In Search of Almost-Safe Stocks

There’s no such thing as a ’safe' stock—but some companies offer far smoother rides than others.

We can make educated guesses about which stocks are likely to provide relatively smooth sailing and limited anxiety. Dreamstime/TCA

By James K. Glassman From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Is there really such a thing as a safe stock? When you buy a share, you own a tiny piece of a business, and any business can develop problems no one suspects. Consider Enron, a consistent money-maker in energy trading, which went from $90 a share to 26 cents in a little over a year. Or Sears, once a solid retail giant and now reduced to just a handful of stores. Eastman Kodak, Polaroid, and Blockbuster were all solid citizens that went bankrupt.