The Secret To Making Money In Stocks. A Student Guide

When you’re in college, investing in the stock market can be scary, but it doesn’t need to be. The key to success is diversification along with calculated risks based on your age. The younger you are, the more you want to increase risk. You can always make up for any losses via income generation throughout your life. Up until this point, most people have probably told you to be careful. This applies to many situations. Believe it or not, you are now being advised to take risks.

Defense First

Even though you’re going to be taking risks, which will be covered soon, you’re still going to need a solid base. In order to have that, you want to have at least half your portfolio weighted in Blue Chip stocks. These are companies that are leaders in their industry, have strong balance sheets so they can weather economic storms, and have a market cap of at least $1 billion.

Due to their large size, the stocks of these companies don’t move much because they’re bigger ships to turn. That’s okay because most of them pay dividends, which means you’re getting paid quarterly regardless of how the stock performs. You can either have those dividend payments transferred to your account or you can reinvest them into the stock, which will give you a larger position in that company. This doesn’t just mean you will make more money as the stock slowly climbs higher over the years; it also means your dividend payments will increase.

Risk FTW

Defense will relive stress. On the other hand, it’s not that exciting either. If you’re in college and you want to invest in stocks, then you want to exposure to potential 10-baggers. And sometimes those 10-baggers can turn into 100-baggers. If that happens, you’re probably going to be wealthy. A 10-bagger means your $1,000 investment turned into $10,000. A 100-bagger means your $1,000 investment turned into $100,000.

In regards to getting wealthy, that’s only if you’re wise enough to sell. Some people won’t sell after they have huge gains in a stock because of greed, or because they don’t want to pay short-term capital gains. This especially applies to young investors. The following is a very important tip.

When your growth-stock investment reaches a point where you can’t believe what happened, it’s time to sell. It doesn’t matter if it has been less than a year and need to pay short-term capital gains. If it’s a growth stock, it’s likely to be volatile, which means those stocks can plunge just as quickly. There is an old saying with stocks: “If you’re paying taxes, it means you’re making money.”

Locking in a gain of $10,000 and paying more taxes is a lot better than selling at a profit of $3,000 when you could have sold at $10,000.

A Few Ideas For College Investors

You need to do your own due diligence before making any stock investments. The following stocks are just ideas.

The first one is Square, Inc. (SQ), which has appreciated 44.09% over the past year. Square is a commerce ecosystem that turns mobile devices and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions. Throughout history, companies that have made life easier for others have done well for a considerable amount of time.

The second option is Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS). Kratos Defense & Security Solutions builds drones and unmanned vehicles. This is likely to be the way of war in the future. The training is similar but no lives are lost. The training is also less expensive, which is good news for investors. KTOS has been around for a while and has depreciated 24.36% over the past year. It has been a volatile stock because their creations haven’t been put to use as quickly as originally expected. That might change. Then again, it might not. And that’s what makes it a risky growth stock.

Aurora Companies Inc. (ACB) has performed even worse over the past year, losing 64.38% of its value. That’s because investors began focusing on fiscal concerns more than potential with this legal marijuana company. They might be right, but revenue continues to climb. When that happens, there is usually another move higher in the future. However, this cannot be guaranteed.

Conclusion

Here’s the game plan when you’re investing as a college student. Remember to set up a strong defense before going on offense. You want Blue Chip stocks on defense and growth stocks on offense. The Blue Chips stocks will keep you afloat with their likely steady gains and dividend payments. The right growth stock could change your life. With the growth stocks, pick what’s on-trend and always look for consistent revenue gains.