Diversification lifts returns and cuts your risk

Article Excerpt

One key factor in successful investing—apart of course from picking good stocks (or ETFs that invest in those stocks)—is to diversify your portfolio. Our main suggestion would be to make sure that your holdings are always well-balanced among most if not all of the five economic sectors—Manufacturing, Consumer, Utilities, Resources, and Finance. That way, you avoid overloading yourself with stocks that are about to slump simply because of industry conditions or changes in investor fashion. By diversifying across the sectors, you also increase your chances of stumbling upon a market superstar—a stock that does two to three or more times better than the market average. These stocks come along every year. By nature, though, their appearance is unpredictable. It’s also essential to diversify within each sector. For example, you shouldn’t let technology stocks dominate your Manufacturing holdings, nor let telecommunications or phone stocks dominate your Utilities holdings. What about geographic diversification? We’ve long said that most Canadian investors should hold the bulk of their portfolio in high-quality, dividend-paying…