Four Tips for Buying Stocks in Bad Times

November 13, 2008

The economic news continues to look grim. According to the latest surveys, we’re facing the worst holiday season in 23 years! Shares of General Motors recently hit a 65-year low, and now automakers are clamoring for a government bailout. And as consumers clamp down on spending, retailers are in a world of pain. Yesterday, electronics retailer Best Buy reported disappointing earnings. Afterwards, the company’s CEO said that this is “the most difficult climate we've ever seen.” Best Buy’s news comes on the heels of Circuit City’s bankruptcy, and a day before the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, lowered its profit outlook.

As difficult as this economic climate appears, I want to stress that this is still a very good time to invest. But there’s an important hitch—we need to be much more careful in our stock selections. As long as we remain prudent investors, you and I stand to see massive gains in the weeks and months ahead. This is one of best profit opportunities of our lifetime!

How can I be so sure? Because that’s how we’ve made gains time and time again using a proven formula of closely monitoring several fundamental variables in companies. Later on in this issue of What’s Working on Wall Street Now, I’ll talk about four of these important fundamental factors in greater detail—return on equity, cash flow, operating margin and earnings revisions. I’ll also give you the names of four powerful stocks that are perfect examples of how these indicators lead us to big profits!

My Blue Chip Growth service is celebrating its tenth birthday, and for the past decade my subscribers have been buying stocks with great fundamentals—just like the four examples I’ll give you later. As a result, we’ve beaten the S&P 500 in eight of the last ten years. Not many professional investors can say that. All told, we’ve beaten the rest of the market by nearly 200%—that’s 274% gains for us and just 77% for the S&P 500. That’s beating the market more than 3.5-to-1.

You can join us by signing up today for one year of Blue Chip Growth for $149. That includes twelve monthly issues, plus access to my hotlines, flash alerts, earnings service, Q&A and Blue Chip Growth Buy List. Also, if you sign up now, I’ll include my special report, How to Invest $50,000 Now. This report is especially useful for new investors or investors that don’t have huge portfolios to play around with. The report is normally a $49 value, but I’ll include it at no extra cost if you join us today.