The stock market is an enigmatic arena where the ups and downs of the global economy converge, creating a dynamic landscape of financial opportunity and risk. With the advent of accessible online platforms and a wealth of educational resources, the common man can now navigate the stock market and harness its potential for long-term financial growth. Considering its relevance, and the fact that what was once considered a realm for the privileged few, is now within reach for the common man this study envisaged to explore influential research constituent and important themes and utilises the bibliometric analysis tool to serve this end. Overall, the study found United States as an influential country and 2020–2022 as a prominent year in producing research related to stock market participation (SMP) and the Journal of Finance stood out significantly with a total citation count of 2840. The important themes were explored where motor themes include “investment”, “Commerce”, “Financial market”, “decision making”, “finance” and “artificial intelligence” and emerging or declining themes includes “credit provision”, “education”, “estimation method”, and “risk perception”. As a whole financial literacy, household finance, portfolio choices, risk aversion, ambiguity aversion, social interaction, and risk tolerance were the highly cited key-words.