How do you make money in stocks?
The key to making money in stocks is remaining in the stock market; your length of “time in the market” is the best predictor of your total performance. Unfortunately, investors often move in and out of the stock market at the worst possible times, missing out on that annual return. More time equals more opportunity for your investments to go up.
What can you make with chicken stock?
Use up your chicken stock while you try your hand at some classic French cuisine. Ratatouille is a traditional dish featuring eggplant, tomato, and zucchini, ideal to make at the end of summer when the vegetables are bountiful.
What can I use to store stock in?
These bags are also handy for labeling. Wide-mouthed glass jars or containers: Glass eliminates the worry about toxins in plastic, and you can thaw the stock right in the glass jar, loosely covered, in the microwave. Ice cube trays: These are useful when you need just a small portion of stock, such as for deglazing.
What is stock and how do you use it?
In fact, stock is the base for many dishes, making it one of the most versatile ingredients around. Use it to add richness to polenta, braise meat and veggies or make a one-pot meal. The possibilities are endless and extremely tasty.
Wild Boar Ragu
Beef broth does an awesome job of deglazing all the yummy bits stuck to your pan from sautéing vegetables. Scrape away! That’s the key to a flavor-packed ragu. (via the Gourmet Gourmand )
Tonkotsu Ramen
Any ramen lover knows that homemade stock is the most important part of ramen. It’s recommended that the broth simmers with plenty of bones and fat for six to 12 hours so it becomes thick and gelatinous. Make ahead and keep in your freezer to give instant ramen new meaning. (via Curious Nut )
Asian Style Braised Oxtail
Braising is the technique you need to master to turn tough meats and vegetables into melt-in-your-mouth dishes. First, brown your ingredients to create a tasty crust that seals in flavor, then slow cook with a small amount of stock, vegetables and spices. This oxtail falls off the bone after a few hours of simmering. (via Ang Sarap )
Braised Fingerling Potatoes With Garlic, Shallots and Fresh Herbs
These potatoes become super tender as the braising broth simmers. Once the stock reduces, it coats the potatoes in a garlicky sauce. These might be your new favorite potatoes. (via a Beautiful Plate )
Creamy Polenta With Ratatouille
While you can cook polenta with water, cooking polenta with stock packs a major flavor boost. LIFE. CHANGED. (via Green Healthy Cooking )
Curry Pearl Barley Porridge With Tomatoes, Coriander, Lime and Almonds
Grains, like this pearl barley, get an upgrade with the addition of stock. Try one made from chicken or mushrooms for a hearty meal with a meaty taste. (via Madeline Lu )
Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Curry
You only need a cup of broth to serve four peeps with this sweet potato curry recipe. So you’ve got enough to spare for this filling curry that only calls for a handful of key ingredients. Hello, easy weeknight dinner! (via Pinch of Yum )
Make More Than Just Soups
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
Oven-Braised Rosemary Chicken Legs
Braising meat means it is first browned in a skillet and then finishes cooking in liquid. Braised chicken legs make a fabulous dinner that is simple to prepare. This recipe uses chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks) slowly cooked in chicken stock and white wine, making the meat so tender that it falls off the bone.
Garlic Roasted Chicken With White Wine Sauce
Roasted chicken is one of the tastiest, most satisfying dishes you can make and is especially good when served with a white wine gravy. While you don't need a stock to roast a chicken, you do need it to make the sauce that goes with it.
Perfectly Poached Chicken Breasts
Poached chicken breasts make a delicious filling for burritos and tacos, a topping for salads, or can be used in chicken salad or soups. When done properly, poaching can yield succulent, tender meat—not the dry, hard, boiled chicken you may be thinking of.
Hainanese Chicken Rice
This simple but delicious dish from Singapore combines tender poached chicken with fragrant rice. What makes Hainanese chicken rice special is the cooking liquid—the chicken is poached in chicken stock and aromatics, adding flavor to the meat. Then that extra delicious liquid is used to cook the rice, infusing everything with chickeny goodness.
Shrimp Risotto
Risotto is made by stirring hot stock into arborio rice and cooking until it's absorbed and the rice is nice and creamy. Chicken stock is ideal to use when making most risottos and brings a nice, rich flavor to the dish, which is enhanced by white wine, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.
