Invest In What You Know
If you are going to beat the market, you will need to do something better than most investors out there. This is no easy task. Remember, most money is managed by professionals. To beat the market, you need to know something that most professionals don’t know about the stocks you trade.
What do I mean by this exactly? Well, look at it this way. There are always two sides to a trade. If you are buying a stock, then someone is selling the stock. You each are essentially making bets about the future of the security. The seller thinks it’s good for him to get out, while you think it’s time to pick up shares of the stock. Time will only tell who is right.
It’s difficult to beat the market by investing in large and mega-cap stocks like GE and Microsoft. Sure, these companies are generally safe investments for the long run. But it’s difficult for an average investor to tell which of these companies will have above-average returns. These companies have many analysts covering them, and the major institutions that invest in them do significant amount of research to know when it’s best to buy or sell these types of companies.
For an average investor to beat the market over the long term, he or she often needs to invest in under-followed companies, which are generally small caps. Since fewer analysts and professional investors focus on these companies, the chance for finding good bargains is higher. Of course, the chance for finding total duds is higher too, so small cap investing can be riskier.
How do you find good small caps? Well, generally, it’s best to start off with companies you know well. These companies may be locally-based or they may be in a field that you understand well. If you are in the web industry, then you may have a better understanding of web-focused companies and their prospects and risked, so you may be in a better position to make a calculated judgment about the future of a stock compared to most people in the market.
If you want to beat the market, then view your stock investments as bets. When you buy, do so because you think you know something or understand something that the seller doesn’t. The best way to do this is by investing in companies that you know well.
Source: http://www.tradingsphere.com : 10 Jan, 2008 Buying Stocks, Stock Market, Stock Portfolio, Stock Research, Stock Trading
