Hot Stocks for 2010

I know I'm a little late with this post since we're almost in to March already but I thought it would be useful to have a little round up of what we can expect in 2010. You haven't all gone and blown your budgets already have you? No I didn't think so. This is actually a trick post anyway because if you've read any of my other messages I'd never actually recommend a stock tip to go and buy. I will however pass on a few ways on how to buy stocks for beginners and how to buy stocks for dummies. That way you can do a little work yourself and retain no liability if it doesn't work out. Sometimes it won't work out! I've been down that way and unfortunately suffered from the technology bubble bursting. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to suffer from that right? Anyway Kraft finally bought Cadbury in the UK much to my disappointment. To be honest it's not about the stock is more about my love for chocolate. If you've read any of the press coming from Warren Buffett you'll see that he was dead against the move from the start. Don't listen to Warren Buffett at your peril! One piece of advice I would give if you're looking for quick stock picks for 2010 then why not have a look at what Berkshire Hathaway has been buying. It's kind of cheating I know but it's not at the same time. You can see what Warren Buffett decides is a good purchase and then do a little research of your own to decide if it's still a good investment. The problem with following a trend like this is that you often get on just as the price has been ramped right out. Just the shear mention of Berkshire Hathaway's name against a stock is enough to drive the price up through the roof. Everyone see's who's interested in and decide to invest in it themselves. This is a sure fire way of paying over the odds for a share or stock in a company. This is the same the world over. It doesn't matter if you're in the Japanese stock exchange or UK, a bargain is still a bargain.

So now that my ranting is over here's the stocks that Warren Buffett's been buying in 2010. Could this be an insight into 2010 hot stocks? Perhaps. If you're looking hot penny stocks, well that doesn't really go with the ethos of Berkshire Hathaway. The two biggest investments Buffett made this year has been in the document and information management company called Iron Mountain. You might have seen them in your office coming to collect the back up tapes from your servers and such like. Buffett doubled his investment in the company to 7 million shares. Can we expect that this type of company will be on the rise in the near future? Probably, Iron Mountain is the market leader in this kind of work and will only get stronger and stronger. Fantastic name too. Buffett always increased his shares in Republic Services Inc. to 8.3 million. This company deals with garbage and waste management. Again this is a service that is going to grow and grow and will likely be unaffected by recession or any other type of outside interference. Investing for dummies this could be, stick to what you know and the market leaders in their field.

Buffet also increased his shares in Wal-Mart by more than a million bringing the total to 37.8 million shares. Wal-Mart are always a sure fire bet due to their stranglehold in the US supermarket area. They also own number one supermarket chain ASDA in the UK. The most interesting investment he made, perhaps another hot stock for 2010 is his purchase of more stocks in a bank. Which one was it this time? Well it wasn't Sun Trust Banks Inc. He actually reduced his shares from 2.22 million to 1.54 million. So which bank has he shown faith in? Wells Fargo & Co. Another 2010 hot stock? Do your analysis and find out for yourself! It was interesting that he chose to invest in another bank though considering the terrible time of it the financial sector has faced recently. It is somewhat reassuring that someone of Buffett's caliber has decided to back a bank and invest heavily. Could this be a sign that things in the financial sector are about to pick up?

OK so I know it's not quite a hot stock for 2010 list but to be honest things don't change from year to year. If you do your analysis properly, work out the intrinsic value of a company and decide if its worth investing in. There's no point in trying to predict the future and don't get carried away because you can buy stocks online so easily these days. You want to try to keep a clear head and look at things from a very analytical point of view. Keep emotions out of it and assess investment opportunities on their relative positives and negatives. Stock market for dummies is probably a misleading title but I guess we all have to remain focused on the job in hand. Warren Buffett's purchases are a little taster of what we can expect in 2010. Just make you do your research properly first before you jump in and copy him blindly! You might just have missed the chance of a bargain in the stock market by that point.