Swedroe comments on buying individual stocks.

[lazyday]

Wab, have you looked into Toyota Industries (formerly called Toyoda Loom Works, IIRC)? A way of buying Toyota at a discount, according to Marty Whitman in quarterly reports of TAVFX. Holds lots of Toyota stock, but sells cheaper than NAV acc to Marty. Probably have to buy on a Japanese exchange.

 

[justin]

I took a glance at the VPACX (Vanguard Pacific stock index fund) top ten holdings. Many recognizable names - Besides Toyota, there's Sony, Honda, and Canon in addition to a few Japanese and Australian financial powerhouses. I know a lot of those companies get money from me and many others I know.

 

[ESRBob]

Late to the thread, but I throw my lot in with Swedroe-- his real point, as I read it, is that picking, owning and selling individual stocks takes a huge amount of time and brain cycles, and produces little clear benefit vs owning indexes. Spend the time you free up with the kids, with a friend, learning a new sport,whatever.

Individual stock picking/owning is like a part time job, maybe a full-time job. If we ER in order to take a full-time job as a stock picker, we might as well try to get hired by a fund and do the same thing for a heckuvalot more money.