Being in the trading and investing business for over forty years – as a market-maker, a mega-bank derivative hedging and trading specialist, and a hedge fund manager – has taught me a few things about buying stocks, too many to even list on all the pages of a legal pad.
But there are really only five things that matter, five things that I’ve learned over all those years that have to be present for me to buy a stock. And it doesn’t matter if you’re buying a stock for a trade or as an investment for the long-term. The five things always apply.
This post originally appeared at Money Morning.