My New Way of Selecting Stocks in Year 2026

I have many stocks in my watchlist. Too many. So many, in fact, that watching them feels like trying to follow a hundred toddlers on a sugar high—prices ticking up and down every second, each one screaming, “Look at me! No, look at me!”

Inevitably, when I finally buy a stock, the price immediately goes down. And when I sell? That same stock suddenly remembers it’s supposed to go up. Every. Single. Time.

By the end of 2025, I finally accepted an uncomfortable truth: the stock market has a strange emotional connection to me, and that connection is mostly revenge.

Despite this, I like to think I’ve been investing responsibly. My usual method is very sensible. I look at the current price relative to the 52-week range and historical range. I check the company’s financial strength. I look at dividend yield. I do my homework. I make spreadsheets. I convince myself that this time will be different.

And then my portfolio underperforms anyway.

After watching this pattern repeat itself enough times to qualify as a personality trait, I realized that in 2026, I need a new strategy. Clearly, logic alone was not enough.

So here it is.

I will take my massive watchlist and split it into two equal halves.

One will be called The Lucky Half.

The other will be called The Unlucky Half.

I will completely ignore the Unlucky Half. I won’t analyze it. I won’t track prices. I won’t even accidentally scroll past it. I won’t even emotionally acknowledge its existence. It’s like a terrible ex—you don’t even need closure. Because no one wants unlucky stocks. If my past experience has taught me anything, it’s that attention itself might be the curse. Those stocks have already disappointed me in the future, and I’m choosing peace.

The Lucky Half, however, will get my full attention. This is where I will apply my usual analysis. For these stocks, I will carefully look at the current price relative to the 52-week range and historical range. I will examine financial strength. I will evaluate dividend yield.

The difference is that now, I’m only doing all this work on half the stocks.

At the very least, this new system saves time and most importantly, limits the number of stocks that can personally hurt me. After all, if a stock from the Lucky Half still goes down, that’s not my fault. Clearly, it migrated to the Unlucky Half without telling me. And if something in the Unlucky Half goes on to double? That’s fine. It was unlucky. The rules are the rules.

In summary, from 2026 onward, I will only buy from the Lucky Half. Not because the stocks are better, cheaper, or fundamentally stronger—but because they are lucky. And frankly, luck has a better track record than my analysis.