ect, guaranteed-to-rise-in-price stock that�s come along in the history of the stock market is all too easy. In a club setting, however, your believing the stock will be a winner isn�t enough -- your fellow club members must also be convinced. Frequently, someone else in the club finds a reason (or two or three) why the stock may not be such a terrific buy after all. The club�s collective brain often is smarter than the brain of an individual member.

Performance

The club approach seems to work well when it comes to investing in the market. According to annual surveys conducted by BetterInvesting's NAIC (formerly the National Association of Investors Corporation) of the stocks most widely held by investment clubs, club holdings outperform the overall market. For instance, for the five years ending February 28, 2001, the annualized total return on NAIC clubs� Top 100 holdings has been