Zen and the Art of Knowing What Stocks Not to Buy

Zen and the Art of Knowing What Stocks Not to Buy

In my stock trading adventures, I sometimes think about the stocks I should’ve bought that are now big winners (i.e. GOOG, AMZN, ROKU) . But hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20 vision, and one should not dwell on regretful thinking. Keep your mindset positive and creative. But, here’s a thought; what’s more important are the stocks you choose NOT to BUY.

One must be careful when buying stocks that could hurt your portfolio, and this scenario happens a lot when one buys a stock that is doing great now, but is near an all-time highs and is bound to go down from there.

Well, many times, no action is the right action!

Don’t buy stocks that could potentially affect your portfolio in a negative way, and that is why it’s best many times not to do anything. If you don’t buy, you don’t expose your portfolio to risk.

Set a Specific Goal

In the world of Wall Street, it is equally important to know which stocks to pass on. And your criteria for selecting stocks is a personal matter, one that should fit your interests and your main goal and purpose.

Everyone would like to get rich, or at least achieve a level where you are financially independent, meaning, you don’t have to work full-time and you can live off of your investments and whatever passive income you have set up.

Dividend Stocks vs Momentum Stocks

One goal is to have a plethora of dividend stocks where you can live off the dividends and achieve some sort of monthly budget to live on. That is a lofty goal and would require hundreds if not thousands of shares of dividend stocks that would give you enough quarterly earnings to live on for three months.

Another goal would be to build a portfolio of momentum stocks that don’t offer dividends but increase dramatically in price over the years.

Any combination of dividend and momentum stocks could be a viable aim to shoot for in wealth building. If you don’t have the capital to amass enough dividend stocks to live on, then you’d simply have to invest in momentum stocks that will increase the portfolio’s profit gain.

Sometimes, Sit It Out

Many say that if you’re not invested in X number of stocks then your cash is just sitting there doing nothing… the term is called ‘cash drag’.

But, it takes discipline to resist the temptation to go in on stocks until you have no cash left. And if the stock market does a market correction or we experience another crash, then you won’t have any funds at all to buy up stocks at a bargain.

It’s a good idea to reserve a certain amount of cash in your portfolio to purchase stocks at bargain prices and to take advantage of market corrections and crashes. They will happen and one cannot predict the future, or maybe an experienced trader can make an educated guess.

It’s important to know when NOT to buy a stock, and for a variety of reasons: 1) a stock is approaching or near all-time highs, and it could trend downward, 2) negative news about the company, or 3) the sector in which the company belongs is suffering setbacks.

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randomguru

Portfolio Manager & Musician

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