Best way to cut risk

Article Excerpt

It appears we worried some of our readers a few weeks ago, when we advised selling a number of our former buys and dropped them from our recommendations. Several readers asked if this was due to a change in our views about the market. In fact, we chose those stocks as sells due to our low expectations for the stocks themselves, not for the market as a whole. But stock-market trends did figure in our timing. After the sharp upturn in the market that began last summer, it’s only natural to brace for a period of stagnation or weakness. Our sells were all stocks that had been mediocre performers recently. In a bad market, they faced above-average risk of a sizeable drop. Instead of trying to predict market slumps — or selling every time you think you see one coming — you are far better off to diversify your portfolio by spreading your funds out across most, if not all, of the five…