(Harvest) Picking a stock that goes up 100% in a year is exhilarating. But there’s a problem with this method of investing. Like gambling in Vegas, it may be fun and even rewarding in the short term. Yet in the end, just as the house always wins, picking stocks is a losing game.
I talk to friends all the time who say they invest in stocks — meaning individual ones rather than broad-based index funds that capture the movement of the entire market — and I always wonder why. I think many people see a company that carries a well-known name — maybe they are customers or they hear about it on the news — and they assume it’s a good investment.
