Choosing Shares For Investing

Choosing the right shares for investment and wealth creation can be confusing; too often, people are tempted to go with the pricey and proven, and thus limit their potential in building wealth. With the plethora of investment opportunities that exist in the world, there is never a need to limit one's wealth-building portfolio, and with the knowledge of a few basic principles, it is quite possible for a person to learn to identify good, moneymaking investment opportunities.

Identifying Good Investment Stocks - The Process

The process involved in choosing promising stocks for investment is not overly complex. It does involve some research and effort, but knowing the basic process is enough to select those stocks that suit both the individual's investment style and wealth creation goals.

- Information Gathering
Before committing to a share, it is essential to learn about that share and the company that holds it. Regular media sources are a wealth of fact-based information on any given company and its stock. There are plenty of free sources of information including newspapers, the internet, and local and international media coverage.

Major daily newspapers publish summaries of trading stocks on an ongoing basis; these are a first-line resource for researching potential stocks. Newspaper stock tables will give both current information and historical data for the past twelve months. They offer a wealth of information in an at-a-glance format that can be coupled easily with a little company research to arrive at a conclusion for a stock. This at-a-glance summary will give not only daily performance information, but also sales price information (which will help in the next phase), and increase vs. decrease over the last trading day.

In addition, there are a number of websites offering free research on publicly traded companies and the performance of their stocks. It is well within the interests of private investors (whether working with a financial planner or not) to get to know one or more of these sites so that informed decisions based on timely research can always be made.

- Pricing
Once the research is done and a target share is chosen, a reasonable price for the purchase of the share needs to be determined. Both technical analysis and fundamental analysis are good pricing indicators(and a combination of the two is probably better).

Technical analysis involves the examination of share pricing patterns, rates of change, and volumes traded.

Fundamental analysis involves accounting for business factors such as profits, sales, assets, and company stability as indicated by those factors.

Research and pricing work together as complimentary practices when choosing shares for investing; used strategically together, these basics form a firm foundation that is applicable to any investing for wealth creation. Once a potential investor has learned the basics of choosing stocks for investment, he or she will be well on their way to making informed decisions independent of biased outside influences, and well on his or her way to building a sustainable portfolio that will continue to bring in streams of income, the kinds of streams of income that are sustaining in themselves, and that grant the investor the financial freedom to live the lifestyle he or she wants and needs.