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All gold investments, even large, multinational gold-mining stocks like Newmont Mining (symbol NEM on New York), are somewhat speculative, due to their sensitivity to gold prices and the difficulty of finding gold mines. That’s why we recommend that you limit them to a small part of your overall portfolio — this is especially true of more volatile junior gold stocks. (You can get our latest views on the outlook for gold, as well as our latest advice on lower-risk gold investing strategies, in our free special report, “Gold Investing: 7 Profitable Strategies for Investing in Canadian Gold Stocks.” Click here to download your copy now.)...

Symantec Corp., Nasdaq symbol SYMC, sells Internet security technology, including anti-virus and Internet content and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. In the three months ended December 31, 2011, Symantec’s revenue rose 3.6%, to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion a year earlier. The stock market investment gets 52% of its revenue from overseas sales. If you disregard the negative impact of exchange rates, international sales rose 5% during the quarter. The company earned $272 million, down 16.3% from $325 million a year earlier. Symantec spent $265 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share fell 12.5%, to $0.35 from $0.40 a year earlier. These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs to absorb recent acquisitions. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.33....

If you haven’t yet visited our new Facebook page — www.tsinetwork.ca/facebook — you really should. We guarantee the free, risk-cutting investing advice we post there will make you a better investor. We hope our Facebook page will become a place where Canadian investors go to share their thoughts on a range of financial topics. If you like the information and advice we post on our Facebook page, you can easily let us know. And of course, we welcome your thoughts if you disagree, or have suggestions for improvements. To make our Facebook page as interactive as possible, we’ve added discussion boards. They let you discuss today’s most important financial issues with friends and other investors, including Pat and his investment team. You also get to read other investors’ responses....

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, symbol POT on Toronto, produces potash, phosphate and nitrogen for use in fertilizers. Saskatchewan has the world’s largest deposits of potash. The company also partly owns potash-related companies in Jordan, Israel and Chile. Potash Corp. is one of the 5 agricultural investments we analyze in our free report, Commodity Investments: Fertilizer Stocks and Potash Stocks That Will Profit from Rising Food Demand. In 2010, the potash stock’s revenue rose 64.4% to $6.5 billion from $4.0 billion in 2009 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). The company earned $1.8 billion, or $5.95 a share, up 84.2% from $980.7 million, or $3.23 a share....

Metro Inc., symbol MRU.A on Toronto, is Canada’s third-largest supermarket, after Loblaw and Sobeys. Metro has about 600 supermarkets and 250 drugstores in Quebec and Ontario under banners including Metro, Metro Plus, GP, Super C and Food Basics. In Quebec, its franchises include Brunet drugstores and Cini-Plus pharmacies. Metro is one of the bargain stocks we analyze in our Successful Investor newsletter. In Ontario, the company has now brought all of its Dominion, A & P, Loeb, The Barn and Ultra supermarkets under the “Metro” banner. It also opened 13 new stores and expanded 35 stores in 2010....

It has been one year since Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) unveiled its iPad tablet computer. This device is a complete personal computer that uses a touch screen instead of a traditional keyboard. That makes it more portable and easier to use than a traditional laptop. Apple sold roughly 300,000 iPads on the first day the device was sold in U.S. stores. The iPad continues to be a very strong seller for Apple: In its latest quarter, the company sold 7.3 million iPads. In response to the ongoing popularity of the iPad, other technology stocks, such as Research in Motion and Samsung, are preparing to launch new tablet computers of their own in the coming months....

CGI Group Inc., $19.54, symbol GIB.A on Toronto, is Canada’s largest provider of computer-outsourcing services. The company’s services help its customers automate certain routine functions, such as accounting and buying supplies....

Adding a stock market pick from the Consumer sector can add stability to your portfolio. That’s because these companies sell items, like food, that consumers must buy regardless of the direction of the economy. The best consumer stocks have built brands that have strong customer loyalty and produce steady, predictable revenue streams. In a just-published issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on a stock market pick that has a number of strong brands, Kraft Foods Inc. (symbol KFT on New York). Kraft is the world’s second-largest food company, after Switzerland-based Nestle. This stock market pick cut its costs during the recession, including selling or discontinuing less-profitable brands, closing plants and cutting jobs. It has used these savings to improve the quality of its existing products and develop new ones....

