I invested in stocks in the late 90s/early 2000s. I learned how
   to do it and I discovered I was VERY good at one particular
   method. It's called Contrarian investing. Basically, you go
   against the surrounding sentiment and look for hidden surprises.
   I did slow investing and only did it for 2-3 yrs, but I lived
   off the profits successfully while starting a business here in
   florida. 2-3 yrs of work and I managed to get about 10 yrs
   results of good decisions, even through stock market crashes and
   such inbetween, before I used up the $ from my little
   experiment. So, I'm going with what I know: Go against the tide
   when you identify it and see what isn't being looked at. Not as
   a conspiracy but as fact-finding.