Poll: Do you invest in individual stocks?

"Buy what you know." Ever heard that investing advice?

You like fast food? Buy Yum Brands.*

You shop for paper towels? How about investing in Walmart?*

It seems to make sense. If you use something, chances are that a lot of other consumers like you use it too. But then on May 18, a lot of individual investors got burned buying something they use every 15 minutes: Facebook (or FB, as it is listed on Nasdaq.)

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Maybe it will be a good investment in the long run, but tomorrow we're going to talk about whether individual investors should have been buying an individual stock like FB at all.

What's your experience?



Why do or don't you buy individual stocks? If you do invest, how big a part of your portfolio is it?


--Stephanie Curtis, social media host


*Just examples. Please do not invest in these companies because of me. I own neither and have not done any research into their P/E ratios.