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When you analyze a stock, it’s important to have an idea of how likely it is to survive a business slump and go on to prosper when economic growth resumes. A number of factors can help you to do that. These include the interest rate on the company’s debt, how sensitive it is to economic cycles, its advantages and disadvantages in relation to competitors and so on. (These are just a few of the factors we take into account in our stock market research when we manage the portfolios of our Successful Investor Wealth Management clients.) Many successful investors start their stock market research on a company by looking at its debt-to-equity ratio. This ratio comes in several variations, but the basic idea is that you measure a company’s financial leverage by comparing its debt with its shareholders’ equity....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer investors more benefits than ever before, mainly because of increased competition. That can make them good choices for certain parts of your portfolio — such as the portion you devote to global stock market investing. That’s because directly investing in foreign markets can be complicated and risky, and high-quality ETFs let you make global stock market investments with greater safety. (Below, we examine an ETF that may be appropriate for investors looking for exposure to emerging markets, such as Brazil and South Korea. Read on for further details.)...

Investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price) as volatile 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. In fact, dividends typically contribute up to a third of an investor’s long-term return. Tax cuts in recent years also mean that you pay roughly the same tax on dividend income and capital gains. ...

TORSTAR CORP. $6.25 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 79.0 million; Market cap: $493.8 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 5.2%; SI Rating: Above Average) publishes The Toronto Star, which is Canada’s largest daily newspaper in terms of circulation. The company also publishes three other daily papers and over 100 weeklies, mainly in southern Ontario. Newspapers and web sites account for about 70% of Torstar’s revenue, and 60% of its earnings. The company’s other main business is wholly owned Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., the world’s leading publisher of romance novels. Harlequin also publishes non-fiction titles, such as self-help and diet books. Torstar’s aggressive cost cutting has helped it stay profitable in the face of falling advertising revenue and increased competition from the Internet. For example, it has cut roughly 8% of its workforce over the past year. These layoffs lowered the company’s expenses by $26.2 million in the first three quarters of 2009. Torstar expects to realize an additional $8.2 million in savings in the fourth quarter....

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $12 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.8 million; Market cap: $969.6 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.7%; SI Rating: Average) is the largest commercial printer in Canada, and the sixth-largest in North America. This business provides 60% of its revenue and profit. The company also publishes newspapers and magazines (25% of revenue, 30% of profit). As well, its marketing communications division (15%, 10%) designs direct mail and other advertising campaigns, and analyzes customer-purchasing data. These services help its clients expand sales and build loyalty. The stock fell to $5.42 last March. That’s because the recession hurt the company’s direct-mail volumes. As well, many of its clients are U.S.-based financial institutions. Higher credit losses prompted many of these customers to cut their advertising spending. Transcontinental has cut its costs in response. This involved closing a direct-mail plant in Pennsylvania and merging some printing plants. So far, these moves have lowered its costs by $50 million a year. It should achieve its goal of $100 million in annual savings sometime next year....

THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $34 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 829.7 million; Market cap: $28.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 3.5%; SI Rating: Above Average) has two main divisions: Markets accounts for 60% of revenue, and sells financial-information products to banks and other financial institutions. Professional (40% of revenue) sells specialized information to professionals in the legal, accounting, scientific and health-care fields. The company gets about 60% of its revenue from the Americas, followed by Europe (30%) and Asia (10%). The financial crisis prompted banks and brokerage firms to cut spending on information products. As a result, Thomson Reuters’ revenue fell 3.7% in the third quarter of 2009, to $3.2 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earnings fell 8.5%, to $0.43 a share (or a total of $359 million), from $0.47 a share (or $392 million). Thomson is taking advantage of the slump in the financial industry to expand its operations. For example, it will pay an undisclosed sum for breakingviews.com, a privately held web site that supplies financial news and commentary....

