The ins and outs of … focusing on stock prices

Article Excerpt

It’s a fact of life for securities investors: Stocks go up and down every day. There may be an obvious cause in good or bad news. But there’s a large random element to stock-price changes, particularly over short periods. Here are two common errors that occur when investors follow share-price fluctuations too closely: 1) Some investors only feel safe buying stocks after prices have risen. Yet this is the opposite of the way you make most purchases (cars, clothing, etc.) Ordinarily, it’s better to buy when prices go down, not up. 2) When other investors sell and drive prices down, you may wonder if they know something you don’t. You may then act hastily and sell. But that doesn’t mean you should. Random influences may be at work. To counteract these errors, learn all you can about your investments. As part of that, consider earnings, dividends and other factors in making decisions. They matter far more than short-term stock-price trends. Don’t follow a strategy of…