Braised Baby Bok Choy
Baby bok choy tastes best when it's cooked until crisp-tender. Chicken broth is the ideal liquid in which to braise the tiny greens until they are perfectly cooked. In this recipe, a little soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil give the veggies extra flavor, creating a dish the entire family will enjoy.
The Basics of Stocks
Stocks make up an important part of any investor's portfolio. These are shares in a publicly-traded company that are listed on a stock exchange. The percentage of stocks you hold, what kind of industries in which you invest, and how long you hold them depend on your age, risk tolerance, and your overall investment goals.
Making Money in Stocks: The Buy-and-Hold Strategy
The buy-and-hold investment strategy became popular in the 1990s, underpinned by the "four horsemen of tech"—a quartet of huge technology stocks (Microsoft ( MSFT ), Intel Corp. ( INTC ), Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), and the now-private Dell Computer) fueling the rise in the internet sector and driving the Nasdaq to unprecedented heights.
The Importance of Risk and Returns
Making money in the stock market is easier than keeping it, with predatory algorithms and other inside forces generating volatility and reversals that capitalize on the crowd’s herd-like behavior.
Common Mistakes Investor Make
The 2011 Raymond James study noted that individual investors underperformed the S&P 500 badly between 1988 and 2008, with the index booking an 8.4% annual return compared to a limp 1.9% return for individuals.
Know the Difference: Trading vs. Investing
Employer-based retirement plans, such as 401 (k) programs, promote long-term buy and hold models, where asset allocation rebalancing typically occurs only once per year. This is beneficial because it discourages foolish impulsivity.
Finances, Lifestyle, and Psychology
Profitable stock ownership requires narrow alignment with an individual’s personal finances. Those entering the professional workforce for the first time may initially have limited asset allocation options for their 401 (k) plans.
Black Swans and Outliers
Nassim Taleb popularized the concept of a black swan event, an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences, in his 2010 book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. He describes three attributes for a black swan:
White Stock vs. Brown Stock
Stocks are divided into two categories: White stocks are used as the base for velouté sauce and various derivative sauces like allemande and suprême sauces. Brown stocks are used for making demi-glace and its derivatives, such as bordelaise and sauce Robert.
Bones for Making Stock
Bones contain collagen, which when simmered forms gelatin. The more gelatin there is in the stock, the more body it will have. When chilled, a good stock should actually solidify.
Cold Water for Clearer Stock
Certain proteins, most notably albumin, will only dissolve in cold water—and albumin helps clarify a stock. Therefore, starting a stock with cold water helps release the albumin, producing a clearer stock.
Mirepoix: Aromatic Vegetables for Stock
Mirepoix (pronounced "MEER-pwah") is a combination of chopped carrots, celery, and onions used to add flavor and aroma to stocks. The usual proportions (by weight) for making mirepoix are:
The Role of Acid in Making Stock
Acid helps to break down the cartilage and other connective tissues in bones, thus accelerating the formation of gelatin. The acid products used are generally one or another of the following:
Flavorings and Aromatics
Small amounts of herbs, spices, and additional aromatics (above and beyond the mirepoix) can be added to stock, using one of two methods:
Seasoning Stock
Because stock is often further reduced—like when making demi-glace, for instance—salting the stock would make the resulting demi-glace much too salty. It's better to make a habit of seasoning your sauces just before serving rather than salting your stock.
1. Buy and Hold
There’s a common saying among long-term investors: “Time in the market beats timing the market.”
2. Opt for Funds Over Individual Stocks
Seasoned investors know that a time-tested investing practice called diversification is key to reducing risk and potentially boosting returns over time. Think of it as the investing equivalent of not putting all of your eggs in one basket.
3. Reinvest Your Dividends
Many businesses pay their shareholders a dividend —a periodic payment based on their earnings.
4. Choose the Right Investment Account
Though the specific investments you pick are undeniably important in your long-term investing success, the account you choose to hold them in is also crucial.
The Bottom Line
If you want to make money in stocks, you don’t have to spend your days speculating on which individual companies’ stocks may go up or down in the short term. In fact, even the most successful investors, like Warren Buffett, recommend people invest in low-cost index funds and hold onto them for the years or decades until they need their money.