METRO INC. $37 (Toronto symbol MRU.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 108.5 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s third-largest supermarket operator, after Loblaw and Sobeys. Metro operates roughly 660 grocery stores in Quebec and Ontario. Its major banners include Metro, Super C and Food Basics. The company also operates or supplies around 270 drug stores. Eighty-one of these are located inside its supermarkets. Aside from its grocery business, Metro owns roughly 23% of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (Toronto symbol ATD.B). Couche-Tard has more than 3,500 convenience stores in the U.S., and is the largest convenience-store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. Based on Alimentation Couche-Tard’s current stock price, this investment accounts for 23% of Metro’s market cap. Couche-Tard is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest, our publication for aggressive investors....

The rebounding global economy has pushed up commodity prices in recent months. But with the exception of gold, which has recently hit record highs, most commodities remain below their 2008 peaks. Still, resource demand should continue to improve with the global economy. Here are two profit-killing strategies to avoid when buying commodity investments. (We’ve also included our preferred approach, which you can read about below.) 1. Futures trading. Rising resource prices will likely tempt more investors to trade commodity futures. These include metals and minerals, fertilizers and agricultural products....

Stop-loss orders are a stock trading strategy investors use to sell a stock if it falls to a specific price. For example, if you own a $12 stock, you might tell your broker to sell it “on stop” if it hits $10. This may limit your losses if you paid more than $10. If you paid less, it may preserve some of your profits. ...

Ottawa’s new tax on income trusts comes into effect just over a year from now, on January 1, 2011. When it does, it will put trusts on an equal footing with regular corporations. Right now, trusts pay out a high percentage of their cash flows to their unitholders. This lets them avoid paying corporate taxes. It also gives many of them significantly higher yields than a lot of dividend-paying common stocks. The new tax will eliminate these income-tax benefits. That will prompt some income trusts to convert to conventional corporations. Others may choose to remain as trusts. (For our latest advice on income trust investing, and how trusts should fit into your overall portfolio, be sure to download our free report, “Canadian Stock Market Basics: How to Trade Stocks and Make Good Investments in Canada.”)...

There’s a random element in stock-price movements that you just can’t get away from. Stocks sometimes ignore bad news for long periods, then suddenly take note of it and collapse. Stocks may overreact to bad news, or react to downbeat but irrelevant news. To top it off, stocks that are headed for a big rise often start their move with a slump. You can’t overcome this random element by intense study, reading charts, expensive computer programs or stock investing advice that aims at fine-tuning your market timing. (But our system can help you minimize this random element. Read on to find out how.)...

When you join my Inner Circle service, you get to ask me your own personal investment questions, plus you get to see what other Inner Circle members have asked, along with our answers. So you can see how the service works, and get a sense of how you could benefit from it, I’d like to share a recent member question about index-linked GICs. I hope you enjoy and profit from it. Q: Hi Patrick. I am interested in your opinion of index-linked GICs. The returns are interest based, so I think they are best bought in your RRSP. Recent stock market volatility has us wanting to safeguard a portion of our portfolio. Thanks....

The federal government first made tax free savings accounts (TFSAs) available to investors in January 2009. These accounts let you earn investment income — including interest, dividends and capital gains — tax free. However, you could only contribute $5,000 in 2009 to start your tax free savings account. Every year, you gain an additional $5,000 of contribution room (indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500 on a yearly basis). Plus, you get to carry forward unused contribution room from previous years. So in 2010 you’ll have $10,000 of contribution room, $15,000 in 2011, and so on. (Read on for a simple strategy to help you choose between your TFSA and your RRSP, and cut your tax bill in retirement.)...

TRIMARK CANADIAN RESOURCES FUND $16.22 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (AIM Funds Management Inc., 5140 Yonge Street, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario M2N 6X7. Tel: 1-800-631-7008; Web site: www.invescotrimark.com. Buy or sell through brokers) includes firms with Successful Investor Ratings of “Speculative” in its top picks. However, we like Trimark Canadian Resources Fund’s value-seeking, conservative approach to picking stocks in the volatile resource sector. The $428.9-million fund’s top holdings are EnCana, Canadian Natural Resources, Inmet Mining Corp., Husky Energy, Nexen, Cameco, Mayr-Meinhof Karton AG, Goldcorp and Talisman Energy. Trimark Canadian Resources Fund holds 50.3% of its portfolio in the Energy sector, 26.4% in Metals & Minerals and 6.3% in Industrials....

