Action Alerts Plus portfolio manager and TheStreet's founder Jim Cramer has learned a lot over his 30+ years of investing.
So he created a list of 25 Rules for Investing that can help you avoid the novice pitfalls that even he fell into on occasion.
Here, he debunks two different views.
If I buy it and hold it long enough, it will come back.
I don't have the time - no one has the time - to be that diligent.
Cramer vehemently disagrees with both of the above statements.
But if you believe either of those views to be true, you should not be investing your own money.
Unless you take control.
Rule 6: Do Your Stock Homework Much like your kids, you have to do your stock homework as well.
So that means: Listen to the conference calls.
Go to the company's Web site.
Read the research.
Read the news stories.
Get actively involved in your portfolio and listen to Cramer tell you how.
We'll roll one-rule-a-day for the next 25 days!
Sign up and watch Jim Cramer's 25 Rules For Investing here!