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If you want to be a successful investor, there is no substitute for learning how to buy stocks the right way. Too many small investors jump into the market without any regard for educating themselves on the fundamentals necessary to enable them to engage in even a minimum amount of real analysis of the companies and stocks they want to buy.

If you are a newcomer to the world of investment, the stock market can seem like a pretty scary place. To many, it sounds like an animal menagerie, with bulls and bears battling for control, and chickens and pigs scrounging around the barnyard for whatever opportunistic scraps they can manage to find. Despite all that, you can learn how to buy stocks in a reasonable manner, to ensure that your hard-earned money is invested as wisely as possible.

We have all heard stories of people with investments who woke up one morning to find that their entire stock portfolio had been wiped out as the company went under. While some of those people may have been lied to by the company whose stock they held (as happened with Enron years ago), in most cases there were plenty of signs of the company and stock’s demise if the investor had only been paying attention.

For many people who want to better understand how to buy stocks, finding the right balance between ascertaining the timing of the markets and merely holding stocks for the long term can often be difficult. Those two competing strategies each have their proponents and detractors, as well as their own arguments for and against their train of thought.

While a large portion of the average investors in the country immediately flee the market during a downturn (usually after they have already absorbed more in losses than they can reasonably afford to lose), smart investors keep their hand in the game. Have you ever wondered why that is? Are they just gluttons for punishment, or what? If you are a new investor wondering how to buy stocks in the middle of a recession, evaluating those investors’ behavior may provide the clue you are looking for.

If you are trying to learn how to buy stocks, you have no doubt already noticed that there is an incredible array of methodologies offered as surefire ways to pick winning stocks. If you’ve ever had someone try to sell you a lemon of a car, you’ve probably recognized that these stock advice systems bear a striking resemblance.

When we talk about how to buy stocks at the right time, we are not talking about the so-called market timing method where investors attempt to anticipate the beginnings and ends of various market cycles. Instead we are talking about that age-old adage that you should buy low and sell high to be successful in your investment strategy. It seems so simple that you would assume that is how everyone invests, right? The fact is, few investors even come close to following that simple rule.

When the stock mat moves in one direction or another, there are conflicting ideas about what you, the individual investor, should do in response. The old adage that you should always buy when others are selling – and vice versa – is a good first principle, but what about those times when the fundamentals of the companies being bought or sold don’t justify following that adage? For those just learning how to buy stocks, the mentality of the herd can easily take hold and cast rational thought out the window.

It seems that buying stocks and other investments has become so commonplace in America today that one can hardly pick up a magazine or turn on the television cable channels without this expert or that analyst boasting about some sure-fire way to beat the natural forces of the stock market. One of the most oft-hyped methods for getting this so called “winning edge” is to learn how to buy stocks using market timing.

Even in times of economic and stock market instability, there are bargains to be had for savvy investors who are willing to take the time to do adequate research to find the right stocks. Even newcomers can learn how to buy socks when everyone else is selling, though they may have to adjust to a slightly higher level of risk than that to which they are accustomed.