There were rich pickings (=a lot of money) to be had from the stock market.pickingspick‧ings /ˈpɪkɪŋz/ noun [plural] informal 
There were rich pickings (=a lot of money) to be had from the stock market. There are easy pickings for thieves at these big outdoor concerts.slim/lean/meagre pickings Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had.
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- Imagine for a moment what easy pickings a huge shoal of small bream are to a pack of marauding pike.
- Meager pickings in the industry have provided the back-drop to increasing consolidation.
- Or life may be regarded as a battlefield fit for conquerors, with rich pickings for the strong.
- Soaring inflation means lean pickings for the majority.
- They have destroyed the city on us and become rich on the pickings.
- What a life, what fun, what pickings were there here!
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY There were rich pickings (=a lot of money) to be had from the stock market. There are easy pickings for thieves at these big outdoor concerts. Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
money or profits that you can get easily from a situation: There were rich pickings (=a lot of money) to be had from the stock market. There are easy pickings for thieves at these big outdoor concerts. Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had.· Imagine for a moment what easy pickings a huge shoal of small bream are to a pack of marauding pike.· The music that's finally being aired, fifty years on. Easy pickings.· He says it's unfortunately easy pickings so it's on the increase.
· Or life may be regarded as a battlefield fit for conquerors, with rich pickings for the strong.· They have destroyed the city on us and become rich on the pickings.· Not the richest of pickings, usually left to the fly-by-night minicabs.· So - if only they can overcome the obvious difficulties, inter-tidal creatures find rich pickings.· Newley occasionally went there with clients from whom he expected rich pickings.· It would have yielded particularly rich pickings.· A satirist, you feel, would find rich pickings under such circumstances, and indeed Wang Shuo does just that.
There were rich pickings (=a lot of money) to be had from the stock market. There are easy pickings for thieves at these big outdoor concerts.slim/lean/meagre pickings Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had.