A few weeks ago, my Foolish friends Brian Richards and Tim Hanson profiled five stocks they felt investors should avoid. Their argument struck me as pretty straightforward: Investors would be well-served to avoid companies with opaque financial statements (like Citigroup (NYSE: C)) or complicated government ties (like, um, Citigroup).

Apparently many members of our community disagreed.

Pointing to their significant short-term gains in stocks such as Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Ford (NYSE: F), many readers (rather rudely, in my opinion) insisted that Brian and Tim’s analysis was invalid.

This comment from IronBob is a good representation of the feedback that Brian and Tim received:

INCREDIBLE! Thanks for the advice! I'm glad I'm ignoring it as I almost doubled my money on Ford in less than two months!

While I’m happy for IronBob, I’d like to caution readers that his returns are hardly typical -- and that short-term speculating in no-moat companies is simply not a sound investing strategy.

Just say no ... to short-term speculation
Jumping in and out of stocks is certainly exciting, and -- if you're lucky -- it can result in some satisfying short-term profits. But over the long haul, active trading is a loser's game.

For starters, you have to correctly predict both the direction and the timing of a stock's move, which most experts agree is impossible to do with any consistency. Anyone can get lucky once or twice, but repeatedly? Forget it.

And then there are the frictional costs of taxes and trading commissions, which can combine to take a big bite out of your returns.

Plus, there's the unfortunate fact that we humans make for lousy traders. We tend to sense patterns that don't exist, overreact to innocuous stimuli, sell our winners too soon, and hang on to our losers for too long.

In an oft-cited study, professors Brad Barber and Terrance Odean found a strong correlation between active trading tendencies and abysmal stock returns. In other words, the more frequently their subjects traded in and out of stocks, the worse their portfolios performed.

A perfect storm for poor performance
Unfortunately, the current climate has created the ideal scenario for short-term speculation.

Investors of all shapes and sizes have lost a significant amount of money in a relatively short time span. The heightened market volatility has made for some sensational short-term price swings. And the economy appears to be headed down the tubes.

Based on the volume and content of our reader comments and hate mail, it’s clear that these factors have combined to make investors increasingly short-term-oriented and willing to invest in companies with highly uncertain futures. During the market rally over the last month or so, these traits have been rewarded. But if history is any guide, that will not be the case over the long haul.

What this means for you
In other words, if you're interested in preserving your capital and accumulating long-term wealth, stay away from short-term speculation in subpar companies. Continued...