Aggressive

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are one of the more benign financial innovations to come along in the past few years.

ETFs are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index. They hold a more-or-less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just …read more »

No matter what kind of investing approach you follow, we feel that you can improve your overall results — and cut your risk — by avoiding these 5 common investment errors.

1. Failing to follow a realistic stock market trading strategy: Some investors, particularly newcomers, plan to buy a few hot stocks (or funds, or options or futures), and double or …read more »

The p/e ratio (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings) is one of many handy investing tools.

Typically, you calculate p/e’s using a stock’s current price and its earnings for the previous 12 months. The general rule is that the lower a stock’s p/e, the better. And a p/e of less than, say, 10, represents excellent value. …read more »

The U.S. restaurant industry has faced tough challenges over the past 18 months. That’s because the economic downturn has prompted more consumers to eat at home, or to spend less when they dine out.

The best U.S. restaurants have done a good job of cutting costs during the slowdown. Some have improved their menus by introducing new items and focusing on …read more »

Small cap stocks are companies with a “market cap” (the value of shares they have outstanding) below $2 billion, or some other arbitrary figure.

(In a recent Wall Street Stock Forecaster, we updated our buy/sell/hold advice on a U.S. small cap stock that’s up nearly 63% since March 2009. See below for further details.)

Small cap stocks have the potential for …read more »

One of our key rules for successful investing is to diversify — spread your money out across most, if not all, of the five main economic sectors: Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities.

So you can get a sense of how you can put this investing strategy to work on your portfolio, I’d like to share …read more »

A subscriber to Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, recently asked us how much importance we give to a company’s name when we’re selecting growth stock picks to recommend in our newsletters and investment services. He felt that a poorly thought-out company name may reflect a poorly thought-out business plan and a low chance of success.

He specifically …read more »

In mining exploration, an “anomaly” is a geological formation that might attract a prospector’s interest. However, one rule of thumb is that you have to look at 1,000 anomalies to find one prospect. And fewer than one prospect in a thousand turns into a mine. In other words, finding a mine is a million-to-one shot.

That’s one reason why junior …read more »

One part of our three-pronged investing program is to spread your money out across the five main stock sectors of the economy (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources; Consumer; Finance; Utilities). (The other two parts are to hold mostly high-quality, dividend paying stocks, and downplay stocks in the broker/public-relations limelight.)

How we place stocks in the appropriate stock sectors

Many stocks clearly fit in …read more »

Demand for medical devices and supplies will undoubtedly continue to grow as the population ages. Companies in this fast-changing field make a wide range of products, from laboratory instruments to bandages and surgical tools.

Some medical-equipment firms are large and well-established, like C.R. Bard (symbol BCR on New York), one of the stocks we cover in our Wall Street Stock …read more »