Two heads are better than one. Stock portfolio can be compared to a team effort. The ideal situation would be when all the team members play well. But that rarely happens. But if some of the members play outstandingly well, they can compensate for the deficiency of the other team members. The idea of building a stock portfolio is the same. If some shares plummet, you have the majority of shares to protect your interests. This will be the normal outcome, if you have built up your portfolio carefully. You have not reposed trust on companies belonging to the same segment of the industry and you know the meaning and utility of diversification.



In share trading, one is not expected to put all the eggs in one basket. Make careful and good investment decisions. You have arrived at the Exchange to play a long game. To be considered as a good investor and to set example to others, you need to allocate your assets between shares of various companies intelligently.

?It is better to have the world united than the world divided; but it is better to have the world divided than the world destroyed,? said Mr. Winston Churchill at the time of II World War. The game in the share market is comparable to the never-ending war. The ideal situation would be when all the shares in your portfolio do well. If not, a part of them should hold on in a volatile market, which has capacity to destroy the investors.

You should be in a position to withstand the worst scenario.

Balanced mental attitude and balanced investments are the keywords for good trades. The market is neither your permanent friend nor it is your permanent enemy. Whether you understand it or not, it plays true to the overall prevailing conditions. The group of shares that you have chosen shows the direction of your investment journey. The shares should be a heterogeneous mixture of all the segments of the industry. When the things are balanced, you make consistent profits. The upswings and the downswings, the bears and bulls cannot harm you much. The combined might of the shares is adequate to withstand the onslaught of the adverse situations, which happen so often in the market.

A balanced portfolio does not mean that you simply create one and keep on watching. Each and every share must receive your very personal attention at all times. If a particular share is continuously sliding, make a detailed study of the balance sheet of the company. Whether the reasons for the setback are temporary or otherwise! Take expert advice from your broker and take decision to sell or retain the share. Do not be sentimentally attached to a particular company. Your economic interests alone are supreme.

The last of couple of decades have revolutionized the business of share trading and investment. Advice is flowing like the avalanche and the investor can look forward to more than one source to analyze and do research on the merit of each share. The Internet has brought the trading activity to your drawing room. You need not depend upon the advice of the broker, who at times can be biased and work for favoring a particular company. Any information that you need on a particular share is available free or for the minimal cost through various websites.

You must have sound reasons to invest in a company and include that share in your portfolio and that sound counsel need not originate from your broker or from the tip of a website, or a newspaper article. All these can be wrong, so do your own homework and come to your conclusions.

View your shares with alertness and confront yourself with some of the fundamental questions that relate to the health of a share. Does the company have a good name? Do the activities of the company find favor with you and the people at large? Will its products command continuous demand over the next few decades? Is the management team innovative and has the vision? Does the company's balance sheet contain facts and figures or promotional aspect is more emphasized? Your efforts to understand the answers to these questions will stand you in good stead to take the right decision!