[vobios]

> you can research growth stocks (e.g. pharmaceutical companies undergoing FDA trials) and pick the promising ones

Those FDA trials are expensive. Those companies have many experts in the field that believe those trials have a reasonable chance of success. Otherwise, they would not proceed with them. Even the FDA itself believes those trials have a good chance of success. There are plenty of Wall Street analysts who are also evaluating these trials. Regular Joe is not going to outsmart all those people.

[opportune]

Fair. But I meant that as an example - by research I was thinking of looking in depth at the drug and where it is in the pipeline, what it treats / the market the drug might enter, how promising its research looks, how similar drugs/analogues faired in FDA trials, etc. I wouldn't suggest someone with a poor background in chemistry or pharmaceuticals to try doing that - I think if you're looking at riskier companies, you should mostly only invest in what you know.