As you probably know, our Successful Investor business model has two parts. We publish investment advice through The Successful Investor Inc., and we manage investor portfolios through Successful Investor Wealth Management Inc. (These two companies are affiliated by common ownership; I own both but keep them separate for regulatory purposes.)

This two-business model has advantages for our subscribers. The problems we …read more »

Rising stock prices inevitably lead some investors to get too confident and make dumb mistakes. I’ve seen it again and again since 1964, when I had the good fortune to stumble into an investing-related part-time job at age 16.

Back then, investors were still shell-shocked at memories of the 1962 market collapse. But a great deal changed by the end of …read more »

Widely predicted financial calamities rarely do much harm to the market or economy. Even if the facts are correct, the calamity never materializes since the predictions give investors and businesses plenty of warning.

The best recent example was the late-1990s Y2K scare. It predicted a rash of computer failures for the start of the year 2000, since computers couldn’t distinguish 1900 …read more »

All too many investors start out believing that the surest route to long-term profit is a series of profitable short-term trades.

Most eventually learn differently. It’s easy enough to put together a series of short-term trades that generate small profit.

The hard part is avoiding the occasional disaster that wipes out most if not all of your profits.

That’s why we so often …read more »

Many investors assume new investments come into existence to satisfy some genuine investment need — to fill gaps in investor finances that unquestionably need filling. More often, in fact, new investments come into existence much like new hair shampoos and toothpastes. That is, marketing specialists dream up new financial products that they think they can sell.

The products have to be …read more »

Investors often ask how long they should hang on to a disappointing stock. There is no single answer, but you should never base any investment decision solely on a rise or fall in the price of a stock. Stock price changes usually depend on a variety of factors, including economic, industry and company-specific issues.

Also remember that the stock market anticipates …read more »

The 2005 deadline for tax-loss selling on the Toronto Exchange is Friday, December 23. If you sell at a loss on or before that date, you can deduct your loss for tax purposes against 2005 capital gains. However, you can also carry your loss back for the past three years, or carry it forward indefinitely, to offset past or future …read more »