How to Pick Stocks

So you've decided stocks are the bee's knees and that you can succeed in picking them. But how do you go about picking stocks? There seems to be thousands of ways to go about it, how do you know which one is right? This lecture will prepare us to answer that question

This lecture is all about how some medieval alchemists, or excuse me, "investment professionals" try to turn lead into gold.

An exciting investing strategy with similar benefits to a casino. In the end the house always wins, but at least these investors get a show. We will take a walk through the world of growth investing.

One of the most popular forms of investing for individual investors, let's explore what these are along with their great and not so great parts.

The lecture's information gives away this course's punchline. The proven strategy to buying winning stocks is value investing. It's very similar to how you buy groceries. This lecture gives an overview of this strategy.

The original flavor of value investing, created by Benjamin Graham. Affectionately labeled "cigar butt" investing by Warren Buffet, it might not sound tasty but the historical performance of this dish is five star.

Although he started his career learning from Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffet learned to put his own style on investing. Given his ranking on the world's richest list, his style is now a fan favorite. Let's take a closer look at how he picks stocks so that we too can invest like Warren Buffet.

In direct contradiction to Aristotle's wisdom and the flocks of acquisition driven CEO's stammering about "synergy", sometimes the separate parts of a business might be more valuable than the current price of its whole. This gives buyers a chance to get in on a winning stock at a wholesale price.

The first step in picking stocks is like sifting through the sand on the beach for those perfect sea shells. It would be quite aggravating if you're searching where there aren't any shells, right? This will get you looking in the right places for those beautiful stocks.

The easiest and most straight forward element of the business to value: the balance sheet. Let's see what makes a balance sheet strong and what makes us turn and run for cover.

This is Wall Street's and the media's favorite topic: earnings. While this is the most important statement for stock picking, its numbers are often the most unreliable and most easily misrepresented by management (remember Enron anyone?). We leave the safer waters of the balance sheet behind, here there be monsters.

Just like how broccoli on a plate with steak and potatoes is readily overlooked, cash flows don't get enough attention from stock pickers. However, they provide a crucial check on whether the numbers in the income statement make sense. This lecture will help you understand if the cash flows are green or if the whole meal is spoiled.

We've saved the most intangible factors for last. While these are hard, if not impossible to know for sure, they have a large impact on whether or not a stock pick is a winner. This will help you understand these more ethereal aspects of stock picking.

No course would be complete without a concrete example which proves the value of the course. Otherwise, I might just be making this stuff up! Here is a step by step example of the entire stock selection process from a pick in 2009, my beloved Under Armour.

What is better than one example? Two examples! Here is a another study in picking a winning stock, but in a different way.

One online course is not enough for you to master picking winning stocks . The proven way to dominate this field is by learning from the greats themselves. Here are my favorite books from the greatest stock pickers of all time, along with a strategy on how to read them.

In this lecture I will go over popular terms and concepts that are used in regards to stocks and the stock market. Frankly, this is boring to read straight through, so I recommend using it as a reference point to spot check if you encounter a specific investing term you don’t understand.

In the next series of lectures, I will give you an overview of how to create your own stock valuation model in Microsoft Excel.