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Be careful when investment companies go on about their predicted earnings. Most money managers never meet their benchmarks. Only a select few can actually beat the market, but there is no way of knowing who they are in advance.
You said you've been turning profits on stocks... over what period of time have you accomplished this and what kind of return are we talking about?
In any purely stock environment, it's difficult to minimize risk unless you diversify across industries. As we've seen in past years, things can go awry in an entire sector.
If you want to minimize risk, the only sure way is to either diversify across industries or spread your money into other types of investments such as bonds and real estate trusts.
There is a lot of literature that compares actively management vs. passive management, and in many cases it's the passive management that wins out. This, of course, over the long term. If you're trying to make money in the short term using stocks, you may find your luck will run out.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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