Individual investors on the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange who chase tip offs to achieve gains have failed to seize large returns yielded by stocks highly favored by corporate investors due to dividend yields and expectations.

Tip offs - or the providing of "insider information or advice" - are especially relevant to horse racing sweepstakes, which have a profound effect on the stock market.

The non-corporate investor's quest for tip offs as they engage in trading on the stock market is perceived as an adventure that usually results in disappointment, despite the occasional lucky strike that results in secure yields.

Investors who seek tip offs regarding the stock exchange are people who aspire to "hit the jackpot" like those who bet on horse-racing sweepstakes or play the lottery.

The allure of gaining confidential "insider" intelligence about company stocks before buying them sways overdedicated, long-term investors.

Insider trading, however, is one of the biggest crimes in the capital markets and is explicated in the Law on Capital Markets as the abuse of information, also known as a "tip off" in layman's terms.

Those who shared confidential or otherwise significant information regarding a company's stocks and use the information for their own gains shall be subjected to two-to-five years' imprisonment or forced to pay a fine worth no less than double their secured yields.

Never-ending tip off requests by non-corporate investors constitute one of the biggest problems facing stock exchange investors. Spreading across social media and forums - and by word of mouth - this information regarding the stock exchange usually has less depth and allows those who manipulate it to run wild. Despite the efforts of capital markets professionals to keep such investors away from the stock exchange, tip-off requests never cease to circulate.

Stock market specialists opine that the circulation of tip offs by word of mouth; fueled by stock exchange manipulators, might signify the will of those manipulators to market their shares. Specialists on the issue have expressed that people who collect tips on the market try to form a group of enthusiastic investors by spreading further tip-off rumors.

As we have seen in the history of the stock exchange, numerous investors who have chased tips have ultimately lost all of their investments and, hoping to compensate for their costs with huge losses, are advised not to pay attention to or act upon such tip-off rumors.

Share prices of companies with high-dividend yields embolden investors

Specialists reckoned that investor-friendly companies that have high liquidity and growth expectations and pay their dividends to investors on a regular basis are proving more lucrative for investors in the long-term than other financial instruments. Yet, although investors trying to gain tip-offs do sometimes secure yields, they are likely to lose in the long run. Therefore, it is wise to consider long-term stock market investment and stock purchases based on professional advice rather than guidance from tip offs.

The stock data terminals show that the first 20 stocks with highest dividend yields include companies that have been traded on the stock market for at least 10 years, or companies that regularly pay dividends or give bonus issuances. Even when the price change is considered, company shares with high-dividend yields and pay-regular dividends provided a 331-percent return for investors over the last 10 years, on average.