What is the stock market to you?

My colleague thinks it is just an electronic platform to buy and sell shares.

Some believe it is a gambling table. Perhaps that’s why Genting is often the most traded stocks.

Another might think it is a place to park retirement funds in blue chips for steady return.

Yet another might think it is a place where the big crocodiles eat up the small fishes and avoid it at all costs.

I believe it is the best place to generate excess return amongst all asset classes.

My grandmother doesn’t know the existence of it.

It is subjective to define what a stock market is because different people have different experience and thus perceive it differently. Just like how the blind men describe an elephant:

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

“God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, “Ho! what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me ’tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake:

“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee.

“What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain,” quoth he;

“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: “E’en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope,

“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

Poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based on Jainism and Buddhism. Udana 68-69: Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant

We are still quite blind to the concept of stock market isn't it?