On... It Depends
Recently a friend asked whether he should buy Telstra shares. My reply - "Short answer is no. Long answer is it depends". Generally, there are 4 types of games in my opinion; with different levels of time frame and complexity. These 4 are as follows :- Passive/index investing. These are generally for know nothing investors ( although a lot of knowledgeable investors such as Morgan Housel do invests passively ). If you don't know where to start or are not interested in picking individual stocks, this is the best game to play. Apparently, just doing Dollar Cost Averaging into an index would beat most active fund managers out there. Active investing. If you're interested in business and picking individual stocks - this is the game you play. Basically, buying a stock is a partial ownership of a business. Generally speaking, if you're investing in a business, it should be a quality business. You need to be able to value a company and buy it when the stock price is b...