Find greatness, not hotness For example, compare a once-hot biotech with health-care staple and Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK): *Data provided by Capital IQ.Investors once thought both Calypte and Cyanotech had a lot of potential, but over a longer period, you can see that GlaxoSmithKline would have almost tripled your money and paid you along the way, while "potential" lost you loads of money. This is not to say that there aren't great rewards in finding a "Home Run" stock like PolyMedica (Nasdaq: PLMD), which has returned more than 1,600% over the past 10 years. But before you start looking, you have to ask yourself two questions: - Could you have found it?
- Would you have had the patience to hold through incredible volatility?
If not, then you and your portfolio are much better off with a solid dividend payer like GlaxoSmithKline. I mean, why would you say no to some of the easiest money on the market? A double-play value The key to this philosophy isn't that a home run won't make you more money than a double. Rather, it's that you can consistently hit many more doubles than home runs. These doubles are companies you can find in everyday life -- like GlaxoSmithKline -- that have proved themselves with established products and business models, giving investors dividends and high returns along the way. By filling your portfolio with them over the long run, you can beat the market. http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/...p;source=eednaslnk0000001 |