text: whats the best stock?   what is the best stock is a question subject to great uncertainty. in other words, it is sort of like betting on a horse prior to a horse race. certain companies sell at higher price to earnings ratios than others. these are the 2-1 bets.  other stocks have low price to earnings ratios. these are the 20-1 long shots. the market at any time tends to price each stock in relation to its earnings potential, its dividend, and other factors.  if the market were 100% efficient, then all stocks would be equally good. there is a good deal of rational for this reasoning. one rational is that the vast majority of mutual funds-75%--tend to underperform the average stock. some of their underperformance is due to their expenses. some is due to the fact that no matter what they buy, it will tend not to perform any bettern than the market in general.   as a result many mutual funds and exchange traded funds have come to market that try to match the market in general. in other words they have thrown in the towel in trying to pick the best stocks.    but!!!  mutual funds have to invest a lot of money billions of dollars.  with that much money to invest they have a problem.  they just can not find a good stock and dump a billion dollars into it.    since you do not have a billion to invest (my assumption based on the fact that if you did you would not be asking this question here) you may be able to beat the market.  some do and some do not.   i have no idea what the best stock is? i doubt that whoever you asked would have any idea.   here are a couple of suggestions though.  do you think that more easy oil will be discovered? if the answer is no, you might consider an oil stock. another advantage of owning an oil stock is that when the price at the pump goes up 25 cents you won't feel so bad.   do you think that we are at the top of a housing bubble similar to the internet bubble?  if the answer is yes, you may want to avoid the stock market all together and put you dinero into t-bills.   do you think that there will be more and more old people? if the answer is yes, you may want to buy some health care stock.