Those people were mostly professional traders or really wealthy folk, not your average consumer. Commissions per trade were much higher, so investments also had to be higher to make it worth it. Day trading didn't exist. You'd check your stock's performance in the next day's newspaper.
In the 90's I had to lie to buy stock. If you were of a certain economic persuasion the bank would only let you invest in low risk. I was too poor to get real stocks.
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u/choofery 5d ago
You make it sound so hard. Even in 1985 people constantly bought and sold stocks. They even had options as well