Building wealth through investing sounds simple in theory — buy great companies, hold them for the long term, and watch your money grow.
In reality, picking individual stocks can be stressful
Every investment decision comes with uncertainty, and even experienced investors sometimes make costly mistakes. If you’re worried about choosing the wrong stocks for your portfolio, there’s a simpler alternative to consider. One exchange-traded fund (ETF) in particular gives you broad market exposure without requiring you to constantly analyze individual companies or keep tabs on their performance.
Why hand-picking stocks can be so difficult When you buy shares of an individual company, you’re betting that the business will perform well. But that requires you to evaluate factors like earnings, competition, management quality, and more. Even if you do your research, unexpected events could quickly change a company’s outlook.