Fwiw, I tried following several individual stocks extremely closely, but they turned out to be the wrong stocks, which became apparent over time. I tried to micro-analyze their businesses, financials, SEC filings, competition, listened to all the conference calls, analyzing every word and gesture. But I just didn't have the required Warren Buffett or Peter Lynch type 'skill set'. Buffett says that most of us would be wise to just stick to a S+P 500 index fund.