Another common temptation among investors is to seek out stocks that resemble leading stocks in terms of having similar products or services, but are trading at lower prices than the leaders. Usually, though, you're better off sticking with the leader of the industry, even if its share price is higher. Take the chipmaking industry. Intel dominated the field, sending its stock up about 485% from 1996 through 1999. Advanced Micro Devices, maker of Intel-clone chips, went up only about 55% in the same span of time. This is not a rare example, for any industry. The moral: stick with the leading stocks in a leading industry group.

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