It’s an article writers dream! Throw the words, hot stocks, in your article title and the readers will flock to you faster than seagulls to food. (A flock of seagulls stole my lunch while sitting on the beach on a recent vacation. I’m still mad)

Now that I have your attention, I’m going to tell you what the hot stocks are but first, I’m going to tell you how to find them yourself should have trouble finding your daily fix of “what’s hot” style articles.

When looking for hot stocks, evaluate with the idea that there is no getting rich quickly. Getting rich in the stock market with little to no training is the same kind of dream as planning your life around being the next great NBA athlete. Follow your dreams but have the practical back up plan. Maybe you will be the stock picker that everybody talks about but let’s be honest, it’s not likely.

[ReviewAZON asin="0743224906" display="inlinepost"]

So you, who has a full time job outside of finance, a family, a golf game that needs work and an extra 20 pounds to lose, may not have enough time to find the next bunch of hot stocks. Your hot stocks may be safe, dividend paying stocks that you hold on to for 6 months to a few years.

While it’s not very thrilling, the stock market rewards patience and patience is the tried and true way of making money over time. So you made a couple of hundred dollars over night on a stock pick. Good for you but how much money have you made in total? Studies show that part time investors don’t make money over time employing day trading strategies.

The fact is this: It’s going to take time and it’s going to take research. A lot of it, in fact. Experts say at least one hour per week per stock that you own. You probably need at least 5 stocks to be diversified so you’re going to need to find more than half a work day each week to do your homework.

If you don’t believe you can sift through all of the financial advice coming your way, consider subscribing to a service like Action Alerts Plus where an expert like best selling author and CNBC commentator Jim Cramer is doing your research for you and all you have to do is buy and sell when he tells you to execute the trade. My secret is that I don’t have enough time to do all of my research so I let Action Alert Plus do it for me.

Hot stocks are investments in large companies that will appreciate in value over time. If you don’t feel confident, let Jim Cramer help you. No more reading what’s hot articles. They are more likely to but a frost over your portfolio.

The first book I ever read about investing was Jim Cramer’s Real Money. Click here to go to the elementary finance bookstore to order your copy. You can also take a look at the book in the box above. Although the first book, it is still the book I reread once every year.