies that have a good business model, sound management practices, are in the news for their innovations and positive approaches to business, keep clear and transparent accounting records, are functioning in a stable or growing industry sector, have a respectable book value and Price to Earnings ratio (P/E ratio), etc.

So as you can see, learning about the stock market is an essential strategy before you can begin investing in the stock market. But once you are over the initial learning hump, the lucrative world of stock market riches can be yours.