* Avoid stocks with low cash balances (especially the specs, cos 9 times out of ten they will have a capital rasing on the rise up)
* Don't buy a stock simply to wait for one announcement, cos it may never come (eg, biotech stocks)
* Avoid extremely illiquid stocks, especially just after announcements cos 99% of the time you will be left holding with no one to sell to)
* Always use a stop-loss, this is vital no matter how good you think the stock is.
My stock picking is quite ok, either i just don't buy when i should, or i always sell to early. Therefore i don't get the good winners to outweigh the small losses that i take.
