- Porter's Daily Journal
- Posts
- Why You Shouldn’t Buy Stocks – Ever
Why You Shouldn’t Buy Stocks – Ever
Porter's Journal Issue #23, Volume #2
Porter Stansberry
February 27, 2025
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II
This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.
Table of Contents
Most people should never buy stocks… If there were such a man as Mr. On Average, he’d be a heck of an investor! But there’s not.… However, there is an asset class that is much better than stocks… You will never buy a stock again… Inflation stays sticky – in Japan and in the U.S… |
After working with investors for nearly three decades, I’ve reached a surprising conclusion:
Most people shouldn’t ever buy stocks.
I don’t mean they shouldn’t buy individual stocks. I mean, they shouldn’t own stocks, at all, of any kind, period.
They shouldn’t own stock mutual funds.
Or ETFs (exchange traded funds).
Or even index funds.
Yes, I am quite aware that, over time, common stocks will produce returns that are superior to every other asset class… on average.
Your focus should be on those last two words, “on average.”
If there were, in fact, a Mr. On Average, he’d be a heck of an investor! But there’s no such man.
And there’s a lot of sin hiding behind the myth of Mr. On Average.
Like many of life’s contests, the stock market is designed to look like a fair game, where everyone has a fair chance to win. And, in fact, because of tremendous gains to productivity and the resulting growth in corporate earnings over time, all investors win over time – on average.
And yet, in reality, for most people, the stock market is a rigged game that they cannot win.