The more time you have, the more risk you should take. If you're just starting out, 80 percent to 100 percent of your assets ought to be in stocks. The simplest trick? Subtract your age from 120: That's the percentage you should have in stocks; the rest should be in bonds. "If you have, say, 30 or 40 years, what happens over the next three months or even three years doesn't matter. If you need the money in two years and it drops 40 percent in one year, that's a problem," says Stuart Ritter, a certified financial planner with T. Rowe Price.

Stock picking is a very complicated process and investors have different approaches. However, it is wise to follow general steps to minimize the risk of your investments. This article will outline these basic steps for picking high performance stocks.

Are You a Long or Short Term Investor?

Step 1-- Pick Your Market Investment Strategy.

Decide on the time frame and the general strategy of your stock market investment. This step is very important because it will dictate the type of stocks you buy.

We'd all like to know the secrets for buying winning stocks. Here's the first one: there is no secret. No one formula and certainly no one data point is THE answer to finding the next hot stock. That isn't how investing works. But there are certain numbers that will help increase the odds of finding a stock that may go up. Here are some that will help.

People have been trading stocks for hundreds of years. It is one of the best ways to ensure a financially sound future for you and your loved ones. With a good broker and some knowledge you can go a long way toward success in stock trading. However, you do need to be wary of making some of the common mistakes that can cost you money. Let's review some of these mistakes in order to help you avoid them.

Turmoil in the current economy raises several questions in the minds of investors: Should I enter or exit out of equities? Gold has rallied significantly; maybe that is where I should invest in. Will interest rates likely to go up, should I invest in bonds? These and many more questions like these have troubled the retail investor.