How many stocks should be in your portfolio? This is a tricky question, but research suggests that a well-diversified portfolio should generally hold at least 20 stocks.

Investing in individual stocks comes with a variety of risks, including systemic risk, interest-rate risk, industry risk, and much, much more.

Defensive industries are those that are resilient to economic turbulence-- and therefore, investing in stocks in defensive industries can be an extremely effective way to balance your portfolio and prevent losses during market crashes, recessions, and even depressions.