Here are four tips from Kiplinger’s magazine on how to become a better investor:

¢ Invest in businesses, not in stock. Don’t obsess over stock-price movements. Focus on the business fundamentals behind the stock price. Put some time into researching a company’s strengths and weaknesses, how competitive it is in its industry and how it might grow.

¢ Don’t go outside your comfort zone. If you invest in something you understand, then you will be better informed about how the company should perform in the future.

¢ Go against the grain. What the consensus thinks about a company is often already baked into the stock price. If you bring some original thinking to investing, you may see something that no one else does.

¢ Don’t be afraid to do nothing. Many investors feel tempted to continually reconfigure their portfolio, but all that tinkering often leads to losses. Once you decide on buying a stock, you should hold it for at least several years or until the market’s optimism becomes too excessive.