When to Buy a Stock in the "Investor Advisory Service"
Posted by: Doug Gerlach 8/18/2011 8:10:45 PM

A subscriber to our award-winning "Investor Advisory Service" newsletter asks how to determine when to buy stocks that are covered by the Service.
Charles B. is a subscriber to the Investor Advisory Service, and he recently wrote me to ask, "I think I heard in a past webinar that you had advised to only consider the stock highlighted that month when making new buys for one's portfolio. Do you still feel that is the best way to use IAS, or should every stock in the list with a "Buy" indicator in the Company Sorts listings be considered when making new buys for one's portfolio?"
 
Each month, we feature three companies in the Investor Advisory Service with in-depth profiles. These are the only official purchase recommendations that we make for subscribers.
 
However, we recognize that subscribers may not find any of those three companies suitable for their personal portfolios. The companies may not fit with the existing holdings in an investor's portfolio diversification plan, or may not fit within the investor's equity risk tolerance levels, or they may prefer to avoid certain industries. On top of that, it may not be practical or affordable to buy shares of additional stocks each and every month.
 
In those cases, investors may still have cash with which they would like to be putting into the market. (After all, investing regularly is one of the keys to long-term investing success.) If you have cash and don't like any of the three recommendations in an issue, then turn to the sorted lists and News of Companies sections to review our assessment of any stocks that you currently own that are actively tracked by IAS. In the "Buy" column, any stock that meets our mathematical criteria for purchase at its current price will be indicated with a "B." We recommend that you use this indicator to find companies (most likely that you currently own) upon which you can do more research. Then, you can must decide for yourself if a particular company would fit with your portfolio diversification plan, personal tolerances, and total return goals.
 
For more, we've covered this topic on the Investor Advisory Service's blog in a recent posting, as well.