Do you want big returns but can never achieve them? People often dream of making a killing in the stock market, but it seems like only a psychic can succeed. Continue on for some helpful investment advice which can benefit your earning potential.

To maximize profitability, think long-term. Be realistic when investing. Have the patience to hold on to your stock investments for as long a period as needed, sometimes years, until you can make a profit.

Carefully monitor the stock market before entering into it. Before investing, you want to watch the market for awhile. It is not uncommon for successful investors to have spent years watching the market before they actually invested their own money. Spend some time as a stock watcher. This way, you will have a better idea of exactly how the market works, and will have more chance of actually making money.

Check out your potential investment broker’s reputation before giving him or her any money. A thorough background investigation will lessen the chances of you falling prey to someone who will defraud you.

Stocks are much more than slips of paper. A stock represents your ownership of a piece of the company that issued it. As a partial owner, you are entitled to claims on assets and earnings. In many instances, you even have voting rights in corporate elections.

Your portfolio should always have a reasonable amount of diversity. You don’t want to have all of your eggs in a single basket. For example, if you invest everything you have into one share and it goes belly up, you will have lost all your hard earned money.

Keeping six months of living expenses in a high interest account provides a lot of security. The idea here, of course, is that should you ever need emergency funding, you can break into this fund and hopefully get by without depleting it. Or, should you really need it on an extended basis, at least the money will be there.

To get the most out of your stock market investments, set up a long-term goal and strategy. Try to set realistic goals in order to have more success in your endeavors. Keep your stocks until you make a profit.

When you choose an equity to invest in, don’t allocate more than 10% of your portfolio into that company. If the stock ends up plummeting in the future, your risk will be reduced.

If you value the assistance of a broker, but want the option of also trading on your own, look for a broker that can offer you both online and full-service options. Working with such a broker lets you split your total investment into whatever proportion you like, handle part of it yourself, and turn the rest over to your broker. This will give you professional assistance without giving up total control of your investments.

With all that you learned you should have a good idea about what it takes to make smart investments and become successful in the game. Use what you know to make profits and impress friends and family with your earnings. Start earning those profits and be the best investor.

Exercise your voting rights for any common stocks that you own. Depending on what the company’s charter says, you might have voting rights which allow you to elect board directors, or even make proposals for big company changes like a merger. Generally, voting takes place at the annual meeting of the shareholders or via proxy voting if a lot of the members are not present.