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Yesterday on TSI Network, we gave you our stock trading advice on Aastra Technologies (symbol AAH on Toronto), one of the investments we recommend in our new free report, “Tax-Loss Selling: 7 Christmas Stocks That Could Give You Huge Gains in the New Year.” Today, we analyze another company that could soar in the wake of tax-loss selling season, Manitoba Telecom Services Ltd. (symbol MBT on Toronto). The company’s shares are down 19.2% from their 2010 high of $35.39. Manitoba Tel gets 52% of its revenue from its MTS division, which mainly sells traditional and wireless telephone services to consumers in Manitoba. The remaining 48% of its revenue comes from its Allstream business-communications division, which operates across Canada....

The year-end tax-loss selling season can create great stock-market bargains, because it puts temporary downward pressure on stocks that have been weak during the year. But the best of the bunch can put on spectacular recoveries after the season ends on December 24. In our new special report, “Tax-Loss Selling: 7 Christmas Stocks That Could Give You Huge Gains in the New Year,” you learn about 7 companies that have the potential to skyrocket in early 2011. Click here to download your free copy of this new report right away. One of these firms is Aastra Technologies (symbol AAH on Toronto). The company’s shares are down 37.9% from their 2010 high of $36.99....

Investing is different from many other pursuits in one crucial way: doing the wrong thing as an investor can actually make money for you, but only temporarily. Buying low-quality Canadian penny stocks is a mistake that many investors make. Some get hooked on it, since low-quality stocks can be highly profitable over short periods. That’s because they are generally more volatile than the high-quality stocks (the kind that have a history of earnings, if not dividends) that we recommend in our Successful Investor newsletter. Here are 2 risks you face when you overindulge in Canadian penny stocks:...

You’ve probably heard of Facebook, a “social-networking” site with more than 500 million users worldwide. Facebook was started by a group of Harvard University students in 2004. It then expanded to other schools before it was opened to anyone aged 13 and over.

Facebook: An outstanding way to keep in touch with family and friends

In just six years, Facebook has expanded way past the circle of students who started it. The site now attracts users of all ages. In fact, according to a 2009 study by Washington, D.C.-based iStrategyLabs, the number of Facebook users aged 55 and over jumped 514% in the first six months of 2009. By comparison, Facebook users between 18 and 24 years of age only rose by 5% during that time.

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ConAgra Foods Inc. (New York symbol CAG) makes a wide variety of packaged foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher popcorn. The company gets 67% of its revenue by selling its products to consumers. It gets the remaining 33% by selling foods to businesses. In its 2011 second quarter, which ended November 28, 2010, ConAgra’s sales rose 2.0%, to $3.2 billion from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Sales rose 1.0% at the consumer foods division, to $2.1 billion from $2.07 billion. The commercial foods division’s sales rose 3.0%, to $1.1 billion from $1.0 billion. The company sold more of its Lamb Weston specialty potato products. As well, ConAgra’s flour-milling operations raised their prices to offset higher wheat costs....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” investing advice 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 investing advice and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Sometimes it pays to pay a little extra and get a vote.” 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)....

Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq symbol ADBE) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use Adobe’s software to create print publications and web pages. The company also makes Adobe Flash, which lets web site developers make web pages more interactive by adding animation and video. Computer users can download Adobe’s Flash Player viewer for free. We analyze Adobe in our Stock Pickers Digest and Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletters....

When you’re looking for high return investments, it pays to be skeptical of companies that rely too heavily on acquisitions. That’s because the buyer of something rarely knows as much about it as the seller. So it follows that if a company makes enough acquisitions, it might eventually buy something that has hidden problems. At some point, those problems will come out into the open and hurt the buyer’s earnings.

How a bad acquisition can cause high return investments to suffer

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ALCOA INC. $14 (New York symbol AA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $14.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.alcoa.com) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. Its customers are mainly in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries. The company produced 12.0% more raw alumina ore in its latest quarter than a year ago. That helped offset a 5% drop in selling prices. That’s why Alcoa’s revenue rose 14.6% in the three months ended September 30, 2010, to $5.3 billion from $4.6 billion a year earlier. The higher revenue helped spur a 31.5% jump in Alcoa’s earnings, to $96 million from $73 million. Earnings per share rose 28.6%, to $0.09 from $0.07, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, including repair costs after a flood damaged the company’s smelter in Spain....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $61 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 493.1 million; Market cap: $30.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. Gold accounts for about 85% of Newmont’s revenue. The remaining 15% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from its 35.4% stake in the large Batu Hijau mining complex in Indonesia. Gold has jumped 35%, from $1,062 an ounce in February 2010 to a new all-time high of $1,433 in December 2010. Newmont prefers to sell its gold at the market price instead of through long-term hedging contracts that lock in prices. This policy has helped it take full advantage of rising gold prices....

BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $89 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.8 billion; Market cap: $249.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.7; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium. Regulators in Australia and Canada have recently forced the company to cancel two big deals. In October 2010, BHP called off its plan to merge its iron-ore operations in Australia with those of Rio Tinto Ltd. (New York symbol RIO)....

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS INC. $22 (New York symbol BR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 125.0 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.broadridge.com) provides communication, processing and other services to the investment industry. These services help its customers cut costs and focus on their core businesses. Broadridge’s clients include 250 banks, 500 mutual-fund families and over 5,000 publicly traded companies. The company gets roughly 75% of its revenue from its Investor Communication Solutions division, which distributes proxy materials, including ballots, to investors in stocks and mutual funds. It then counts the votes. Broadridge’s ProxyEdge software helps centralize and simplify shareholder voting, particularly if a meeting involves multiple ballots. Broadridge mails and processes two-thirds of all proxy votes in the U.S....

Demand for wireless services is rising sharply in North America. That’s partly because device makers continue to release new cellphones and wireless devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. As well, more customers are switching from traditional phones (or land lines) to wireless services. Smartphones, in particular, have become increasingly popular. Aside from functioning as mobile phones, these devices have many computer-like functions, including Internet access and email. Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry are today’s top-selling smartphones. However, other firms, such as Motorola and Samsung, have introduced new smartphones in recent months, as well....

FedEx Corp. (New York symbol FDX) delivers packages and documents in the U.S. and over 220 other countries. The Memphis-based courier company reported earnings that fell short of consensus estimates on Thursday. However, it noted that shipments for the holiday season are much stronger than 2009 and 2008. (FedEx is one of the stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter.) In its 2011 second quarter, which ended November 30, 2010, the company earned $283 million, or $0.89 a share. That’s down 18.0% from $345 million, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier....

Many investors think drug stocks are can’t-miss investments. That’s because the baby boomers are reaching an age when they will need drugs for a number of medical conditions, and are willing to pay for them. We agree that the aging of the boomers will create drug demand. But there are several drawbacks to drug stocks that you should keep in mind if you are thinking of investing in them. Here are three major hurdles most drug stocks face:

1. High research costs: Drug firms need to spend heavily to create new drugs. Even then, they only get to profit for a limited time before patents run out and generic products appear. Then too, their research spending may lead to dead ends, rather than new drugs that fill a need.
2. Regulatory risk: Drug stocks whose success depends on drugs that are currently in clinical trials expose you to huge risk. Not only are the chances of success in trials remote, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become more cautious in approving new drugs following Merck’s 2004 voluntary withdrawal of heart drug Vioxx due to side effects; the FDA approved Vioxx in 1999. This heightened FDA caution adds further risk to new drug investments.

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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 Canadian real estate investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Buy a house that suits your needs, and let Canadian real estate investing profits take care of themselves.” A house is the biggest investment and consumer purchase most of us ever make. The house itself is the consumer purchase; the land underneath is the investment. Your house depreciates as surely as your car, but more slowly. Eventually, a house reaches the end of its economic life. But the land it sits on is as functional as ever....

Investors often ask how we have managed to recommend so many value stock picks that get taken over for big profits. In fact, some readers of our newsletters and investment services tell us that they never had a stock taken over at a profit until they began following our advice. More on the strategy that helps us routinely spot takeover candidates in a moment. But first, here are just a few recent takeover targets we’ve recommended. All have rewarded our readers with big gains:

• In the October 2010 issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, we recommended Del Monte Foods (symbol DLM on New York) at $13 a share. In November, the company accepted a $19.00-a-share takeover offer from a private equity group led by KKR & Co. (symbol KKR on New York). Del Monte is now trading at $18.80. That’s a 45% gain!
• In an October 8, 2010, Stock Pickers Digest Hotline, we issued a “buy” recommendation on DundeeWealth Inc. (symbol DW on Toronto), at $15.11. On November 22, Scotiabank (symbol BNS on Toronto), announced that it will buy the 82% of DundeeWealth that it doesn’t already own. The news caused DundeeWealth’s shares to shoot up to their current $21.22 — for a 40.4% gain!
• And these weren’t our only October recommendations that gained sharply on a takeover. We recommended Verigy Ltd. (symbol VRGY on Nasdaq) in the October issue of Stock Pickers Digest at $8.28. Just last week, Japan-based Advantest, another maker of computer-chip testing equipment, offered to buy Verigy for $12.15 a share. That sent the stock up to its current $13.43, for a gain of 62.2%.

