It's all about process

While there is no failsafe when it comes to selecting winning stocks for your portfolio, having a defined selection process will help you become a better investor.

- Simon Brown

when buying property, the often repeated phrase is: location, location, location. For investors and traders, the critical phrase needs to be: process, process, process.

I have often written about the importance of process, as it removes the randomness of our stock selection. Think about it: If you’re simply using a random methodology to try and select winners for your portfolio, you may as well be throwing darts at a list of shares.

Now, sure, this random methodology may result in a series of winners (not likely, but possible). But what if it does provide you with winners? Replicating this by throwing another round of darts isn’t likely. Unless they’re magic darts.

So, without magic darts, you need to establish a process that will help you select winners; a process that can be replicated in order to find more winners. In other words, process enables you to repeat your selection – and while it’s impossible to remove all risk of losing positions, a solid process over time will help you find more winners than losers.