Investors sometimes ask us why we don’t publish price targets on the stocks we recommend in our newsletters and investment services.
Focusing on targets puts too much emphasis on predictions
We don’t publish targets for several reasons. The main one is that they may lead investors to rely too heavily on predictions, which are the least reliable part of the investment decision-making process.
Big bets on predictions or opinions will always produce inconsistent results. That’s why successful investors recognize that predictions are of limited use in investing profitably.
Instead, we continue to recommend that you focus on investment quality and diversify by following our three-pronged investing philosophy. (See below for more on how this strategy can help you improve your stock market trading profits and lower your risk.)
Selling too early can cause you to miss out on some big stock market trading gains
Another drawback of price targets is that they can spur investors to quit buying or even sell their best picks way too early. By definition, after all, your best picks are those that do way better than you ever expected.
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To make serious profits in stock investing, you need to hang on to your best performers for years. That’s because even good stocks sometimes go sideways for decades, while others turn out to be “ten-baggers,” with gains of 1,000% or more. If you are too quick to sell stocks that have gone up, you may avoid some 20% setbacks. But you’ll also miss out on some 200% gains.
Targets do tend to push up your stock market trading activity and commission expense, because they give you a rationale for selling whenever a stock you own hits its target. This helps explain the popularity of targets in brokerage research.
Use our three-pronged approach to help lower your stock market trading risk
Instead of relying on stock-price targets, we recommend that you follow our three-pronged investment philosophy. That is, invest mainly in well-established companies; spread your money out across most, if not all, of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing, Resources, Consumer, Finance, Utilities); and downplay stocks that are in the broker/public relations limelight.
That way, you protect yourself from an unforeseeable industry downturn. You also increase your chances of stumbling upon a market superstar — a stock that does much, much better than average.
After all, if it was so easy to predict share-price movements ahead of time, investing would be incredibly profitable and nobody would have to work. Of course, the universe isn’t built that way.
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Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
The Successful Investor Inc. and its affiliate Successful Investor Wealth Management (referred to hereafter as TSI Network) know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting websites owned by or associated with TSI Network, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This privacy policy is applicable to all TSI Network Visitors, Clients, Employees, Suppliers, Web sites, Management, and all other interested parties. Any links to or from our site are not covered by this policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every site that you visit.
The privacy of the site/store visitor is very important to TSI Network, and is respected at all times. The information we receive from customers helps us to personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network.
We do not collect or disclose personal information, except when it is provided to us voluntarily by the site/store visitor with their consent.
We store subscriber and password files containing personal information securely. These files are stored in secure areas that are not accessible to the general public. We are always working to ensure the security of your personal information.
We are continuously in the process of improving our sites and services. If any new features or policies require a change to this current policy, we will post a clear notice of this change on pages of our site where the privacy policy appears. The principle behind this privacy policy is to collect information with your knowledge and consent.
What personal information do we collect?
The information we receive from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network. TSI Network may collect personal information online for all legal purposes, which include, but are not limited to:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way through sign-up forms or ordering forms for publications and services. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our services and features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your web browsing experience for you, improving our website, and communicating with you.
Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many websites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses TSI Network.
Information from Other Sources: For reasons such as improving personalization of our service (for example, providing better product recommendations or special offers that we think will interest you), we might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our account information. We also sometimes receive updated delivery and address information from our shippers or other sources so that we can correct our records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily.
We do reserve the right, however, to collect and perform statistical analyses of the internet traffic to our website for our internal use. However, information collected does not allow us to identify any individual, and will not collect any personal information of the visitor. Furthermore, we do not sell, rent or loan to any outside parties the information collected and analyzed.
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To make the visitor’s experience on our website easier, we may use per-session “cookies” (session identifiers) to track the state of the visitor session. This “cookie” is destroyed when your session with our website is over.
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Does TSI Network Use the Information It Receives?
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Except as provided herein, TSI Network will not sell or rent personal information about you to unaffiliated third parties.
We may disclose personal information you have provided through our websites, for the above purposes, to persons or companies that we retain to carry out and other activities for which you have registered or in which you have otherwise asked to participate. In particular, we may for these purposes transfer information to any country (including the USA and other countries which may not offer the same level of data protection as Canada). We also will disclose personal information if required by law, including compliance with warrants, subpoenas or other legal processes.
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Special Note for Parents
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Changes to this Policy
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TSI Network may revise this Policy from time to time.
Legal Notices and Disclaimers
The contents of this web site and our publications are based upon sources of information believed to be reliable, but no warranty or representation, expressed or implied, is given as to their accuracy or completeness. Any opinion reflects the Successful Investor’s judgment at the date of publication and neither the Successful Investor, nor any of its affiliated companies, nor any of their officers, directors or employees, accepts any responsibility in respect of the information or recommendations contained in the publications or on this web site. Moreover, the information or recommendations are subject to change without notice.
Information presented on this web site or contained in our publications is not an offer, nor a solicitation, to buy or sell any securities referred to on the web site or in the publications. The material is general information intended for recipients who understand the risks associated with an investment in any securities referred to in the publications or on this web site. The Successful Investor has made no determination regarding whether an investment, course of action, or associated risks are suitable for the recipient.
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