Can You Really Make a Lot of Money from Stocks? 5 Investing Strategies Ranked by Risk Level

So you’re wondering if you can make a lot of money from stocks? The short answer is yes — but the path matters more than you think. While the stock market offers tremendous wealth-building potential, the methods to get there vary dramatically in risk and success rates.

The Compound Interest Trap (Or Secret?)

Here’s what most people get wrong: the fastest path to real wealth isn’t actually fast at all. The math is almost magical when you run the numbers. Put $10,000 into the market earning 10% annually. If you withdraw profits each year, you pocket $30,000 after 30 years. But leave it alone and let it compound? You’re looking at nearly $200,000 — that’s 20x your initial investment.

This is why the stock market has been a wealth-generation machine for centuries. The S&P 500 has never posted losses over any 20-year rolling period. Twenty years. Even with all the chaos and crashes in between, time smooths everything out.

The Aggressive Plays (Where Most People Lose)

If waiting 20 years makes you itch, understand what you’re getting into.

Fast-Moving Day Trading: Sounds thrilling — jump in and out of stocks within a single day, sometimes multiple times. For professionals with sharp trend-reading skills, there’s money here. For everyone else? Statistics are brutal. Roughly 95% of retail day traders lose money. And most of them keep doing it anyway.

Betting Against Stocks (Short Selling): Shorting means you borrow shares, sell them, then buy them back hoping the price dropped. Profits happen when stocks fall, but losses are theoretically unlimited when they rise. In a market that trends upward long-term, short sellers need iron conviction and strong reasons — overvaluation, deteriorating fundamentals, macro headwinds. But even “obviously overvalued” stocks can keep climbing in bull markets.

Speculative Over-the-Counter Penny Stocks: These trade off public exchanges and can double on hype alone. Problem? They’re infested with pumpers who inflate prices before dumping their shares. Bankruptcy is common. Fraud is rampant. But yes, people do make wild gains — temporarily.

Meme Stock Gambles: GameStop jumped 400% in one week in January 2021. AMC hit 1,183% gains for the full year. Then reality set in, and both experienced crushing declines and wild swings. These aren’t long-term wealth builders — they’re speculation playgrounds where fortunes can evaporate as fast as they appeared.

The Verdict: Where Can You Make Real Money?

Yes, you can make a lot of money from stocks. But the sustainable way requires patience. The risky ways? They work for a tiny percentage of traders and blow up the rest.

If you’re serious about building wealth through the stock market, aggressive strategies might generate outsized short-term gains — but they’ll also keep you awake at night. The professionals might succeed, but statistically, retail investors who chase quick profits end up broke.

The boring truth: leave your money in the market for 10, 20, or 30 years. Let compound interest do the heavy lifting. That’s not exciting, but it works. That’s how real wealth gets built from stocks.