Many people will try their hand at investing within their lifetime - if not now then maybe when they retire. But it often comes as a shock to new investors that the things we think should work in the market often don't. That is why I have made a list of the Top 5 reasons people lose in the stock market so you can avoid them. Here they are:

1: Most investors get miserable results because they buy stock on the way down in price. Logically this makes sense - if a stock was good value at $50, it must be a steal at $35, right? Actually, no. You never know how far a stock will fall, and you will only lose more the more you buy stocks that are falling.

2: First-time investors are often looking for a way to make a quick buck in the market - they want huge profits with a tiny starting capital, without doing the necessary leg-work or research into a method of investing. The irony is, these people often end up scared of the market after taking huge losses, and never trade again.

3: New investors that buy second-rate stocks because their dividends are high, or they have a low P/E (price to earnings) ratio often get stung. The more a company pays out in dividends, the weaker their capital position is - they now have to borrow that money they could have used to build their company. And history has actually shown no correlation between low P/E ratios and winning stocks - in fact quite the opposite - many big winners have been stocks with high P/E ratios.

4: Many unskilled investors will stubbornly hold on to their stocks that are losing if they fall in price. They could cut their losses at a reasonable level, but instead hold on, hoping for it to return, and instead end up taking a far bigger loss.

5: And finally, it is incredible the amount of investors who are afraid to buy a stock breaking into new highs. Most would prefer to buy a stock making new lows because it looks "cheap" - but in reality a stock making new highs has a higher probability of rising than one at new lows.

So there you have it. While there are more reasons people lose in the market, these ones are my favorite (probability as I've been through them myself). Hopefully reading this will help you avoid these pitfalls, and make more money in the stock market.