Edward Jones - Our Investment Philosophy

DEWITT, Mich. - June 2, 2015 - PRLog -- Warren Buffett once said, "Investing is simple, but isn't easy." The market and economy throw investors curve balls at times. So how can you make sure you're positioned as well as possible to achieve your goals? Develop a strategy, and stick to it.

We've seen a lot of investment fads come and go over the decades, but our investment philosophy has stayed the same. This helps you build an investment strategy with the potential to weather various market environments.

Why Quality Matters – Our Research department strives to identify investments with proven track records. Quality matters, and we believe the stocks, bonds and mutual funds we recommend offer the potential for consistent performance over time – through good and bad markets. For instance, that's why we don't recommend buying penny stocks or individual junk bonds. We also don't offer options or commodities. We believe these are too risky and won't deliver the performance you need to reach your goals.

The Benefits of Diversification – You've heard the saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for your investments. No one can predict the future, which is why you need to diversify. If your money is in just one investment or a few investments, and one of them experiences some challenges, your entire financial strategy could be in trouble. Quality does matter, but diversification is just as important. It can't guarantee a profit or protect against loss but it can help reduce risk – and balancing risk and potential return is at the heart of developing an investment strategy.

The Long-term Perspective – Even if you own diversified, quality investments, their value will still go up and down. This is where maintaining a long-term perspective comes in. Buying when you feel good and selling when you feel bad is not a good investment strategy. If you sell each time the market drops, you'll have a harder time reaching your goals. This is why we discourage frequent trading and one reason we don't offer online trading. It increases the temptation to make changes based on short-term events. It can also increase fees, commissions and possibly taxes. Long-term investing has been proven time and again to be one of the smartest strategies to help achieve financial goals. This doesn't mean you shouldn't review your investments periodically. You should. If your needs change over time, we'll work with you to help rebalance your portfolio accordingly.