Not a day goes by that I don’t hear a talking head on CNBC talking about a well diversified portfolio. Diversification must be a required course in money management school. Here is a commonly accepted definition from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s web site,
One of way of diversifying your investments within an asset category is to identify and invest in a wide range of companies and industry sectors. But the stock portion of your investment portfolio won’t be diversified, for example, if you only invest in only four or five individual stocks. You’ll need at least a dozen carefully selected individual stocks to be truly diversified.
I have never been a big fan of diversification. Most people end up di-worse-si-fying their portfolios by adding stocks in unfamiliar sectors for the sake of diversification. It is a little easier with the advent of ETFs. Now, one can simply choose an ETF for additional exposure as opposed to trying to become a good stock picker in many different sectors.