Making Good Stock Picks

More and more we are beginning to see the market move as a unit.  Instead of some stocks up and some down, on these big market days ALL stocks are down.  Today 29 of the 30 Dow stocks were down, most over 1 percent.  447 of the S&P 500 members closed down.  We thought it would be interesting to take a look at how many stocks were up versus down over the course of the day.  The chart below shows how many stocks were down at different times during the day.

In this type of environment it is harder for individual investors to make good stock picks.  Even if you have selected the perfect company with great potential for growth it may not be safe from broad moves like today's.