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Saputo Inc. (Symbol SAP on Toronto) is Canada’s largest producer of dairy products, including milk, butter and cheese. The company also makes snack cakes and tarts. Aside from Saputo, the Canadian stock pick’s main brands include Neilson, Stella and Dairyland. The company also has operations in the U.S., Argentina and Europe. In its second quarter, which ended September 30, 2010, Saputo earned $125.5 million, or $0.60 a share. That’s up 32.8% from $94.5 million, or $0.45 a share, a year earlier. The company reported revenue of $1.56 billion in the latest quarter, up 5.3% from $1.48 billion....

A rebounding global economy continues to push up resource prices. That has helped raise the prices of Canadian oil stocks and companies that serve them, including Precision Drilling Corp. (symbol PD on Toronto). Precision provides contract-drilling services to oil and natural gas producers, mainly in western Canada. Precision recently converted from an income trust to a conventional corporation. The Canadian oil stock’s investors received one common share for each trust unit they held. In light of that and other changes at the company, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on Precision in the current issue of The Successful Investor. (Read on to find out how you can get a free copy of this issue. Along with our latest buy/sell/hold advice on Precision, the issue contains our full analysis of 19 other investments that could be suitable for your portfolio.)...

Transcontinental Inc. (symbol TCL.A on Toronto) is the largest commercial printer in Canada and Mexico, and the fourth-largest in North America. This business provides 65% of its revenue and earnings. The company also publishes newspapers and magazines (30% of revenue and earnings). The remaining 5% comes from its marketing-communications division, which designs advertising campaigns, including direct mail, and analyzes customer-purchasing data. Transcontinental is one of the stock market picks we analyze in our Successful Investor newsletter. Transcontinental also has over 150 web sites. Business from the Internet accounts for just 1% of the company’s overall revenue. Still, these web sites will become more important to Transcontinental’s growth in the next few years, as advertisers spend more on the Internet than print products....

If you’re looking for stock-market bargains, December is the best time of year to find them. Here’s why: Investors love to sell stocks for a profit, but they hate to sell at a loss. That’s why many investors spread their selling-for-a-profit throughout the year, while holding on to stocks that have dropped. Toward year-end, it occurs to these investors that they’ll have to pay taxes on their capital gains, regardless of whether they made money overall. This leads some investors to dump their losers near year-end, simply to establish a capital loss for tax purposes, to offset a capital gain....

Every industry and group has its own special jargon. This specialized language always has the same purposes. It simplifies communications within the industry, and helps make insiders feel they are part of a tightly knit community. It also helps the group pursue its goals. It does that by shaping concepts so that they facilitate lines of thought and discussions that match the industry’s view of the world. This natural human tendency has probably been going on ever since language began. You may recall George Orwell’s classic Cold War novel, 1984. In the book, the totalitarian government that rules the English-speaking world has decided to replace English with an invented language called Newspeak. This new language uses lots of English words, but it defines concepts in such a way that forbidden ideas are clumsy, if not impossible, to express....

Royal Bank of Canada (Toronto symbol RY), is Canada’s largest bank, with total assets of $726.2 billion. The bank is one of the stock market investments we analyze in our Successful Investor newsletter. The bank has about 79,000 employees, and serves close to 18 million personal, business, public-sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 50 other countries around the world. In its 2010 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2010, Royal earned $5.2 billion, or $3.46 a share. That’s up 35.4% from $3.9 billion, or $2.57 a share, in fiscal 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 successfully investing money. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Investing money in futures gives you high leverage, but leverage works two ways.” Futures trading provides a perfectly legal way to bet on price changes in commodity, currency and financial markets. When you buy or sell a futures contract, you commit yourself to buy or sell a quantity of a commodity (or currency or financial instrument) in the future. The date and quantity are standard; you fix the price when you buy or sell the contract....

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $77.20 (New York Exchange symbol ECH; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index. This index consists of stocks that are mainly traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange. The fund’s top holdings are Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 12.4%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 10.2%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 8.7%; Enersis AS (electric power), 8.5%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electric power), 8.2%; CAP SA (iron-ore mining and steel), 5.6%; Quimiday Minera de Chile (mining), 5.3%; Lan Airlines SA (Chilean national airline), 5.1%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 4.8%; and S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 4.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Utilities, 22.7%; Materials, 20.6%; Industrials, 20.1%; Consumer Staples, 13.9%; Financials, 11.1%; Consumer Discretionary, 8.5%; Telecommunication, 2.4%; and Information Technology, 0.9%. iShares MSCI Chile Investable Market Index Fund was launched on November 12, 2007. The exchange-traded fund has an expense ratio of 0.65%....