The first thing I strongly advise most people to consider is to Stop Investing directly in Equity Markets! What I mean by that slightly  misleading statement is that as an individual investor you must first of all stop trying to build a portfolio of specific stocks and if you must, limit such allocation to not more than 5-10% of your total portfolio. There are several reasons for making this claim. 1) Understand Alpha: To put it simply, for equity investments in a particular market alpha is the return that your investment will generate above what a benchmark market index would have given you (for the same market). For example if your US equity portfolio gave you a return of 15% during a period in which S&P500 index was up by 10%, then the extra 5% return is the alpha you have generated. Note: You are unlikely to be able to ......