[Julie]

I know diversity is best, so when it comes to individual stocks….how many do you have?

I’m curious about achieving optimal diversification in a stock portfolio. I often hear about the benefits of diversifying, but I’m wondering: How many individual stocks do you typically hold to feel you have achieved a balanced and diversified portfolio?

I’d love to understand others’ approaches to this—whether you lean toward a smaller, more concentrated selection or prefer a broader range.

What factors do you consider when deciding on the number of stocks, and how do you balance diversity with manageability?

Any insights, experiences, or tips would be great to hear!

[Steve]

If you’re truly an individual stock picker, then you need 20-30 stocks across different segments to be diversified.

I probably have about 50, but watch about 100 individual stocks, and typically watch a stock for a year before I buy it.

I won’t BS you and say I haven’t had my clock cleaned by a GE or LU over the years, but that’s the reason for diversification.

There are a lot of people here that risked $5k on an AAPL or TSLA or other stock and reaped $1M+ returns.

If you do like everyone does, you get the same result as everyone.

If you want to be unique, you need to think outside the ETF.

[Sean]

Most people aiming for fire are doing the tried and true method of low cost index funds.

I think this group wont be the place to get the best answers to your individual stock questions, but hopefully someone can help.

[Bill]

I have no stocks in my retirement accounts.
5 individual stocks out of 15 holdings in my brokerage account.

[Angela]

The experts say you shouldn’t have more than 5% of your portfolio in any individual stock. 2-3 good companies in each sector for the diversification.

However, holding that many stocks takes up a lot of time studying & monitoring performance. 20-30 only if you know what you’re doing.

Almost everyone is better off to choose a small handful of ETF’S that align with your goals & time horizon, then add to them on a regular basis regardless of what the economy or the stock market is doing.

Stick to the plan, keep adding to your portfolio with every paycheck.

Ignore the news & politics. Ignore the dips & crashes. Ignore the bubbles & all-time highs.

[Richard]

10% of my portfolio value is in single stocks. 5 currently. The rest of my portfolio is ETFs.

[Doug]

I used to have about 70 stocks from an investing newsletter I subscribed to. I did that for about 15 years and did quite well.

However, it became too much of a pain to keep up to date on and things were far too complex for my wife or kids to take over if something happened to me.

I’ve been simplifying over the last year or so.

I’ve sold most individual stocks except some that have significant gains in my taxable account.

Simplification isn’t enough reason to sell a fundamentally good stock/company and incur capital gains.

Nearly everything will be in ETFs in the end.

[Dave]

I like putting a tiny percentage of my nest egg in individual stocks. Just enough to make it interesting to keep tabs on how they’re doing.

About 8 or 9 years ago I did that with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Netflix. It worked out well.

A few of my other bets were a disaster (I’m looking at you, Rivian and Baidu), but the amounts I risked were tiny, so they didn’t really impact me much, and were vastly outweighed by my gains elsewhere.

[Author]

Posts