Power to the people!

Finding a good stock isn't nearly as complicated as you think it is. No, really. I mean it. You know far more about picking stocks than you realize. You are a consumer. You interact with dozens, maybe hundreds of products, services, and companies on a weekly basis. You have family, friends and co-workers that talk about products, services and companies daily. You know what you like, you know what they like.

That is a pretty good start when you are considering buying stock. It isn't enough but it gives you a place to begin your research. In later blogs I will take you through my process for that deeper research but for now lets keep it simple. Here are some questions you can ask yourself that can lead you on your search for a winning stock;

• What product or service just seems to be everywhere? What product can you not leave the house without seeing? Coke, McDonald's, IPads and IPhones (Apple), Amazon Kindle (I'm a big fan by the way).
• What marketing push worked on you? Domino's pizza admitting that they were selling an inferior product and promising to fix it won me over. I was intrigued. I had to try it and I have to say, I like the new pizza. I hadn't eaten a Domino's pizza in over 5 years but I am a regular customer now. Apparently, a lot of other people felt the same way. Domino's Pizza's stock (Tiker symbol: DPZ) is up over 80% since last August.
• What company consistently delivers a quality product, service or experience? 10 out of 11 Pixar movies have been #1 in the box office and all of them have been extremely profitable. The only reason Tangled did not make it to number 1 was because a Harry Potter movie came out the previous week. Pixar was purchased by Disney (Ticker Symbol: DIS).  
• What product or service do you abslutely love? For instance, when I am booking a flight I always fly Southwest (Ticker Symbol: LUV) if there are seats available. They generally have the lowest fares, they don't charge to check a bag and I think they have great customer service. Chances are, if I feel that way about them many other people do to.   
• What product or service can you not imagine living without? or said another way, what product or service has changed your life permanently? There are certain products or services that change the way we do things forever. For instance, the internet, cell phones, credit cards, DVR, GPS, streaming video (Netflix) etc. Finding the leader in these segments of industry might be a pretty good start.

Finding a winning stock isn't about crunching numbers and watching CNBC 12 hours a day. Its about recognizing the impact consumers (you, me, your friends, family and co-workers) have on individual companies and the stock market as a whole. Where we decide to spend our money decides which companies succeed and which fail. We, the middle class and below, power the stock market but too few of us participate in it. If we want to close the gap between the rich and the rest of us, we need to leverage all of the tools available to us. 

So, hopefully I have gotten you to start looking around, thinking about your own habits, experiences and interactions with companies and their products and services in  a new way. If you have time think about the questions I posted above, try jotting a few companies down over the next week or two. I will follow up this post with one that will get into the next layer of research.