Stock Investing Strategies

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General best practices are always useful to keep in mind, such as never rushing into an investment and avoiding strategies you don’t fully understand. Arguably the most important aspect to remember, however, is to set realistic expectations for your investing. People who invest as their profession typically don’t earn much more than 25% on their investments each year, and that’s during good years. Plus, diversification is always useful, as it lessens the impact of bad investments.

While you can try a wide variety of investment strategies, it’s typically best to only focus on a few at a time and have no more than two in action at once. Here are some of the most popular stock investing strategies so you can discover which ones work best for your needs.

Buy and Hold

The buy and hold strategy is one of the most common and effective. It involves buying an individual stock and holding onto it for the foreseeable future. The idea is the value of the stock will grow steadily over time, and if you can resist selling it too early, you could hold a lot of value in the future.

To get the most out of this strategy, you’ll want to purchase enduring stocks, such as shares in strong and resilient brands. Additionally, keep your buys relatively small. The gains are meant to come from stock growth in the long term rather than significant increases in the short term. Plus, buying small means the risk of losing money isn’t as great.

Dividend Stock Investing

With the dividend stock investing strategy, you can generate a source of income for yourself. While this strategy rarely has high growth rates, it can be very profitable, because the company stock keeps paying dividends. That payment grows as the dividend yields increase.

Generating income is certainly an essential part of your strategy, but there’s more to it than that. You can also reinvest these dividends for capital growth. This is particularly useful during recessions, as the companies that offer dividends tend to be quite profitable. If you use the profits from dividend stock investing to buy more stocks that pay dividends, you could see some serious profits.

Value Investing

Value investing, or the Warren Buffett strategy, is one of the most consistent strategies for maximizing long-term returns. It involves buying stocks that have a lot of value either at or below their actual value. Determining which stocks to choose can be challenging, but it helps to keep a few things in mind.

The most important aspect of value investing to remember is the cheapest stocks are typically cheap for a reason. Their value is determined to be low, so it’s unlikely you’ll see significant gains from them. You want to find the stocks that are worth investing in that aren’t incredibly expensive. Finding the right balance between price and value is the key to success. Look to invest in companies with strong economics, so you have a better chance of getting positive returns and a consistent cash flow.

Growth Investing

Chasing growth in the stock market may seem like a no-brainer. This involves investing in stocks in the most rapidly growing industries. As they continue to grow, so will their stock value. That’s why it’s important to invest early so you can reap the benefits of that growth. These are the companies that tend to have the highest annual returns.

While learning about the latest innovations can be a fun bonus to this investment strategy, it’s important to remember many businesses are going to try to take advantage of industry growth, too. Not all these businesses are going to find success. Make sure you can identify the real innovators rather than those that are just trying to exploit a trend on sentiment.

Momentum Investing

Much like growth investing, momentum investing is a strategy in which you chase value, albeit in a slightly different way. Instead of considering the revenue or earnings of a business, you look at the changes in the stock price and how it varies over time. Top-performing stocks throughout a certain time frame tend to perform even better during subsequent time frames.

Through only price action, you can identify stocks with momentum and invest for later rewards. This can come with a lot of risk, however, so it’s typically best to use this strategy in conjunction with another as a backup. Momentum investing often involves selling stocks about a year or so after you buy them, then repeating the process with different stocks. Some variations shorten the investment period to quarterly or even monthly.

Small Cap Investing

Small cap investing is investing in smaller companies, and it comes with a variety of benefits you might not want to miss out on. Smaller companies tend to have an easier time growing than larger companies, so your investment might increase at a faster rate. Smaller companies are also easier to overlook than the top stocks, so they could be trading at a discount.

When you invest in small companies, be prepared to do much more research than usual. Big companies will have accessible information that you can find quickly and easily, but smaller companies tend to be more obscure. Additionally, their share prices are much more volatile, as they’re not yet well-established. The risks are notable, so you’ll need to manage them with care as you strive to seize the potential rewards.

Dollar-Cost Averaging

The dollar-cost averaging strategy involves adding a bit of money to your investments at regular intervals no matter what’s going on with the market. The amount you add depends on your own finances, of course, but the important part is that it’s consistent and regular. By spreading out your investment through intervals rather than dumping your money in at once during what’s seen as an opportune time, you get to manage your venture better over a longer period.

While spreading out your investment can help you avoid going all in at the wrong time, it also prevents you from getting lucky by going all in at the right time. While this is unlikely to happen in the first place, it means your overall benefits won’t be as large as they would be if you had invested a larger total sum at the right time. Think of dollar-cost averaging as a safe investing strategy in a situation where greater risk can lead to greater rewards. Your risk will be lower, but your rewards will be too.

Diversification Among Assets

Investing in stocks necessitates diversifying your investments into varying companies and industries to protect yourself from some risk, but that’s only the beginning. The assets you’re investing in should also be diverse. That means investing in more than just stocks.

In addition to stocks, you might be interested in investing in bonds, commodities, hedge funds, private equity funds, and even real estate. Having a wide variety of assets and a diversified portfolio puts you in a better position to thrive, even if one of your avenues of investment doesn’t offer the returns you expected. Typically, stocks should only be about 10% of your total investment portfolio for good diversification.

Invest Unneeded Cash

The market has its natural ups and downs, and it can take a while for the serious effects of the market to really kick in. Because of this, it’s typically best that you don’t invest any money you’re not willing to lose. Investing should be a way for you to augment your wealth, not build it up in the first place. If your investments don’t go the way you like, you should still be able to pay your bills on time.

A good rule of thumb is to only invest money you know you won’t need in the next five years. That will give you enough time to reap the rewards of the changing markets without putting your overall finances at too great of a risk.

Create Long-Term Wealth

Investing is a complicated effort and takes a lot of skill and patience to find success. With Infinity Investing, however, you can equip yourself with the secrets to success for creating long-term wealth using stock investing strategies that are straightforward and easy to follow.

With an Infinity Investing membership, you’ll put yourself on the path toward financial success and enjoy many benefits along the way. You’ll get access to our next Infinity Investment Workshop and online access to a weekly stock trading room for more investment strategies. You can even watch over the shoulder of an active trader in the market. Secure financial freedom by signing up for a free membership today.