Curtis Carroll is an inmate at San Quentin Prison who teaches stock trading and is known as the “Oracle of San Quentin.” He has spent most of his life incarcerated and is serving fifty-four years-to-life for his part in a botched robbery that ended in murder. Curtis isn’t the typical person who finds his way to the stock market – especially when you consider his history.

Curtis didn’t know how to read when he went to prison, but he taught himself. One day he was reading a newspaper and, believing he had the sports section, was confused by the information listed in front of him. It turned out that he had accidentally opened to the financial section. He asked a fellow inmate what it was, and the inmate’s response was “This is where white people keep their money.”

The more he studied, the more Curtis realized that the financial markets were available to everyone. In interviews, he talks about reading the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and business magazines and publications all the time and said he couldn’t believe that anybody, literally just anybody, could go into the stock market and make money.

He has worked with fellow inmates and some well-known people outside of prison in creating courses to help people under­stand financial literacy. He says that anybody who’s mastered true wealth has mastered four basic steps, which are saving, cost control, borrowing prudently, and diversification.

Curtis was only seventeen when he committed the crime for which he’s imprisoned. That in no way forgives the violence or loss of the life of another human being, but he has come to realize that it is the lack of knowledge of finances that leads many into a life of crime, and by helping people learn how to be financially secure, it will help reduce crime. Curtis teaches inmates how the stock market works and, in his own way, creates hope in others.

When you consider what Curtis is helping others understand, it’s applicable to everyone. While most are familiar with the concept of the stock market, how many truly believe it is relevant to them or something they can access? Of all the ways to grow assets, navigating the stock market is something all should be doing. When you look at the numbers, the stock market has outper­formed all other asset classes over time. That is quite remark­able, and there are several substantial advantages to treating the stock market like a business you own.

These are just a few of the strong advantages of the stock market and add to this the fact that it’s where we’ve seen some of the biggest gains overall. Like Curtis Carroll discovered and spends his time sharing with those around him in San Quentin Prison, the stock market is a strategy everyone should be aware of, use, and leverage for their own financial security.