Unless your full-time job is stock investing, you should leave it to the experts.
There is a certain romanticism in the concept of stock investing that attracts so many people.
It is no wonder that in investing parlance, they say “Every second, a sucker is a born”
Stock investing is incredibly complex and needs an incredible amount of time invested if done correctly.
Factors that influence a stock are micro (i.e., company-related) and macro (i.e. market-related). To do well, you need to understand both these well.
Do you know how management operates? Or the inner dynamics of a company? Or product goals? Or how the market is going to perform? The list is endless, and the larger the company is, the more difficult it is to ascertain stock performance.
They say Warren Buffet is a great stock investor.
That’s because he owns a considerable amount of the company and has access to private company information (by sitting on the board). He also has a sizable team of professionals supporting his investment decisions.
He still goes wrong.
Anything lesser than a full-time job is just gambling, or “operating on a hunch”. Probability also allows certain people to claim they are great stock pickers.
Better invest your time in building more useful skills and capabilities.