It seems that the most common opinion regarding single stocks is that investing in them results in far too much risk and that the average investor has a much better chance of success by investing in index funds.
However, it has always seemed to me that this argument has inherent bias towards the investor and doesn’t necessarily reflect a problem with the investments/stocks themselves.
Here are a few examples:
Single stock investor A - gambles and goes “all in” on the next hype tech stock they saw on TikTok
Single stock investor B - creates their own “ETF” by buying stable, dividend aristocrats at a discount/margin of safety that have been paying and increasing dividends for decades
Both are examples of single stock investing, yet one investor is subject to significantly more risk due to their own lack of judgment and investing knowledge.
In the case of Investor B, is single stock investing really that risky? What do you think?