Nervous About the Stock Market? History Says Owning These Stocks Can Help You Sleep Peacefully at Night.
It's not unreasonable to be jittery about the stock market these days. The S&P 500 has posted double-digit gains in six out of the past seven full years -- and it was recently up 15% year to date -- so a pullback this year or next is very possible. Given that, how should you invest? Well, for extra safety, you might seek out stocks that have low betas. Beta is a measure of how a stock has performed historically, compared to the overall market (represented by the S&P 500). So a stock with a beta of 1 would generally move in tandem with the S&P 500, while one with a beta of, say, 0.75, would only rise (or fall) about 75% as much as the S&P 500. This isn't a precise prediction, but low betas can reflect less volatility. Here are several stocks to consider for your long-term portfolio. Continue reading