A Field Guide for 
Recognizing Risk
By Rachel Haig, Personal Finance, June 2010
Click here to view A Field Guide for Recognizing Risk.
Potential pitfalls are baked into practically all levels of investing. Some risks are specific to certain investments, while others have broader effects. Risks can originate from a variety of sources, including surprising economic or political events, bubbles, and faltering companies and countries.
The following is an overview of five major types of risks, but it's important to recognize that they do not function in a vacuum. Rather, multiple types of risk are often linked and feed off of each other, magnifying the impact on your investments.