re: New to Individual Stocks

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A CFP isn’t diligently researching individual growth stocks for high conviction plays for their clients.

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Correct. Their job is to make sure you're where you need to be in terms of taxes and estate planning so you don't get screwed over.

While there's no rule that will bat 1.000 there are rules that will result in winning more than losing. For example, look at the PE ratio for a stock and evaluate it in both absolute terms and compared to other companies in the same industry.

Pay attention to the quarterly and yearly financial reports. Are revenues and profits growing, stagnant, or declining?

What is the company's debt compared to total assets? High debt load carries the risk of a company not being able to survive a crisis. I jumped on RCL during the pandemic because they had a low debt load so they had a high likelihood of surviving short term, and since cruisegoers are hardcore fans there would be pent up demand when we got back to normal.

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There are tons of stagnant stocks that far outnumber the ones being posted here

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Not talking to you, but it should be pretty easy to stay away from retail, consumer staples, and financials right now.

I own 7 individual stocks that represent small % of overall portfolio. Been investing for a long time.

An investing goal you might consider is your after tax returns should aim to at least beat inflation and bond returns over long term. There are less risky ways to do this than individual stocks. Individual stocks may still have a role.

Have an objective, time horizon and compartmentalize the money for a specific purpose. This helps define the risk you are willing to take to achieve objective and diversification level you may need to protect your downside in getting there.

If you see stock market with “gold rush” mindset, your future self might be worse for it. Then again, maybe not. Point - there are casinos for gambling.

Use gambling for dopamine blast. Use investing as method for wealth building.

The stuff you can do on your phone these days after a bit of research and 5-10 minutes on Gemini (wish I had Claude). Be curious.

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Just don’t do it. I own four individual stocks right now. I’m down on three of them. I’m up on almost all of the various broadbased low cost funds I own (with the exception of one bond fund).

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That’s your rationale for telling someone not to invest in individual stocks?

I’m begging you to unpack this.
Name of Companies?
Reason for buying?
Price purchased?

Here’s another take you don’t hear much in the general investing world.

I’m extremely unlikely to truly invest in companies that are worth more than 5 to 10bn dollars.

Sure, I may make a trade on an MU or a NOW, but when it comes to targeting a realistic 5 to 10x growth stock, I’m generally screening for sub 5bn market cap. Ideally 500mm to 2bn.

When I stumbled into Nebius, it was 7bn.
Last April/May it was down to 5bn.
Now it’s 50bn

Lose small. Win big.
I’m into trades that are a few years long, not 40 years.

Unless you already have rock solid conviction, do not allow more than a 10% loss to occur.

You have the ability to preserve your wealth at all times.
It’s your money, and you can cut a stock at any time.

An exception would be NBIS dropping due to Deep Seek a few weeks after I started buying. It’s all documented in the thread.

Do NOT sell after an arbitrary target of percentage gains.
This is how you miss a ton of upside when you’ve selected the right stock.
Again, without research and conviction, there’s no point. You’d just sell every time you hit 30%

That kind of dart throwing only works in exceptionally hot bull markets in the correct theme.

If I had to guess, I’ll still be holding Nebius 10 years from now with a cost basis well below $100.
OUST - We’ll see. But I plan on being in this one at least 2-4 years currently.
And, I reserve the right to change my mind. See MRLN.

Go back a read the NBIS tread when it dropped to $80 a few months ago. A lot of convictions were tested but most were rewarded that held.

The OUST thread is shorter. Try finding how the company has really grabbed conviction from a few of us here lately.

$35 to 27 wasn’t anything to cry over on OUST. We all just wanted more!

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If you are not setting an arbitrary target to sell, then how are you deciding on when to sell?

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When you want to do something else with the money!
When you have enough where it makes financial sense to trim or diversify.

This is the toughest part.