Stock market is a good place for investment or gambling ?

The stock market is the capital market, and the main purpose of this market is raising fund for business, so naturally our invested money must flow into other channels Don’t border if your money melting out to somewhere else :)
When making an investment decision, you need to trust yourself. In order to make that decision, you need to research about that company, from business reports, the financial statements to the real business situation that they are facing and very importance that the market trend and market situation. Then you'll understand why you have to have a clear understanding of what you are doing with your money.

To monitor results and track information, there are many ways can be used from internal relations, to the mass media. I recommended that you should consider to go to the company directly and build relationships with major investments (from 3 -5 billion or more).

Currently in Vietnam is not relatively rare about “cooking the books” but not really difficult to detect that tricks if you take a closer look at the cash flow. Note that companies use the big4 audit team, that audit reports are acceptable and relizeable. For that you just need to take closer look at the exceptions.

For information, you can go to SSC,VSD and exchanges websites or some farmous financial sites such as cafef, stox, stockbiz…
Good luck!

I have experience in Forex trading. Do you like to trade this?

I have been managing pension funds for expatriates and investing in various types of assets: mutual funds, stocks, hedge funds, private equity, loans, convertible bonds etc...
The 1 mistake most people do is confusing Investment and Speculating/Gambling. Let me give you and example that is striking on how thin is the line between those 2.
I Invest in a hedge fund managed by George Soros (famous event-driven hedge fund manager) who speculate on currencies going up or down. (note here that I do not invest in GBP or Euro speculating that the USD will go stronger.
So am I investing or am I speculating?
George Soros is speculating but he has accumulated 45 years of this skill, so he is a master.
As for me I invest in George Soros, I know he understand what he is doing, he has a proven track record, he is honest -as when the markets are unfavorable, he returns money to investor, he does not accept new money for the sake of getting a 2% management fee on it- and more importantly he manages my money the same as his -as he invests his own money into his fund, very much like Warren Buffett does-.

Apply to Vietnam stock markets, most CEO have no proven education and background of success in managing company in face of strong competition. Corporate governance, minority investors interest and long-term growth for the company are very rarely the top priority of the CEOs you entrust your money with by investing with their listed-company.
NB. I don't speculate on Vietnamese CEOs being good or bad... just too risky for my money. Don't listen to that lie that in the long-term the value goes up. Because in the short-term, AIG, Lehman brothers, Bach Tuyet, Vinashin, Vinalines... go bankrupt and the value of your shares/investment can become 0=zero!

Your question is key in investing - "How much trust & precise of those information records ?" To invest objectively we need transparent information that provides an exact depiction of the company and its performance as well as its risks. This is hard to obtain in many countries. Even in the US where we think we have attained it we still have situations like Bernie Madoff, Enron, Countrywide and others where the numbers aren't as clear as the market thought.

The stock market is a powerful tool for driving the economy. To perform well you need to be objective and invest without emotion - that includes as much when to sell and when to buy. Second you cannot watch your money every moment of every day unless you are in the industry. It is best to find an investment fund who you trust. If you want to buy multiple stocks then buy multiple funds. You will be better off.

Thanks everyone for your opinions. However, I'm still looking forward to hearing your true experience in trading in the stock market, such as about your feelings, thinking, reactions when facing unexpected fluctuations of selling and buying.... I think most people who have experienced in such situations would have the same feelings with the ones gambling in casinos..........