Finance: Choosing Stocks for Your Portfolio

Are you interested in personal investing and looking to obtain stocks for your portfolio? A stock, which is a share of ownership of a publicly traded company, has several benefits. If you are choosing stocks for your portfolio, you will first need to balance your investment goals as well as risk tolerance.

Basic Facts

Start by researching a specific business if you plan on picking your own stocks for investment. This is the easiest way to invest in multiple stocks while holding down shares. Yet another way of doing personal stock is to register for a dividend reinvestment program, which is an equity investment option offered by the company. In a dividend reinvestment program, shares pay a dividend and then that dividend is put in a trust and eventually it is able to buy another share. However, it is recommended that you only use this program on a company that has a reputation for paying dividends back to investors.

Diversity

Despite numerous investing strategies, most investors will experience a crash when trying to make profit. This usually happens as a result of investors cashing out on the rising prices of stock before the rest of the market does. To avoid disaster, invest in different parts of the economy. For example, invest in different types of stocks in multiple companies. With that in mind, when you are picking stocks, make sure you look at the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. If you see a high P/E ratio, it means that there is a growth stock for its sector of the economy. In simpler terms, a high P/E ratio means that the market is predicting to see an increase in price for a certain stock.

If you are thinking about investing in stocks, you might want to consider holding bonds and other financial assets as well. Bonds, with little risk involved in the process, will increase in value when stocks decrease. Financial experts recommend that as your portfolio grows and expands, you should start to shift your assets to bonds.

Seek Professional Help

Letting professionals handle your stock choice is going to make the overall process a whole lot easier. Professionals will manage an individual’s mutual funds, which are stocks aimed at a specific investment target. Despite mutual funds having higher fees, many find them to be at an advantage as they require less management in comparison to trading stocks on your own. Alternatively, an individual could choose to invest in index funds rather than mutual funds. An index fund is one circulation of stock for every share traded.

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About the author: Caroline Harris is a third-year student at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada. Having already completed an Associates Degree in Psychology, Caroline is now finishing her Bachelor's degree in Communications. In preparation for working in the advertisement sector, Caroline is writing financial content and analysis. On a daily basis, Caroline works on articles regarding the following topics: finance, cryptocurrency, technology, and politics.