So with all the emphasis on money these days why aren’t more Americans getting rich in the financial markets?

It’s a good question.

While individual investors have made great strides in recent years but, for many nonprofessionals, the stock market remains an impenetrable maze of confusing numbers. Lawmakers, the Federal Reserve, market analysts, and professional economists seem to talk in a foreign language. Just what is a "J-curve"? What are "monetary aggregates," and why are fixed-income (bond) managers constantly stumbling over "yield curves"?

Some Wall Street veterans would rather keep all the good financial information to themselves. Access to analysts’ reports, fund managers’ commentary, road shows, and long lunch meetings are traditional birthrights to Wall Street pros. Their inside access to what’s really happening in the business world gives them a huge advantage over average investors. Key information allows them to pop out of dicey positions or pop into lucrative ones long before individual investors see any changes in the market.

Wall Street insiders also keep getting better access to lucrative deals. According to some investor advocates, Wall Street’s secret lists, known as "pot lists," confirm that the largest institutional investors are reaping the profits from hot initial public offerings (IPOs), leaving few opportunities for individual investors to participate. Companies like Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest mutual fund management firm, routinely receive double the allocation given to the next largest institutional investor, and more than the average mom-and-pop investment account.

This may sound unfair; the truth often does. In the hurly-burly financial markets, volume is king and timely information is its handmaiden. Holding the winning cards is what Wall Street is all about.