I always wondered:
What stocks to buy now? Wrong question!
It cost me thousands of dollars because I did not answer something else first. On this site you will find out what the first crucial question is and exactly how I go about answering it so you safe your hard earned money and buy a hot stock instead.
My experience looking for “hot stocks to buy now”
For me the stock market is a complex matter and how to find the best stocks to buy now has been mostly a mystery. But we all know: Having money lying around unused is wasted capital! So I looked for help. This is my experience:
- “Help” is everywhere, on TV shows like Mad Money, magazines, newspapers, forums, email newsletters, blogs and even youtube
- Everyone calls himself an “expert” and has a list of stocks to watch
- There are as many suggestions on shares to buy as there are “knowledgeable” people.
In the end I had hundreds answers to my question “what stocks to buy now?”. So I researched the underlying companies, industry trends, looked at the stock market and invested around 20% of my saved earnings in a portfolio build up from presumably hot stocks – all based on the investing tips I received. What a painful decision! The market had a different idea than the “experts” and after clear sell signals I was forced to realize a loss of 27% to avoid an even more devastating damage.
Was I frustrated! I no longer wanted to be flooded with bad advice by the hundreds of wanna-be stock market gurus!
A new approach to finding stocks to buy now
To go anywhere I had to take a step back. Rather than focusing on the various suggestions on stocks to buy now from my “beloved experts” I started focusing on evaluating the experts themselves. The logic is clear:
1. Find one or a handful of people that are actually worth listening to
2. Listen to them and take action
Makes sense? Before you take anyone’s advice on stocks to buy “right now” you should first ask yourself: Can I trust this person? Is he competent in this matter? After all you wouldn’t act blindly according to advise from a random stranger if you are injured – instead you make sure you go to a good doctor, right? Same applies to finding good stocks to invest in.
Once I started to check them you can imagine all but a selected few were not the sort of people that I would trust my personal finance with – so how to find someone trustworthy?
The 7-point check-list to verify any expert’s ability to pick stocks to buy now
Here is my seven points check-list that you can use to find the few real stock market experts that are worth listening to when searching for the best stocks to buy now. Because your personal preferences like risk adverseness, whether you like penny stocks, etc. will influence your final decision take this list as the foundation:
1. Does he know what he is talking about?
Too obvious? How often did you actually check if the person presenting today’s hot stocks does this for a living? Did you ever verify that he studied this stuff? Or whether he knows in the underlying industry?
2. Does he have years of experience?
While there are many smart youngsters I would not trust my hard earned money with them. In the end you can’t tell if their investment strategy generates profits in the long run before they even have had a long run.
3. Did he over-perform consistently in the past?
Let’s say you want to buy stocks today. The expert telling you what shares to buy has had some home-runs in the past but did not consistently over-perform. How do you know if “today’s share” is not a bomb? You can’t! To avoid playing lottery with your personal finance you need to check his track record.
4. Does he have the needed resources, e.g. a research team to provide current advise?
Stock prices are influenced by so many factors and can change so quickly it’s essential the expert has a support team. That way he can focus on evaluating and technical analysis daily rather than digging up the numbers himself. To know you are covered with daily trading alerts based on thoroughly researched buy and sell signals it’s best to deal with more than just one person.
5. Does he put his money where his mouth is?
How do you know if the trader trusts his own judgment? How do you know if he is really convinced he picked the right stocks to buy now? If he did and his stocks of the day are really that attractive the expert would be stupid to not invest himself, right? So the best sign you can get from any person on his advice is that he walks the walk – try to find his trade portfolio.
6. Do others follow his advice and make money?
Considering the number of wanna-be gurus any expert with a proven track record will have others following his advise. In the ideal scenario you will find testimonials from these followers with specific profit statements. If the expert or his company are a serious business they know it’s prohibited to falsify testimonials and will be able to proof their authenticity. So the more testimonials with explicit profit figures the better. And if people are even happily paying for the advice and making a profit that justifies the price it’s a clear sign they are getting information on the right stocks to buy – the more people pay the better the picks must be.
7. Can he proof all of the above?
I have learned from bad experience not to believe all I am told. Following common sense I need to be convinced by the very same person claiming to pick the best stocks to buy now that he is capable of doing it. What elements of proof can we look for? Anything on the: testimonials, past performances records, specific historic stock of the month information, a price tag together with paying customers, proof of his own investments or portfolio, a serious company with a research center and a resume showing the background of the experts. The more proof we have the directer we can act upon the suggested stocks to buy now.
The practical way of checking a person’s expertise on stocks to buy now
To go through this list for even just a few experts by yourself takes time. If you are short on time (who isn’t?) you should not waste too much researching the details yourself if the expert himself doesn’t make that information readily available to you – after all having a check-mark on the above points speaks in his favor so why wouldn’t he want us to know, right? It’s like a Ferrari sales man not telling us how fast it goes – won’t happen. So have a quick look at this example to see how an expert can actually make it easy for us to check all the criteria above.
Under review – sign up to the newsletter so you don’t miss the upcoming expert check.
Many traders know our situation and the questions we are raising with our check-list. And they know that to win us as followers they will have to answer them. Therefore the few that trust in their track-record have started to actually compile the proof and make it readily available in their communication with potential followers. This example is worth looking at for basis of comparison so you know what to you can expect from a person that trusts in his own advice on the best stocks to buy now and makes this information available to you:
Under review – sign up to the newsletter so you don’t miss the upcoming expert check.
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Every month we scrutinize a few experts that continuously claim they know what stocks to buy now. If you are interested to see which ones and how they performed on each of the above points sign-up to our research newsletter (top right). It’s free and contains all information I find. I hate spam myself so you can manage your subscription and I will never give your email away to anyone.
So moving forward in your stock trading activities always ask yourself the questions:
“who’s advice on stocks to buy can I trust?”
“what are the best stocks to buy now?”
I am not the one telling you what stocks to buy now but our newsletter can help you evaluate some of the experts out there and finding one that suits you. Sign up right now and I’ll be in touch shortly.
To your success
Tobi
P.s. Join our discussions: On the expert of the month nominee site an examplary expert is taken apart by everyone each month. It’s not only great fun, it’s primarily very profitable to work together in our never-ending quest to find stocks to buy now.
