For example, you could add airlines and retail stocks and expand the scope of your technology holdings. American Airlines, which serves the county, seems reasonably priced at the moment. Hewlett-Packard, which has a North County facility, presents an attractive opportunity in high technology. The current market terrifies me, but I need to keep building a long-term investment portfolio and like to buy individual stocks. Even when markets are at historic highs, some companies are bad news bears.
Negative news drives their stock price down.
Microsoft, until recently, was an excellent example of that. Once all the bad news was out and investors knew that the suits were going forward and what the charges would be, the share price started to rise. Your job is to decide whether the company will overcome the bad news. Make certain that your target company has sound fundamentals. That is, its debt level is low, its cash flow is strong and the overall business outlook is positive.