Stock picks are stock that is selected by following a certain set of guidelines with the goal to bring in large profits.  There are four major investment approaches that are used when trading in the stock market.  When one uses the most suitable stock pick approach, there is the potential for large financial gains within potentially a very short amount of time.

Most people who have invested in the stock market, at some time or another, have invested in stock from a tip they received from a friend or saw in a magazine or newspaper.  Occasionally these suggestions are profitable, but usually they end up being poor choices and the investor ends up taking a loss. 

The major trouble with a lot of stock tips is that they are only as decent as the research put in to them.  Making an investment based on a tip from a friend of newspaper usually does not give you any indication into how thoroughly the tip had been researched or even to the accurateness of the information the stock tip was made on.

You may find it enlightening that pretty much all of the large investment institutions use computer based programs to handle the largest parts of their research.  These software programs can compile large amounts of information much quicker than humans can.  These software programs also can do much more difficult calculations and analysis than what can be done manually by humans.  Computers are also much more accurate eliminating the factor of human error.

A large number of magazines and newspapers that publish stock picks use computer software to generate their lists rather than relying on humans.  These are the same types of software used by some of the largest and most profitable financial institutions in the industry.

Using stock picks that are computer based, or ones that have come from a legitimate stock analyst can assist a new or inexperienced investor in investing his funds sensibly and earn themselves profits in an ever changing stock market.