With enough knowledge, a person can start from $5,000 and have $20,000 by the end of the month. And I truly mean enough knowledge, because there is a very high learning curve. But once you reach that stage, the financial rewards are huge. I'm currently making $5,000 profit a month and I just learning about trading/investing in stocks, futures/commodities, and options as my main hobby about six months ago. I expect to have enough experience and strategy to be making $10,000 profit per month by the end of this year.Aside from few people in Honolulu who I know also trade successfully, there is barely anyone that I know who has a passing interest in this stuff. So I'm honestly wondering, why don't more people get into trading/investing when the financial rewards are huge?

Anything with a high reward has a high risk and day trading is such an example. You can make hundreds, thousands and even millions in no time... but your can lose it also. Most of the success in day trading is based on luck. If you are lucky, keep at it. What's right for you isn't necessarily right for everyone. Keep records of your wins and losses and consider writing a book for another stream of income. That way you can get even more money selling your experiences whether they turn out positive or negative.

Because there's a lot of risk involved, and it takes a lot of time and effort. If you find a good investor, that's one thing, but it takes a lot of time and effort to do so in the first place. Then you have to follow through, watching the moves the stock market / investor makes... it's too time consuming and compliicated for the average person.

There are rewards (instant gratification) but over the long run you will lose eventually. I have seen lots of professional day traders go bankrupt in a matter of days. It looks good to the new investor that just got himself an e*trade account, but the risk is really high, so high in fact that laws were passed to protect the brokers from the losses a few years ago. If you want to make money daytrading, you have to make gambles on things like income reports that are coming out the next day, and news, then hope the stock rises, but when you miss, you lose big. It is something that you can't describe, every investor thinks he knows better than the pros, so you just have to experience all your cash dropping out of you account to understand why people are not big into it anymore. I do it all the time. Could make just as much money if I bought long as an average.

I think that you answered your own question. You said "With enough knowledge".....That is the answer to your question. People today are not willing to invest the time or money to gain the knowledge necessary for making money in the stock market.The people who trade with "emotions" lose money.The people who trade with "an education" get financial rewards.When I say education, I am speaking of a finanacial education - not a 4 year college education. There are many programs out there that give you the education you need as well as the tools you need to get started.It is like learning a game of basketball or football. You can read as many books as you can on the subject, and you will not learn how to play. You have to get in the the game to learn how to play. Obviously, you will lose money while learning from making mistakes, but if you are conservative and stick with it, and educate yourself, it can be done.The education for these types of programs can cost a few thousand dollars, and committment. But lots of people spend money for education - such as $4,000.00 to learn how to gtive a dog a haircut, or $4,000.00 for a chef school, or $4,000.00 to learn how to be a manicurist, etc. So $4,000.00 for learning how to handle your finances for the rest of your life doesn't sound like so much money now does it?