Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/36

 technical skill is the finally deciding factor; and anyone who invests in industry has to be sure that the companies which he chooses not only possess it now, but are going to possess it as long as he is interested in them.

Moreover, investment in industrials, unless so large a number of them is taken that the average investor's holding would be inconveniently split up, gives the possessor not enough of that distribution of risk which is so essential to safety. The professional man, saving a small amount every year, who began to make a collection of attractive-looking industrial ordinary shares and stocks, might easily be faced by misfortune from his early acquisitions before he had accumulated a sufficient number to secure that average success which is all that can be hoped for from an investment of this kind. It is true that some Boards of industrial directors try to reduce the risk of their shareholders by investing reserve funds outside the business, but there is not much real safeguard in this. It is the business of industrial concerns to engage in their own industry and not to turn themselves into investment companies; and if anything goes wrong on the industrial side it is natural and right that the non-industrial investments should be sold and the proceeds used for the purpose of remedying it.