The intelligent and safe way to handle capital is to concentrate.

Diversification

The beginner in investing needs diversification until he learns the ropes.

Diversification is an admission of not knowing what to do and an effort to strike an average.



Concentration is the intelligent and safe way

The intelligent and safe way to handle capital is to concentrate.

If things are not clear, do nothing. 

When something comes up, follow it to the LIMIT.

If it is not worth following to the limit, it is not worth following at all.



How to start?

Always start with a large cash reserve.

Next, begin in one issue in a small way. 

If it does not develop, close out and get back to cash. 

But if it does do what is expected of it, expand your position in this one issue on a scale up. 

After, but not before, it has safely drawn away from your highest purchase price, then you might consider a second issue.




Greatest Safety:  Putting all your eggs in one basket and watching the basket

The greatest safety lies in putting all your eggs in one basket and watching the basket.

You simply cannot afford to be careless or wrong. 

Hence, you act with much more deliberation.

Of course, no thinking person will buy more of something than the market will take if he wants to sell, and here again, the practical test will force one into the listed leaders where one belongs. 

The less active a stock and the further distant the market, the more potential profit I need to see in it to make it worth buying.

It is purely a personal matter whether an investor feels that efforts at safety are more important than trying to get the maximum out of investing.



Stocks in the same business cycle

Diversification between the position of varying companies in their business cycle or as between their shares in their market price cycle is a very important consideration. 

Dividing one's funds between three or four different stocks which happen all to be in the same sector of their cycle can often be discouraging or dangerous.

After all, the final determinant of investment success or failure is market price.

• For example, industries which are in the final stages of a boom with rapidly increasing earnings, dividends and possibly split-ups, often offer shares high in price but apparently rapidly going higher.  There is a sound justification for an investor who knows what he is doing to buy into such a situation, especially for short-term gains, but it would be quite dangerous for him to put all of his funds in three or four such stocks.

• On the other hand, we naturally all seek deflated and cheap bargains, but very often shares like this will lie on the bottom much longer than we anticipate and if every share we own is in this same category, we may do very badly in a relatively good market.

Conclusions:

The greatest safety for the capable, lies in putting all one's eggs in one basket and watching the basket.  

The beginner and those who simply find their investment efforts unsuccessful must resort to orthodox diversification.