The digital clock on Leo’s desk ticked past midnight, illuminating a stack of personal finance books he had been devouring for weeks. It was January 2017, and Leo was ready to take the plunge into the stock market. At twenty-four, with a modest savings account and a lot of ambition, he was determined to find the absolute best stocks for a beginner.
Looking back from the present day, Leo often smiled at that old 2017 spreadsheet. He realized that the best stocks for a beginner weren't about finding a secret, obscure company. They were about buying great, understandable businesses, having patience, and simply getting started.
His first pick was Apple. To Leo, it felt like the ultimate beginner stock. Everyone he knew owned an iPhone, and the company’s ecosystem was incredibly sticky. In early 2017, Apple was trading at what would later look like an absolute steal, split-adjusted. Leo loved the idea of owning a piece of the company that made the device glued to his hand. best stocks to buy for beginners 2017
For his third pick, Leo wanted something with aggressive growth potential. He chose Amazon. In 2017, Amazon was already a giant, but it was still aggressively expanding its Prime membership and its highly profitable cloud computing arm, AWS. Some of Leo’s friends told him he was too late to buy Amazon, that the stock had already run up too much. But Leo believed e-commerce was still in its infancy.
With his hands shaking slightly, Leo logged into his newly opened brokerage account and clicked "buy" on his first few shares of Apple, Disney, and Amazon. He promised himself he wouldn't look at the account every day. He was a long-term investor now. The digital clock on Leo’s desk ticked past
His second pick was the Walt Disney Company. Leo viewed Disney as an indestructible powerhouse of intellectual property. They had Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and their classic animation. He figured that no matter what happened to the economy, people would always want to be entertained, take their kids to theme parks, and buy merchandise. It felt like a safe, blue-chip bet for a nervous first-timer.
After days of research, reading articles, and comparing notes with older colleagues, Leo settled on three distinct choices. Looking back from the present day, Leo often
Years passed, and Leo’s discipline paid off. He watched Amazon soar as it became even more dominant in global retail. He watched Apple cross trillion-dollar market caps and split its stock, multiplying his original shares. Disney had its ups and downs, especially during the volatile years of the early 2020s, but it remained a bedrock of his portfolio.