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VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $110.65 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.09%.

The $48.1-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Visa, Home Depot, Comcast, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences and Walt Disney Co. The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 22.2%; Health Care, 13.7%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.9%; Consumer Goods, 10.1%; Oil and Gas, 4.0%; Materials, 1.3%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%.

Vanguard Growth ETF is a buy.

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IBM $141.63 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 979.5 million; Market cap: $137.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.ibm.com) continues to transition from selling mainframes and consulting services to high-growth areas like cloud computing and analytics software, which processes huge amounts of data.

IBM has successfully shifted from unprofitable businesses to fast-growing ones in the past, but investors remain cautious of the latest changes in a time of rapidly evolving technology and customer demands. That’s why the shares trade at just 9.5 times IBM’s forecast 2015 earnings.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s revenue fell 13.9%, to $19.3 billion from $22.4 billion a year earlier. Revenue from cloud computing and analytics jumped 27%, but consulting and mainframe sales fell.

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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY $181.50 (Toronto symbol CP; Shares outstanding: 161.0 million; Market cap: $27.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 0.8%; www.cpr.ca) ships freight over a 22,000-kilometre rail network between Montreal and Vancouver and links with hubs in the U.S. Midwest and northeast.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, CP’s earnings per share rose 16.5%, to $2.69 from $2.31 a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.3%, to $1.71 billion from $1.67 billion.

CP’s operating ratio improved to a record 59.9% from 62.8% a year ago. (Operating ratio is calculated by dividing regular operating costs by revenue. The lower the ratio, the better.) It continues to benefit from its efficiency improvements, including speeding up trains. The company saw higher revenue from shipping forest products, potash, grain, chemicals and automotive products. But lower shipments of oil and metals offset these gains.

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Cenovus Energy’s oil sands projects and integrated operations make it one energy stock we feel will bounce back stronger when oil recovers

Dividend stock Home Capital Group wards off a crisis and keeps its niche mortgage business profitable

Break-even analysis paints a stark picture of just how much investors need to make to overcome losses.

The many industrial uses of copper give copper stocks an advantage over gold and other precious metal stocks.

Far better to base investment decisions on hard facts rather than stock market predictions

Costco’s membership fees and low prices make it a strong growth stock. We look at whether it can sustain growth against fierce competition

More and more investors seem to look on the involvement of celebrity investors like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates as something of a pedigree for a stock....

We recommend that investors diversify up to 30% of their portfolios into U.S. stocks and as much as 10% into international securities. One attractive way for safety-conscious investors to do this is with exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Today we look at several ETFs from a U.S. firm that offer a low-fee way to achieve this diversification. We profile two Vanguard ETFs that track a U.S. large-cap index and an emerging market index.

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. in 170 mutual funds.

Vanguard, which went into business in 1975, offers low-fee index mutual funds. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds aren’t available in all provinces.

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Today, we look at a Canadian bank stock that has consistently paid dividends for 186 years. Bank of Montreal has benefited both from expansion outside of Canada and low interest rates in recent years. The bank continues to make acquisitions in the U.S. and the U.K. Recently it agreed to buy General Electric’s transportation-financing business, adding $11.5 billion in assets. Low interest rates have also helped the bank by increasing demand for loans. Between 2010 and 2014, the bank’s earnings rose by more than 50% and over the past three years, BMO has raised its dividend six times. We recommend BMO as a blue chip stock to buy for conservative investors.

BANK OF MONTREAL (Toronto symbol BMO; www.bmo.com) is Canada’s fourth-largestbank, with $672.4 billion of assets.

The bank has steadily expanded beyond Canadain recent years. For example, in 2011, it acquiredWisconsin-based banking firm Marshall & Ilsley for$4.0 billion in stock. That more than doubled thenumber of branches Bank of Montreal operates inthe U.S. and added two million customers.

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Visa, a global leader in credit and debit payments, expands into the fast-growing area of online and mobile payment transactions.

One of the great investing rules to live by comes from poker: if you can’t spot the sucker, it’s probably you

: The shares of IBM are down, but its proven ability to adapt to new conditions makes it a value stock with strong growth potential

There are many things to look for when evaluating a stock—and one of the most important is hidden assets

The more complicated features there are in an exchange-traded fund (ETF), the more the managers can charge in fees and the more hidden risks you face when investing in ETFs.

Switching brokers unwisely when your broker retires can lead to lining your new broker’s pocket

We look at the world leader in methanol, Canadian growth stock Methanex, which has a good long-term outlook but concerns in the near term.

We take a close look at a private REIT to show the importance of looking beyond marketing hype

Imperial Oil continues to face low oil prices, but its diversified operations make it our top energy stock for conservative investors.

With smart, low-risk acquisition strategies, blue chip insurance firms Great-West Lifeco and Sun Life Financial are positioned for growth.

CAE INC. $15 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 269.3 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) earned $47.7 million in its fiscal 2016 second quarter, which ended September 30, 2015, up 13.6% from $42.0 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose at a slower pace of 12.5%, to $0.18 from $0.16, on more shares outstanding. Revenue gained 16.5%, to $616.8 million from $529.4 million. About 90% of the company’s revenue comes from foreign customers, so it’s benefiting from the lower Canadian dollar. Sales of flight simulators and pilot-training services to airlines (59% of total revenue) jumped 23.4%. CAE sold 16 simulators during the quarter and expects its full-year total to be near the 41 it sold in fiscal 2015....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $35 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 993.2 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend Yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC). It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.2% of Great-West. As of September 30, 2015, the company had $1.15 trillion of assets under administration, up 12.9% from a year earlier. Great-West gets 45% of its earnings from Canada, where it operates under well-known labels like Great-West Life, Canada Life and Freedom 55....

IGM FINANCIAL INC. $38 (Toronto symbol IGM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 245.8 million; Market cap: $9.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 5.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www. igmfinancial.com) is Canada’s largest independent mutual fund provider. Power Financial owns 59.8% of IGM. The company has two main divisions. Investors Group offers mutual funds and other services, such as portfolio management, through 5,200 affiliated advisors. This business forms close relationships with clients, which helps it retain them. In the past year, its redemption rate for long-term funds was 8.4%, well below the industry average of 15.6%. The other division, Mackenzie Financial, sells funds through independent brokers....