For further clarify above statement, let us take an instance.

Instance: John deprived by 72 per cent wherein market was down by 52 per cent, at the same time when he earns $36,000/- per annum, and invests in shares regularly. The market fall happened as a big down fall on his portfolio.

There is lot more behind the scene of market pitfalls. Wherein, John should be more alert, about his money.  But he on the other hand, was profusely depended on RM of the Broking Company, who advised him 39 stocks for next 12 months taking his believe towards great performance by the stocks, which actually did not happened and consequences came across as a significant loss in his investment.

Where his fault lies? Before investing for 12 months he did not even checked the earlier performance of the stocks. It should be in investor’s first priority, to strictly check the benchmark performances before investing. The RM of the Broking Company bluffed with him while showing him calculated sheets of other stocks, which was doing pretty well.

Market is not a piece of cake, which you can buy (as shares) and eat easily. You should have right notion where you are investing and why you are investing in that particular firm. Moreover, if the firm has been newly introduced than do not forget to check the market values of its shares, and trust worthy Broking Companies related to the firm, that actually provides reliable, free stocks information and based on traded value.
Understand and study Market and companies before investing: Before investing, litmus test is very important. Some leading broking companies provide you the right knowledge by their expert analysts. With the large research teams and time-to-time updated reports about the market is what make them more reliable than other. They provide free information before you invest because they want to do some serious business and you can trust them but it takes a lot more search about these companies.
Research before you invest: For the long-term prospects, “research” is the key to avoid all hurdles before you invest. Research about stocks, Broking Company and the detail of their long-term performance and competitive prospects of the company, do not forget market is not the place to waste your time and money because you never know when you miss the advantageous investment.
Read your stocks: Researches have been done, and statistics shows that a particular share is doing well for about a year, I am sure you might be thinking to take a plunge in the same one. However your prediction could be wrong as the high P/E multiples indicates the discounting of very high growth rates. Which is a difficult task for a company to maintain its growth rate as it keeps growing larger. So when a company having tremendous growth rate then, it is quite obvious that it will too make a loss in the near future. The frequent changes in the market of a particular stock can also re-rated downwards later on.
Mutual funds: if time is your bondage then, I would recommend Mutual Funds as the right option, to avoid updating tracks about stocks in your portfolio, Systematic Investment Plan in Mutual funds can offer you the good amount of money without going into the details of the stocks.