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VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS ETF $45.24 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which is made up of common stocks of companies located in emerging markets around the world. The fund has an MER of 0.27%. The fund’s top holdings are China Mobile (China: wireless), Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), Samsung Electronics (South Korea: electronics), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, America Movil SAB de CV (Latin America: wireless), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazil: oil and gas), China Construction Bank, Vale SA (Brazil: mining), Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking) and Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics). The $45-billion Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF’s breakdown by country is as follows: China (18.7%), Brazil (16.0%), South Korea (13.4%), Taiwan (10.6%), India (8.0%), South Africa (7.4%), Russia (6.4%), Mexico (4.3%), Malaysia (3.1%), Indonesia (2.4%), Chile (1.8%), Turkey (1.8%), Thailand (1.7%), Poland (1.5%), Peru (0.7%), Colombia (0.6%), Philippines (0.5%), Czech Republic (0.4%), Hungary (0.4%) and Egypt (0.3%)....

In January 2005, we recommended fertilizer-maker Agrium Inc. as our Successful Investor newsletter’s “Stock of the Year.” At the time, the stock was trading at $19.51. By the end of the year, it had risen to $25.62, and investors who followed our advice saw a gain of 31%. Agrium’s positive outlook led us to name it The Successful Investor‘s “Stock of the Year” again in 2006 (it went on to rise 42.1% that year), and again in 2007 (during which it jumped 88.8%.) ...

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $54.80 (Toronto symbol BNS: Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $56.9 billion; SI Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%) is the third largest of Canada’s five big banks, with assets of $523.4 billion. In the three months ended July 31, 2010, Bank of Nova Scotia earned $1.1 billion. That’s up 14.1% from $931 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.6%, to $0.98 from $0.87, on more shares outstanding. The bank set aside less money to cover bad loans because of the improving economy. In the latest quarter, loan-loss provisions fell 50.2%, to $276 million from $554 million a year earlier....

We continue to recommend that you cut your investment risk by spreading your money out across the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities). Most investors should have investments in most, if not all, of these five sectors. The proper proportions depend on your circumstances and temperament. If you’re an income-seeking or conservative investor, you may want to place more emphasis on Utilities. That’s because these firms’ operations (such as power plants and pipelines) generate steady cash flows. That cuts their risk, and gives them plenty of flexibility to invest in new-growth projects. It’s also why utilities are among the best Canadian dividend stocks. In a just-published issue of Canadian Wealth Advisor, our newsletter for conservative investing, we update our buy/sell/hold advice on a utility that’s investing heavily in new-growth projects: TransCanada Corp. (symbol TRP on Toronto). We’ve covered TransCanada for many years in Canadian Wealth Advisor and our flagship publication, The Successful Investor....

Here at TSI Network, we’re always looking for new ways to interact with our readers. For example, you can get our latest investment advice, and send me your thoughts, through the popular social-networking service Twitter. As well, we’ll soon be launching a Facebook page that will give you even more free information and advice, plus the opportunity to participate in investment-related discussions with us and other investors, as well. To make it even easier for you to share your views on our investment advice, we’ve recently opened TSI Network to comments from visitors. Adding your comments couldn’t be easier: just scroll to the bottom of the article you’d like to comment on and type in your thoughts (you’ll have to log in first). We hope this will create an ongoing discussion that will let the site’s visitors share their own views on our investment advice, and read other visitors’ opinions....

When stock prices are highly volatile and bad news (strikes and national bankruptcy risk in Europe, the threat of war in Korea, risk of Japanese-style deflation in North America) seems to be everywhere, it’s natural to wonder if you should sell all or part of your portfolio and simply hold the cash until things look clearer. Going into cash can, of course, relieve stress. You might even get lucky — prices may fall after you sell, and you may manage to buy back in at a lower price. But in the long run, following a stock market timing strategy of going back and forth between stocks and cash is virtually certain to cost you money. How could it be otherwise? After all, if you could consistently spot good times to get in or out of the market, you could consistently make 10% to 20% per year on your money — more if you employed leverage. So why would you work? Why would anybody work?...

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 tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Treat Canadian stock options like lottery tickets, because the odds are almost as bad.” Canadian stock options come in two varieties. Calls give you a right, but not the obligation, to buy a stock at a fixed price, for a fixed period. Puts give you the right, but not the obligation, to sell....

