A

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $19 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 343.3 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; WSSF Rating: Average) gets 60% of its revenue from selling testing equipment, mainly to makers of cyclical consumer electronics, such as cellphones. The company is now working on ways to broaden its sources of …read more »

Green stocks have a lot of conceptual and emotional appeal, but may offer limited investment potential. Investments in environmental or green stocks may need a long time to move from the research or concept stage to profitability in the face of high initial costs and uncertain government subsidies. So they may not be profitable for investors.

It’s hard to set …read more »

The Successful Investor value investing approach follows the basic model set by the old-fashioned Graham/Dodd approach. Basically, it tries to identify well-financed companies that are well-established in their businesses and have a history of earnings and dividends. They are likely to survive any economic setback that comes along, and thrive anew when prosperity returns, as it inevitably does.
When we recommend …read more »

Wind power stocks include companies that make components for wind turbines and those that use wind turbines to generate power.
Although publicly traded wind companies are considered green stocks, wind power does draw some objections from environmental groups. It also faces some challenging technical problems.
Concept has appeal, but wind power is imperfect
One of the key problems with wind power is that …read more »

A few years ago, many investors valued drug stocks the way they value the top software makers, bidding them up to 30 or more times earnings. However, drug stocks are riskier than investors generally realize.

Because of that, while drug stocks can show fantastic profits, it might be more appropriate to value drug makers the way you value companies that are …read more »

We’ve got four key Successful Investor investing for beginners tips that will help you profit from stock investing with less risk.

No matter how widely or narrowly you cast your information net, some of your investments will disappoint you. But that won’t matter if you apply these three tips. That’s because your near-inevitable gains will overwhelm your all-but-unavoidable losses.

Successful Investor …read more »

We advise against a so-called “sector rotation” approach to investing; this is when you try to hop from sector to sector. We also advise against practicing a top-down sector rotation style; underweighting or overweighting sectors of the stock market depending on a forecast of the stage of the economic cycle, or other factors.
Few sector rotation strategies succeed over long periods, …read more »

Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs, don’t load you up with heavy management fees, nor do they tie you down with heavy redemption charges if you decide to get out before six years have passed. Instead, they give you a lower-cost and more flexible and convenient alternative to mutual funds.
The problem is that ETFs are just as helpful for facilitating smart …read more »

Trading stocks online can look like a great way to build wealth. But it’s fraught with risks, and only really works when stock prices are rising steadily. Investors who see early success in a bull market can face devastating losses when markets retreat.
Today, you often see references to trading stocks online in the media, as if there’s something magical about …read more »

Ottawa’s new Tax-Free Savings Accounts (or TFSAs) let you earn investment income — including interest, dividends and capital gains — tax free.

A tax-free savings account can generally hold the same investments as an RRSP. This includes cash, mutual funds, publicly traded stocks, GICs and bonds.

However, you are best to hold lower-risk investments in your TFSA. That’s because you don’t want …read more »