Which are you, growth or value?

This is a tough year to recommend purchasing stocks. After all, the stock market is down year to date, but more importantly to investors, it's become too volatile and unpredictable. While most people who look at historical returns know that there are periods of time when the stock market goes up (bull markets) and periods when they go down (bear markets), the swings have gotten more pronounced in recent years (think 2008) that it makes people just give up and throw in the towel. How many times have you heard that the stock market has gone down in the last 10 years, or you can't make money in stocks anymore? But does that mean all stocks are bad? Let's look at two examples of stocks, growth stocks and value stocks. For simplicity think of it this way: Growth stocks are stocks that have had growth, are appreciating, and should continue to grow. Translation, they're making money! Value stocks are stocks that have been beaten down in price. Stocks that are on sale. Stocks that should go up in value and they're a great deal now. Think all stocks have gone down in the past decade? Let's look at McDonald's (ticker symbol is MCD). This stock is up over 21% year to date and over 35% in the past year. In the past decade it's up over 159%. Yesterday, it just hit it's all time high in price, $75.98, and it even pays a dividend of almost 3%! McDonald's clearly knows how to make money in good and bad times, and has become the indisputable leader in fast food restaurants worldwide. Now, let's look at Motorola (ticker symbol is MOT). This company makes cell phones and has seen better days. The stock had a high water price of $26 per share back in 2006, and today trades at $7.83 per share. They had suffered market share due to the success of the Apple iPhone, but have recently climbed back into the fold with their popular Droid phone, sold by Verizon. In addition their shares are being snapped up by company insiders, which is a great buying signal for many, because if the company insiders are putting their own money into this stock, they must think it has a good chance for an upswing. This stock doesn't pay a dividend either, so it's definitely a stock for more aggressive investors, but hey, it's up over 15% in the past 6 months! So there you have it. Two stock ideas, one a growth stock and the other a value stock. One has a great track record, one is a little sketchy. One is pretty expensive, and one is pretty cheap. What kind of investor are you, growth or value? Where will you invest your money when banks are only paying 1-2%? You make the call.