Consumer stocks tend to add stability to a portfolio. That’s because these stock market investments 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. Many consumer stocks deeply cut their costs during the recession. This has helped them in the economic recovery, by freeing up cash for expanding, upgrading or raising their dividends. In the a just-published issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stock market investments, we’ve upgraded our buy/sell/hold advice on a consumer stock that has been aggressively cutting its costs and putting the savings to good use (including a big dividend increase): food processor Del Monte Foods Co. (symbol DLM on New York)....

Aggressive investors need to be more skeptical and discriminating than conservative investors, because they take on greater risk. Conservative investors mainly buy well-established companies with a history of earnings and possibly dividends, and a secure hold on a growing, or at least stable, clientele. (In the latest issue of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on a home-security firm that has risen more than 30% for us in the past year. And its U.S. expansion could help push it even higher. Read on for further details.) ...

If you need steady income and want to hold bond funds, we advise you to focus on those with short-term maturity dates (see below for more on bond funds). That’s because bonds with shorter terms face a lower risk from interest-rate increases. You should also avoid funds that take part in any kind of speculative trading. The iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund (symbol XSB on Toronto) is a bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) that we cover in our Canadian Wealth Advisor newsletter. The fund cuts risk by avoiding speculative trading and emphasizing government bonds.

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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. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Dividends can produce a large part of your total return over long periods.” Dividends rarely get the respect they deserve, especially from beginning investors. That’s because a dividend paying stock’s yearly 2% or 3% or 5% dividend barely seems worth mentioning alongside possible yearly capital gains of 10%, 20% or 30% or more....

We get a wide variety of interesting questions from members of Pat McKeough’s Inner Circle. Most often, members ask us about specific investments, such as stocks, income trusts or exchange-traded funds, that they’re considering investing money in. However, they send us other types of financial questions, as well. To give you a sense of how the service works, I’d like to share a recent question from an Inner Circle member on investing money in time-shares. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Pat: What is your take on time-shares? They seem like a deal for a cheaper vacation. Thanks....

When we’re looking for the best investments to recommend in our newsletters and investment services, including our flagship publication, The Successful Investor, we start by putting all the important information we know about a company into perspective. That new invention may be a marvel, but how does it compare to what the competition is doing? The new project sounds impressive, but how much impact will it really have on the company’s profit? The debt sounds high — will the company be able to keep up its agreed-upon interest and principal repayments? Investors intuitively understand this, but they often find it hard to apply when they are looking for the best investments to add to their portfolios. Financial ratios are one way to spot the best investments, but the answers you get can be ambiguous, if not misleading....

Some investors have told us that they are pessimistic about the stock market because of lots of insider selling in the U.S. blue chip stocks they hold. The value of insider buying and selling as a market indicator seems self-evident. After all, company insiders — officers, directors, or owners of 10% or more of a company’s stock — are apt to know more than outsiders do about what’s going on in their businesses. ...

LINAMAR CORP. $20 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.6%; SI Rating: Extra Risk) gets about 90% of its revenue by selling transmissions and other parts to several carmakers. The company also makes self-propelled, scissor-type elevating work platforms under the Skyjack name, plus consumer products, such as lawn mowers and cargo trailers. Linamar continues to benefit from rising car sales in the wake of the recession. It cut 40% of its workforce during the downturn, but has rehired many workers as car sales recovered. Still, the company expects its cost-cutting plan to lower its annual expenses by $60 million, starting this year. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, Linamar earned $26.6 million, or $0.41 a share. That’s a big improvement over its year-earlier loss of $10.1 million, or $0.16 a share. The year-earlier results excluded severance payments and write-downs of plants and equipment....

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 the fundamentals of successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Stock market software is a help, but successful investing calls for experienced human judgment.” Many investment firms manage money with the help of something called a “black box.” This is stock market software that picks stocks or makes other investment decisions, based on historical data. Individuals sometimes buy these programs over the Internet or from direct-mail advertising....

SHAWCOR LTD. $27 (Toronto symbol SCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 70.6 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 1.1%; SI Rating: Average) gets 90% of its revenue by making sealants and coatings that protect oil and natural-gas pipelines from corrosion. The remaining 10% comes from making electrical wire and protective sheaths. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, ShawCor’s revenue fell 25.0%, to $234.5 million from $312.8 million a year earlier. That’s mainly because of a drop in new pipeline construction in North America. ShawCor also completed a major contract in the Caribbean in late 2009. As well, Canada accounts for just 25% of ShawCor’s revenue, so the higher Canadian dollar hurts the contribution of its overseas operations. The lower revenue was the main reason why ShawCor’s earnings fell 68.6% in the quarter, to $10.9 million, or $0.15 a share. It earned $34.6 million, or $0.49 a share, a year earlier....

