During a bull market, it's easy to pick stocks

[sv2007]

I read something just now (I surf/post/read/work at the same time):

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-proof-definitely-stock-pickers-172315148.html

Basically this article talks about SP500 moving and specific companies in it moving faster (it's actually a basic fact of life but seems to get rediscovered every now and then).

And not just this article. I've been seeing a lot of stock picking articles lately. The thing is, I wonder if any of the authors has lived thru the big down turns as stock pickers.

Stock picking isn't as easy as these articles make it out to be. It can certainly bring better than SP500 returns even during bear markets, and I've lived thru 2 of them just fine relative to SP500, but reading these articles it sounds like anyone can do it.

[TexasHusker]

Another term for this is "momentum investing." That is, what is going up will more than likely go higher, and what is going down will more than likely go lower.

Of all of the stock picking strategies out there, this one is probably the most successful on average.

The mantra of momentum investing is "don't find Mo". (Momentum)

[sv2007]

Another term for this is "momentum investing." That is, what is going up will more than likely go higher, and what is going down will more than likely go lower.

Of all of the stock picking strategies out there, this one is probably the most successful on average.

The mantra of momentum investing is "don't find Mo". (Momentum)

Another, less flattering term used to describe this strategy is "chasing heat" : )

There are some folks who swear by technical/charts trading, and it works for many (including very large investors/firms, esp in futures trading). But when people say "momentum" it may not really mean technical in the normal sense.

[bjl584]

This happened in the 90's with the tech bubble. All of a sudden everyone became a day trader and was a financial genius. Then the bubble burst, and all those people realized that they weren't as smart as they thought they were.

[sv2007]

Oh, I remember that time. It was truely once-in-a-life-time kind of fun -- pretty much eveyrbody was a paper millionaire or multi-millionaire; IPO parties; internet craze. "Because pets have no hands" : )

Ah, good times. Nothing like 2008 where it was more of a cautious fun drop.