Should you invest in a lot of stocks at once?

When you invest in lots of stocks at once through index funds they have a lot of power: The S&P 500 index — which includes around 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. — has posted an average annual return of nearly 10% since 1928.

How many stocks make the cut?

A total of 23 stocks make the cut there, as you can see in the chart below. But first a note on our methodology: S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' stock recommendations and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell.

How do I choose a good stock to buy?

Invest in stocks with recent quarterly and annual earnings growth of at least 25%. Look for companies that have new, game-changing products and services. Also consider not-yet-profitable companies, often recent IPOs, that are generating tremendous revenue growth. CAN SLIM has a proven track record of significantly outperforming the S&P 500.