These days, many investors who are approaching retirement worry that their retirement planning won’t generate enough income once they’ve stopped working. (Our Successful Investor Wealth Management clients’ retirement planning goals are always one of our top considerations when we manage their portfolios. Click here to learn more about how you can profit from our portfolio management services.) ...

FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $22 (Toronto symbol FTT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.0 million; Market cap: $3.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.2%; SI Rating: Above Average) sells, rents and repairs heavy equipment, such as tractors, bulldozers and trucks, made by Caterpillar Inc. Finning’s major customers are in the mining, forest-products and construction industries in western Canada, the U.K. and South America. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, Finning earned $36.0 million, or $0.21 a share. That’s down 36.3%, from $56.5 million, or $0.33 a share, a year earlier. However, the latest quarterly earnings included a $0.06-a-share charge for costs to install a new computer system and buy back notes. Without these charges, Finning would have earned $0.27 a share in the latest quarter. Revenue fell 2.0%, to $1.07 billion from $1.1 billion. Lower sales of new and used equipment offset a 10% rise in sales of support services. Finning now gets nearly half of its revenue from services. That cuts its risk....

In the latest issue of The Successful Investor, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on grocery retailer Metro Inc. (symbol MRU.A on Toronto). Metro is a good example of a stock that has graduated from Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investors, to The Successful Investor, which focuses on more conservative selections.

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CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $29 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 751.8 million; Market cap: $21.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.8%; SI Rating: Extra Risk) operates three oil-sands properties in Alberta, and one in Saskatchewan. Cenovus ships the heavy bitumen from these projects to refineries in Illinois and Texas. ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns 50% of these refineries, as well as 50% of Cenovus’ two main oil-sands projects. Cenovus also owns conventional oil and natural-gas properties. Cenovus’ proved oil and gas reserves will last 14.7 years. These large reserves mean that Cenovus does not need to spend heavily on exploration. That cuts its risk. Moreover, its steam-assisted gravity draining drilling technology should spur its long-term earnings. That’s because this process makes it easier to extract more heavy oil. ...

ENCANA CORP. $30 (Toronto symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 736.2 million; Market cap: $22.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.8%; SI Rating: Average) is one of North America’s largest natural-gas producers. The company prefers to focus on large unconventional reserves, including shale gas, which is natural gas that is trapped in rock formations. To extract it, companies must pump water and chemicals into the rock. This fractures the rock and releases the natural gas. At current production rates, Encana’s proved reserves should last 12 years. However, these properties could last 50 years if you include harder-to-reach reserves. Despite weak gas prices, Encana plans to double its gas production over the next five years. That would help raise its market share, because low gas prices have prompted many of its competitors to cut production....

Brazil’s economy is the world’s eighth largest, and the largest in South America. Brazil is also the world’s ninth-largest oil exporter. Brazil’s economy stalled during the financial crisis, as global demand for the country’s commodity-based exports, including oil, slowed. However, it was one of the first emerging markets to begin a recovery, posting positive growth in the second quarter of 2009. The Brazilian economy could grow as much as 5.5% in 2010. To top it off, the country’s exports to fast-growing China have risen sharply. In 2009, China passed the U.S. to become Brazil’s biggest export market, accounting for 12.5% of its total 2009 exports. The U.S. accounted for 10.5%, followed by Argentina (8.4%), the Netherlands (5.4%) and Germany (4.1%)....

Here are 4 classic errors in stock market strategy that can seriously hinder your returns. All investors make them from time to time. 1. “Averaging down” without reconsidering whether you should have bought in the first place: Many investors have made lots of money by following the stock market strategy of “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. “Averaging down” is different. When you systematically average down (that is, you buy more of a stock you own that has gone down in order to lower your average cost per share), you are zeroing in on your losers....

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 how to spot the best bargain stocks for your portfolio. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Spinoffs can bring two-way benefits, to the parent and the spun off division.” In a spinoff, a company sets up part of its operations as a separate public company, then hands shares in this company over to shareholders, or gives them a chance to buy these bargain stocks cheaply. Often, the spun off business and the parent both gain. Here’s why:...