Ten Steps to Selecting Winning Stocks

Abridged from No Hype - The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money by Gail Bebee, www.nohypeinvesting.com

1. Find out where you can buy the stock. Is it available on Canadian and/or U.S. exchanges?
2. Learn about the company and its business. Review its web site. Ask your financial services provider for information. Look at the major investing web sites.
3. Decide if the company has a future. The product or service should make sense to you and the company should have recognizable opportunities to grow the business. 
4. Find out about the company’s management. The quality of a company’s management is key to its success.
5. Examine the company’s profits. Companies worth buying have growing profits.
6. Examine the company’s revenue sources. Look for companies with real, ongoing revenue, which grows year over year.
7. Find out if there is a dividend and if it is growing.  Most investors should buy dividend-paying stocks: paying dividends to shareholders requires profits and business discipline.
8. Review the company’s level of debt.  Companies with too much debt compared to their earnings are risky.
9. Look at how the stock fits into your overall portfolio.
10. Decide when to buy the stock.  Buy the stock using the stock purchase method that suits you best.