Texas Instruments Inc. (New York symbol TXN) makes chips for a wide variety of electronic devices, including cellphones, DVD players, digital cameras and handheld calculators. The tech stock’s chips are also used in other products, ranging from weapons-guidance systems to kidney-dialysis machines. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Texas Instruments’ earnings jumped to $942 million, or $0.78 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $655 million, or $0.52 a share. The sale of a product line, and restoring a research and development federal tax credit contributed $0.14 a share to the latest quarterly earnings. The tech stock’s sales rose 17.3% to $3.5 billion from $3.0 billion. The company saw stronger demand for chips from makers of smartphones and communications gear. That offset lower sales to computer and television makers....

Here are three common errors most investors make when stock market investing. All three can seriously hinder your portfolio’s long-term results. (You can get Pat McKeough’s latest lower-risk investing strategies in his new free report, Stock Market Investing Strategy: Pat McKeough’s Conservative Investing Guide for Making Money & Cutting Risk. Click here to download your copy right away.)

1. Disregarding subtle signs of high stock market investing risk: These include an unusually high dividend yield or an unusually low p/e (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings). High yields and low p/e’s are good, but only within limits....

Canadian National Railway Co. (Toronto symbol CNR) operates Canada’s largest freight rail network, and serves 16 U.S. states. CN is one of the Canadian stock picks we analyze in our Successful Investor newsletter. In 2010, CN earned $2.1 billion, or $4.48 a share. That’s up 13.5% from $1.8 billion, or $3.92 a share, in 2009. Excluding one-time items in both years, such as an after-tax gain of $131 million on the sale of a southern Ontario rail line, the company earned $1.9 billion, up 28.7% from $1.5 billion in 2009. Earnings per share rose 29.6%, to $4.20 from $3.24, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue rose 12.6% to $8.3 billion from $7.4 billion in 2009. Sharply higher freight volumes were the main reason for the revenue increase. The company also raised its fuel surcharges and shipping rates....

When we’re picking stocks to recommend in our newsletters, including Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our publication for conservative investing in U.S. stocks, we like to see companies that benefit from steady revenue streams from high-quality assets, long-term contracts or other reliable sources. That’s because this type of revenue helps cut a stock’s risk. It also cuts its exposure to the ups and downs of the economic cycle.

Conservative investing: Shift toward services has helped this former “Stock of the Year”

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Intuitive Surgical (symbol ISRG on Nasdaq) makes the “da Vinci,” a computerized surgical system. Intuitive’s shares trade at a high price, but you can buy as few as you wish through any broker. Intuitive is one of the aggressive stock investing picks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. Guided by a miniature camera connected to a 3-D monitor, surgeons use the da Vinci to operate by remotely manipulating tiny robotic arms. This is safer and far less invasive than regular surgery. It reduces the patient’s recovery time, post-operative discomfort, scarring and infection risk....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing, including portfolio diversification. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....

Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) makes computers and a variety of other electronic devices. Portable devices, such as the iPod music player, the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer, dominate Apple’s overall sales. Users of these products also buy music, movie and video-game downloads at Apple’s iTunes online store. Apple is one of the large cap stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In its fiscal 2011 first quarter, which ended December 25, 2010, Apple sales rose 70.5%, to $26.7 billion from $15.7 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 77.7%, to $6.0 billion, or $6.43 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $3.4 billion, or $3.67 a share....

On January 28, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks, will unveil a company with the right mix of strong fundamentals and emerging-market exposure to earn big profits in 2011 and beyond. In fact, we think this U.S. stock’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it Wall Street Stock Forecaster’s #1 stock pick for the coming year. This company is solidly focused on fuelling its growth, mainly by focusing on fast-growing markets like Brazil, China and India, where rising prosperity is making its products more affordable to more consumers....

