Wealth Management
If you’re new to investing, a good place to start managing your wealth is to consult your tax preparer or accountant. They may be able to provide you with financial planning services. They may also be able to refer you to somebody who can.
There are three types of professional wealth management services you can use.
- A full service stock broker - A good stock broker is one who understands investing and who has the integrity to settle conflicts of interest in the client’s favour. Good stock brokers can provide an effective and economical way to manage your investments. But if you are going to use a full-service broker, take the time to find a broker you can trust.
- A discount stock broker - A discount stock broker will simply carry out buy and sell orders for their clients, and charge lower commission rates than full-service brokers. You pay even lower commissions if you trade stocks online, instead of placing orders over the phone.
- Portfolio managers - A portfolio manager is someone who fully manages your wealth portfolio and has a fiduciary responsibility to make sound investment decisions on your behalf. Portfolio managers are more stringently regulated than full-service or discount brokers.
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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” investing advice series. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you our specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing advice and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week:“It can be profitable to pay a little more for your shares.” Some Canadian companies, such as Bombardier and Teck Resources, have two classes of common shares: voting and non-voting (or multiple voting and subordinate voting)....
The best way to profit in the stock market in times of volatility is to stick with the high-quality stocks we recommend. These stocks generally bounce back faster when the stock market rebounds. Here are nine key factors that we always take into account when we do the stock research to uncover high-quality investments. Financial factors:
- 5 to 10 year history of profit. Companies that make money regularly are safer than chronic or even occasional moneylosers.
- 5 to 10 years of dividends. Companies can fake earnings, but dividends are cash outlays. Our stock research has proved time and again that if you only buy dividend-paying stocks, you’ll avoid most frauds.
- Manageable debt. When bad times hit, debt-heavy companies go broke first.
When investors develop and act on strong investment views—on subjects such as the outlook for oil prices, say, or gold prices, or interest rates—they generally lose money overall. That’s because strong views on subjects like these tend to distort your investment decisions.
Stock market advice: Relying on predictions can tempt you to take on too much risk
For instance, if you know (or think you know) that oil is sure to rise in the next six months or a year, say, then you are sure to invest more heavily in oil stocks than you would if you took a less extreme—that is, more balanced—view of the situation. You will also tend to invest in riskier oil stocks, rather than proven producers....
“Averaging down” is the well-known market tactic by which investors buy more shares of a stock that has come down in price.
Averaging down lowers your average cost per share, but can cost you money in the long run. At the same time, you run the risk of distorting your overall portfolio management strategy.
Here are three problems that crop up with averaging down:
Averaging down lowers your average cost per share, but can cost you money in the long run. At the same time, you run the risk of distorting your overall portfolio management strategy.
Portfolio management: 3 reasons to avoid “averaging down.”
Here are three problems that crop up with averaging down:
- Averaging down ignores investment quality. Many investors have made lots of money by “averaging in” to the stock of a well-established, well-managed company — that is, buying more as funds became available over a period of years....
Stanley Black & Decker Inc., New York symbol SWK, makes power and hand tools and security devices. It took its current form on March 12, 2010. That’s when Stanley Works bought the Black & Decker Corp. for $3.5 billion in stock. Stanley shareholders own 50.5% of the combined company, and Black & Decker investors own the remaining 49.5%. We analyze Stanley in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our investing newsletter that recommends stocks in the U.S. markets. The company now expects efficiencies achieved by merging plants, distribution networks and purchasing systems will save it $450 million by the end of 2012....
Beta ratings are a measure of stock-market volatility. Stocks with a beta of 1.0 have exactly the same degree of volatility as the market
Chipotle Mexican Grill, symbol CMG on New York, is a Denver-based Mexican-restaurant chain. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, Chipotle’s revenue rose 22.4%, to $571.6 million from $466.8 million a year earlier. The company’s restaurants attracted more customers during the quarter. That pushed up its same-restaurant sales by 10.0%. As well, Chipotle opened 39 new outlets. It now has a total of 1,131 locations. We analyze Chipotle in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that gives you stock investment tips for the part of your portfolio you devote to aggressive investments....
As stock markets have pulled back from their recent highs, you may have wondered about using stop-loss orders to protect your profits. However, before you try this approach, you should keep in mind that stop-loss orders have a number of risks that can cost you money. Read on and we’ll take you inside this investing strategy, and point out some of the dangers that stop-loss orders can expose you to. We also give you some simple, easy-to-implement stock trading advice that offers a far better way of protecting—and growing—your profits....
ACI Worldwide, symbol ACIW on Nasdaq, makes software used to process transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments.
We analyze ACI in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that recommends investments for the aggressive part of your stock portfolio.
In March 2011, ACI bought ICD Corp....
We analyze ACI in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that recommends investments for the aggressive part of your stock portfolio.
In March 2011, ACI bought ICD Corp....
The main benefit of annuities is that they offer stable, predictable income. That may make them suitable for part of your assets, depending on your age and investment experience.