If you spend more than 13 minutes analyzing economic and market forecasts, you've wasted 10 minutes

I talk to hundreds of companies a year and spend hour after hour in heady pow-wows with CEOs, financial analysts and my colleagues in the mutual-fund business, but I stumble onto the big winners in extracurricular situations, the same way you do.

You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework.

Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it's doing.

My high-tech aversion caused me to make fun of the typical biotech enterprise: $100 million in cash from selling shares, one hundred Ph.D.'s, 99 microscopes, and zero revenues.

If you have the stomach for stocks, but neither the time nor the inclination to do the homework, invest in equity mutual funds.

During the Gold Rush, most would-be miners lost money, but people who sold them picks, shovels, tents and blue-jeans (Levi Strauss) made a nice profit.