Investing in cryptocurrency can seem like a shortcut to wealth. You don’t need to understand anything about long-term market trends or have any knowledge about the company you are buying stock in. You don’t have to understand how dividends work, or any of the other “rules of the road.” You just need a hot tip from a friend that “SuperTechCoin” is going to explode.

If you get in on the ground level… boom, you’re a millionaire!! Of course, that scenario only happens to far less than one in a million, and despite what some think, investing in the stock market has actually been proven to be a far better overall strategy for maximizing profits over the long term. But we get it, for people who are new to the idea of stock investing, the whole thing can seem complicated and can be difficult for some to know how to get started.

That’s why it’s great to be able to report on new stock market investing apps that are helping people discover their talents and improve on existing skills. A stock market app allows you to become an owner of shares, and they will hold the shares for you in your name until you decide your next move. You get your dividend at 0% commission, 0% markup, 0% ticketing, and a 0% delay. In short, you can become a shareholder at 0% commission – using only your smartphone. But even more interesting perhaps is the ‘practice option’ that these apps are providing.

They give you a demo amount of money, up to US$100,000, and you use this demo money to sharpen your skills and practice your strategies. You invest with this demo money as if it were real, but of course, you won’t suffer any actual losses as you experiment with different strategies. Along the way, you can get tips and build your trading confidence by using the app.

In some ways, it’s a ‘gamification’ of stock investing, but a better word would be a ‘simulation.’ Before pilots fly planes they go into pilot training simulators, and before you jump into the market you can simulate US$100,000 of mobile trading. 

And back to the whole cryptocurrency hype – because that’s what many experts believe it is, hype. You might be familiar with the ridiculously amusing tale of the world’s first investment bubble: the Great Tulip Mania of 1634-1637. Back then, some in Europe – for some reason – decided that certain tulips that were shaped in such a way or had certain special colors made them extra valuable. These ‘special’ tulips suddenly became worth significantly more than other tulips. They went as far as creating a tulip futures market with people bidding on to-be-grown flowers.

We’re talking about a craze that at its zenith, has reported stories “such as an offer of 5 hectares (12 acres) of land for one of two existing Semper Augustus bulbs.” For a few years, people went crazy buying these flowers for insane prices. Millions and millions of dollars were spent on these so-called investments until one-day people woke up and realized it was all meaningless. “Um… hey everyone… these are like…flowers, you know?” The next second, as soon as faith in this new ‘value’ collapsed, the entire market collapsed and ‘investors’ were ruined.

Now we look back and chuckle at how foolish the ‘flower investors’ were. Will, however, people be looking back in 50 years and mocking us for our cryptocurrency bubble? It’s certainly not out of the question.

Some will point out that stocks can be volatile and this sometimes is true but they tend to be a lot less volatile than cryptocurrencies. Stocks are also a wise choice for those who can leave their money in place and don’t need to access it, in other words, investors with enough capital to right out volatility and understand that the longer you leave an investment, the better. When investing in stocks you can also choose to shift to more aggressive ‘growth stocks’ or ‘dividend stocks’ which are safer.

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One can also switch between the two as different situations arise, or if perhaps you need to withdraw funds for some reason. The Wild West days of cryptocurrency have made a small group of people very rich and, naturally, some investors will wonder why that couldn’t be them… but having strong regulations such as the kinds governments have put in place for stock exchanges, brokers, and companies means you are much better protected and play by the same rules as everyone else.

Of course, no regulatory body is perfect but stock exchanges that have been in operation for decades have investor protections in place that generally do a good job of protecting your basic right to information and give you a fair shot at smartly investing and reaping wise returns. Oh, and you can hone your skills first on an investment app!