The 3 Best Stock Ideas

Gurus are always asked for their "3 best stock ideas."

What gets a top performer to the top are the results of all their stock picks. Every top performer has lots of good and bad ideas, but they don't know which will be good or bad before they make them.

While top performers learn a lesson from every security selection they make, the lessons from the bad ideas don't prevent them from making bad investment decisions in the future.

If you took Warren Buffett's top 10 investment ideas away, his results would be about average. When he makes an investment, he believes it is his best idea (he says "why would I put money into my second best idea if I had a better one?"). If Warren Buffett makes (a rare) bad investment, what chance does the average investor have?

It is the sum total of all investment ideas that makes a top performer, and taking any subset is a random game of chance.

The next time you hear a guru's "best ideas," the only thing you should be is entertained.