4 Common Types of Stocks That You should Avoid Investing In
Stock investing requires a lot of discipline. There are thousands of stocks listed stock exchanges, and all you need to find is 10-15 good stocks to invest. For the remaining, you just need to say ‘NO’.
In this post, we are going to discuss four specific types of stocks that you should avoid investing in. However, before we discuss these four kinds, let’s first learn the most generic rule of stocks that you should avoid investing.
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” –Warren Buffett
Stocks that you should avoid investing in:
As an elementary rule, avoid investing in companies that you do not understand. If you can’t figure out how the company is generating its revenue, what is the company’s business model, what are the products/services offered by the company or what is the use of the products- avoid investing in that company?
For example, if you have zero knowledge of semiconductors or microelectronics, and don’t understand the use of Zener diodes, MOSFETs, Amplifiers, etc. Then avoid investing in semiconductor companies that manufacture these products. There’s no way that you can understand the market demand, product quality, future prospects or even the competitors.
Instead, invest in industries that you may understand like banking, FMCG, automobiles, etc.
4 Common Types of Stocks That You should Avoid Investing In
Here are four mainstream kinds of stocks that you should avoid investing to safeguard your returns-
1. High debt companies:
Debts in the companies are like big holes in a ship. Until and unless, these holes are filled- the ship cannot go far. Avoid investing in companies with a lot of debt.
As a thumb rule, keep away from companies with a debt/equity ratio greater than 1.
2. Low liquid Companies:
There are some stocks whose prices may be continuously falling, but the investors are not able to sell that share just because there are no buyers. Exiting from a low-liquid company can be pretty stressful. Avoid investing in companies with low liquidity.
In general, stay away from companies with the daily average trading volume of fewer than ten lacks. The higher the volume, the better it is.
Way to check the liquidity of a company is by noticing the difference between Ask/Bid prices. The smaller the difference, the higher is the liquidity.
3. Falling knife category companies:
Investing in companies whose share price are falling continuously and significantly (for example- Geetanjali gems, PC Jewellers, PNB, Suzlon energy etc.) is never a good idea. There’s always a reason why the prices of these stocks are falling, and the market is punishing that company.
Moreover, there are thousands of listed companies in the Indian stock market which you can explore. Trying to catch a falling knife generally results in hurting your own hand if you are not trained on how to do so.
4. Low visibility companies:
There are few companies in the Indian market whose information is not easily (and transparently) available on the internet or financial websites. This is mostly in the case of small and micro-cap companies.
Researching such companies with low visibility can be a tedious job for the investors. Further, there are also chances of information manipulation if you can’t cross-check the data or when the reference sources are not reliable. Hence, avoid the companies which are less visible.