h? Seems as though, with the subprime situation especially, stocks are being purchased randomly, with total disregard for news, making stock picking nearly impossible to do unless you are an "insider" and many companies are selling extra stock on good news keeping their prices steady without gains on that news! Have the rich found a way to insider trade each other and make the lesser rich stay that way all their lives, with guesses being only as good as a megabucks ticket?
Good news is often priced in long before the news actually breaks. Not because of any insider trading, but simply because that news was anticipated or rumored beforehand. If you intend to try to trade on news then you will be fighting a losing battle. There are a lot of people who are faster and better informed than you or I. Once we know about it, it is too late. But the small investor has advantages that the large investor doesn't. It's much easier to move 1000 shares, than it is to move 1,000,000. There is no conspiracy among the rich to keep the rest of us poor. It's a simple matter of intelligence. Anybody with a modicum of intelligence can make money in the stock market.