Stock Investing For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 13

Emerging Sector and Industry Opportunities

In This Chapter

Distinguishing sectors from industries

Asking questions about sectors and industries

Keeping an eye on bullish and bearish sectors and industries

Suppose that you have to bet your entire nest egg on a one-mile race. All you need to do is select a winning group. Your choices are the following:

Group A: Thoroughbred race horses

Group B: Overweight Elvis impersonators

Group C: Lethargic snails

This isn’t a trick question, and you have one minute to answer. Notice that I didn’t ask you to pick a single winner out of a giant mush of horses, Elvii, and snails; I only asked you to pick the winning group in the race. The obvious answer is the thoroughbred race horses (and no, they weren’t ridden by the overweight Elvis impersonators because that would take away from the eloquent point being made). In this example, even the slowest member of Group A easily outdistances the fastest member of either Group B or C.

Industries, like groups A, B, and C in my example, aren’t equal, and life isn’t fair. After all, if life were fair, Elvis would be alive, and the impersonators wouldn’t exist. Fortunately, picking stocks doesn’t ...