We’re pleased to see that many investors now follow our brand-new Facebook page. You can view our new Facebook page — www.tsinetwork.ca/facebook — by clicking here. We’d like even more investors to follow our Facebook page and profit from the free, lower-risk investment advice we post there. That’s why we’re offering a new free special report for Facebook followers only, “Case Study: How TSINetwork.ca Picked 5 Takeover Stocks in 11 Weeks.” When you indicate that you “like” our new Facebook page (more on that below), you can download this new free report....

Tempur-Pedic (symbol TPX on New York), reported higher revenue and earnings in the latest quarter. Tempur-Pedic manufactures and distributes mattresses and pillows made from its proprietary Tempur pressure-relieving material.

In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Tempur-Pedic’s earnings rose 59.0%, to $46.3 million from $29.1 million a year earlier....

Aggressive investments have the potential to generate large returns compared to more conservative selections. But they can also give you bigger losses. As well, aggressive stocks tend to be more highly leveraged and volatile than conservative stocks. But there are ways to earn large returns with less risk in the part of your portfolio you devote to aggressive investing. Here are 4 principles we use to select stocks to recommend in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing:

1. Limit aggressive holdings to 30% of your overall portfolio. Because aggressive stocks expose you to a greater risk of loss, we recommend limiting your aggressive holdings to no more than, say, 30% of your overall portfolio....

Intel Corp. (symbol INTC on Nasdaq), is the world’s largest computer chip maker.

For 2010, the company reported record revenue of $43.6 billion. That’s up 24.2% from $35.1 billion in 2009.

Earnings jumped 76.1%, to a record $11.6 billion from $6.6 billion in 2009....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “The 4-year rule is one of the most valuable rules you can use as an investor.” One of our long-standing pieces of investment advice is the 4-year rule. It goes like this: an attractive buying opportunity appears in North American stocks about every 4 years, usually within a few months of the U.S. mid-term election (the last one of these took place in November 2010). Investors who buy around this time tend to make substantial profits over the next couple of years....

On January 21, Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, will unveil a stock that’s well positioned for big gains in 2011. In fact, we think this potentially high return investment’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it Stock Pickers Digest’s #1 stock pick for the coming year.

Hidden pluses give this stock the potential for big gains in the months ahead

This Canadian firm is in a great position profit as the North American economy and consumer confidence continue to improve. Plus, it has recently signed agreements with other international firms that let it tap into rich new markets with less risk.

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Investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price) as stock markets continue to recover. Companies are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their dividend payments. That’s good news for investors, because dividends are more dependable than capital gains as a source of income. A couple of decades ago, you could assume that dividends would contribute up to a third of your long-term investment returns, without even considering the tax-cutting effects of the dividend tax credit. Earlier in this decade, dividend yields were generally too low to provide a third of investment returns. But now that yields have moved up and interest rates have moved down, it’s realistic to assume they will once again contribute as much as a third of your total return....

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $77 (Toronto symbol CM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 392.7 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 4.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cibc.com) is Canada’s fifth-largest bank, with total assets of $352.0 billion. CIBC continues to expand its main retail-banking business, which is less volatile than its trading activities. Retail banking now accounts for 74% of CIBC’s business, up from 69% a year earlier. The bank aims to raise this to 75%. This focus on retail banking is paying off. In fiscal 2010, CIBC’s earnings jumped 125.6%, to $2.3 billion. It earned $1.0 billion in fiscal 2009. Earnings per share rose 121.5%, to $5.87 from $2.65, on more shares outstanding. If you exclude several one-time items, including writedowns of securities the bank holds, earnings per share would have risen 9.8%, to $6.37 from $5.80....

BANK OF MONTREAL $58 (Toronto symbol BMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 568.1 million; Market cap: $32.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bmo.com) is Canada’s fourth-largest bank, with assets of $411.6 billion. The bank earned $2.8 billion in its 2010 fiscal year. That’s up 57.2% from $1.8 billion in fiscal 2009. Earnings per share rose 54.2%, to $4.75 from $3.08, on more shares outstanding. Unusual items, such as severance costs and writedowns of securities the bank holds, depressed its fiscal 2009 earnings. If you exclude these items, earnings per share would have risen 19.9%. In fiscal 2010, loan-loss provisions fell 34.6%, to $1.05 billion from $1.6 billion. Revenue rose 10.4%, to $12.2 billion from $11.1 billion....