Reading more, beyond the bottom line... It's been said that you must devote two hours per week per stock to doing the required homework and tracking for each stock's situation, as it changes over time...
Follow along with our Stock Homework free convenient workbook to get the most from this site!...
Totally new to stocks? Try starting with our Beginner Area: Stocks101...
Homework = 2 Hours Per Week, Per Stock
Example: If you have a portfolio of eight (8) stocks:
8 Stocks: 8 x 2 hours = 16 hours per week.
If you don't have the time: Accept this! If you realize that you don't have this much time to monitor and continue to do work on your stocks, then accept this reality in your life, and research successful mutual funds that have a professional manager to do the work for you. You may not have as much control over your day to day trading, but you'll only have to check in on your mutual funds every three months at the least, given you are comfortable with the fund that your in.
Ongoing Stock Homework: More on this critical regular exercise in Step 800: Ongoing Weekly Homework for each of your stocks
Knowing yourself... really knowing yourself. You have to acknowledge your current situation, embrace it, and act on it. The next step, working within your Age/Risk Tolerance is, of course, discussed more (as we said) in the next step, but must be considered along with Your Available Time, to know how you should approach your investing strategy. Okay, getting back to time. If you do not have 2 hours per week, per stock that you own, then you should be considering investing in Mutual Funds, and doing homework on them every three months, instead of every week. At least then you'll be relying on expert Mutual Fund Managers who can do the homework for you, but you may be missing out on incredible trading opportunities. In any case, it really comes down to the simple question: Do you have the time to be rigorous, and do the homework necessary?
If you conclude that you are committed to spending this much time per week per stock that you own (or plan to own), then the next step is to examine your current situation, specifically your age and your financial condition (or what money you are using to invest), and your resulting risk tolerance...
More about this in Step 410...
Next Step >>
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