If you are investing online through a discount broker, it's important to take trading fees into account when calculating your gains. If you pay $10 per trade and invest $500 in a company, the stock will have to rise 2% just for you to break even. After you have calculated your overall gains, compare them to the return for the same time period of the S&P 500 Index. If your stock choices are earning less than this benchmark, consider getting out of stock picking and into an index fund that will guarantee you make the market average.

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