NEW YORK (CNNfn) - So you bought some shares in a technology company because everyone said it held promise for stellar growth. But now, the technology sector has undergone some transformation and turned volatile. Should you hold on to your stock or sell it?
 David Kaslow, portfolio manager of the growth strategies team at Banc of America Capital Management, offers up some advice that just might make your decision easier.
"There are tremendous resources available to people who are looking for it," said Kaslow. "Individual investors can choose to devote as much time as they want to educating themselves and learning about the companies they own."
Where do you start?
Now that you know the information is out there, what do you look for and how do you get it? Plowing through the many varied ways of obtaining information can be staggering, so Kaslow suggests starting with the basics to get some idea of what the company is about.
 "It's really going back to the most basic processes of examining what a business does and why it's successful," said Kaslow. "The availability of information available to investors is vastly greater than it used to be and I think that is to everybody's advantage."
If you bought stock in a company that you expected to profit for years to come, you may want to keep an eye on their annual reports and news releases for signs of sustained growth. So, if the market turns against you, the long-term outlook is still positive and you may not want to dump the stock.
But if you want to make a quick buck and your stock starts to plummet, long-term strategies may not help you much and selling could be the route for you to pursue.
Whichever path you choose, there are some basic tools that every investor should review before making any rash decisions.
The basic tools needed are the company's annual report, copies of the company's 10Q filing, and the latest company news releases.
"I would urge any investor to do as much thorough analysis as they're capable of and that means looking broadly at the fundamentals of a company's business," said Kaslow. "Look at its business model and what its source of revenue is, how it's positioned in its market, where its growth comes from and where potential new growth could come from."
Portfolio strategy
As a portfolio manager, Kaslow takes a long-term approach to investing and recommends investors to seek out companies showing forward earnings improvements.
 "The ideal portfolio consists of secular companies that isn't driven by short-term interest rate decisions," he said. "You want to build a core. We are more concerned with business and long-term fundamentals."
Interest rates seem to weigh on everyone's minds these days but Kaslow says that they have more of an impact for short-term investors rather than on stocks being held over the long term.
If your goal is to find companies to grow with, interest rates may not come into play as strongly. "Obviously if we see significant continued rate increases, there is potential for a slowdown in the economy and we will take that into consideration," said Kaslow. "But a material slowdown will affect most companies out there. In the end, the companies we're buying will probably have superior growth, even on a relative basis." 
|
