It's hard to be an investor when the market is falling, but investors need to accept that down markets are just as much a part of the process as up markets. The key is to find a way to live through the bad patches so you can benefit from the good times. The way I do it is by selecting companies that I think are well run (and that pay handsome dividends) so I can be comfortable sticking with them through thick and thin.
Three standouts in my portfolio are real estate investment trust (REIT) W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC), steelmaker Nucor (NYSE: NUE), and North American banking giant Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD). Here's why I'm never planning to sell this trio of stocks.
I believe strongly that diversification is one of the most important tools an investor can use to reduce risk. I look at REITs as managing portfolios of property investments, which means diversification is important for these companies, too. W.P. Carey is easily one of the most diversified REITs you can find, with assets spread across the industrial (26% of rents), warehouse (24%), office (20%), retail (16%), and self-storage (5%) sectors, with a significant "other" category rounding things out. On top of that, around 33% of the REIT's rents come from Europe, adding to the portfolio's diversification.
Source Fool.com