Quote:
Originally Posted by petegz28
Do some research and buy a good mutual fund. Don't try and pick individual stocks. Don't listen to people who say "I bought this at X and it's gone up and is now Y". Chances are the market went up as a whole ...a rising tide lifts all boats and what not
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I tend to focus on mid-cap mutual funds and the emerging growth ones.
Sometimes they'll crater on you when they invest in some company that goes tits up, but it's been my experience that they tend to do better than the market by a point or two.
Unless you're going to be extremely diligent, I'd stick with mutual funds. Additionally, don't underestimate the utility of stop-losses. Put in a sell option with a trailing stop if you're in something volatile. I bought into a bunch of the 3D printer options several months ago, rode them up and then when they had that mini-bubble burst on them, my stop losses kicked in after they dropped 5% in a day and sold off before the next couple of days when they ended up dropping another 20+%
Stop losses can be annoying sometimes, but they can also save your ass on occasion.
Oh yeah, and buy Ford. I don't care if they make you any money, but they didn't take the bail out and make a damn good truck. (In other words, one homer pick may not be smart, but it won't sink you either. I like having a few thousand invested in my rooting interest...)