The president of the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. said yesterday that buying and selling stocks has become so convenient for amateur investors that their risk of losing money is increasing.

"We have made it very easy to access the market," said Alfred R. Berkeley III, in a speech to members of the Baltimore Security Analysts Society at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore. "You can do it from your kitchen."

Berkeley, a former senior investment banker at Alex. Brown Inc., said most investors should leave it to the pros and use mutual funds or brokers, and "not be playing in these hot [Internet] stocks."

"I think we are going to get a lot of people who are going to lose a lot of money," he said. "Some of it is rank speculation . . . and some of it is just stupidity."

Berkeley said home computers and on-line brokerage firms that process trades for less than $8 has made investing easier and cheaper for amateurs.

He said it wouldn't be good for the industry if investors quit their jobs, raid their 401(k) retirement plans or take out second mortgages to trade stocks and lose all they have.

"It looks like it is easy, making money in the stock market," he said.

"We believe these are new freedoms that people have, but they bring new risks and new responsibilities."

Pub Date: 3/19/99