Whether you are just starting out in Investing or have been investing for a long time you need to have not only a diversified portfolio but you need to be equally invested in all sectors. In addition you also need to be sure that you have stocks that favor long term growth. A growth stock is a stock that has favorable long term prospects and new and untapped markets that it can expand into in the near future. For example Apple (AAPL) is a good growth stock because it has a great history of positive earnings and a constant rotation of great products and untapped markets. Generally stocks with good growth characteristics would be ones like, both Internet and technology company’s, some car companies, food and agriculture and other products that have global mass appeal.
You should not invest in your lifestyle (Brands that use go to or use every day, for example Wal-Mart (WMT) Starbucks (SBUX) McDonalds (MCD) etc.) That is not to say that these are bad stocks, but before you invest in ANY stock you need to make sure to do through research. If you neglect to do the research you have a very high risk of not making any profit and losing your principal investment as well.
Blackboard (BBBB) is another good growth stock, it provides online learning apps for grades K-12. With steady 10% growth a year, its a safe play for a reasonable price. Another thing to beware of is too much growth to fast, if a company grows to fast then there could be other things at play or it could really just be growing that fast. Stocks that grow very fast in a very short time frame need additional intense research before any investment. In addition, while having a lot of growth in your portfolio is great you also need to hedge your risk by buying assets that are solid and that offer a slight profit. Or if there are no such assets available it is advisable to park your money in an FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Commission) insured bank.
Gold is also an option to consider. Not gold stocks because those tend to move more on emotion than on anything logically based. If you were to consider investing in gold you would need to purchase actual, physical gold. It is much safer than buying a stock that could go ether way. However if you must invest in gold stocks GoldCorp (GG) and Coeur d’ Alene Mines Corp (CDE) are both reasonably solid ones. All in all the stocks i most recommend are (AAPL) (BBBB) for growth and (CDE) (GG) for gold. Have fun and invest wisely.