TD RESOURCE FUND $27.63 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1P9. Tel: 1-800-386-3757; Web site:www.tdcanadatrust.ca. No load: deal directly with the bank) invests in companies that its managers see as having strong asset bases, proven management and the ability to internally finance growth. The $195.0-million TD Resource Fund’s top stock holdings mostly have Successful Investor Ratings of “Average” or higher. They include EnCana, Suncor Energy, Talisman Energy, Goldcorp, Yamana Gold, TransCanada Corp., BHP Billiton, Barrick Gold, Husky Energy, Chevron, Marathon Oil and Nexen. TD Resource Fund holds 57.1% of its portfolio in Energy and 38.3% in Metals & Minerals....

ISHARES S&P INDIA NIFTY 50 INDEX FUND $25.51 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the S&P CNX Nifty Index, which represents the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities on the National Stock Exchange of India. The fund’s top holdings are: Reliance Industries (conglomerate), 13.0%; Infosys Technologies (software), 7.9%; ICICI Bank, 6.9%; Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (conglomerate), 6.7%; ITC Ltd. (conglomerate), 4.7%; HDFC Bank, 4.3%; State Bank of India, 4.1%, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, 3.0%; and Tata Consulting Services (information technology), 2.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Banks, 17.1%; Refineries, 13.5%; Computers: Software, 12.1%; Engineering, 6.7%; Steel and Steel Products, 4.9%; Finance: Housing, 4.9%; Cigarettes, 4.7%; Power, 4.5%; Automobiles, 4.1%; and Electrical Equipment, 3.9%....

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $51.79 (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), 12.9%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electric power), 10.6%; Sociedad Quimiday Minera de Chile (mining), 7.3%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 7.2%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 5.2%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 4.7%; CAP SA (iron-ore mining and steel), 4.3%; Lan Airlines SA (Chilean national airline), 4.2%; and Colbun SA (electric power), 3.9%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Utilities, 28.4%; Materials, 20.1%; Industrials, 19.3%; Consumer Staples, 9.9%; Financials, 8.9%; Consumer Discretionary, 7.8%; Telecommunication Services, 4.3%; Information Technology, 1.0%; and Health Care, 0.3%....

ISHARES MSCI GERMANY FUND $22.95 (New York Exchange symbol EWG; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Germany Index. This index aims to capture 85% of the total market capitalization of the German stock market. The remaining 15% is unavailable for investment, partly because of limitations on foreign ownership. The fund’s top holdings are Siemens AG (engineering conglomerate), 9.6%; E.ON AG (energy), 9.6%; Bayer AG (diversified chemicals), 6.9%; Allianz (insurance), 6.7%; BASF (chemicals), 6.3%; Daimler AG (automobiles), 5.6%; Deutsche Bank AG, 5.0%; Deutsche Telekom AG, 4.9%; SAP AG (software), 4.8%; and RWE AG (energy and waste disposal), 4.4%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Financials, 19.9%; Industrials, 14.6%; Utilities, 14.2%; Consumer Discretionary, 13.6%; Materials, 12.6%; Health Care, 10.7%; Information Technology, 5.7%; Telecommunication Services, 4.9%; and Consumer Staples, 3.7%....

ISHARES MSCI SOUTH KOREA INDEX FUND $46.06 (New York Exchange symbol EWY; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Korea Index. The index aims to capture 85% of the total market capitalization of the South Korean stock market. The other 15% is unavailable for investment, partly due to limitations on foreign ownership. The fund’s top holdings are Samsung Electronics at 18.0%; Posco (steel), 7.4%; KB Financial Group, 4.3%; Shinhan Financial, 4.2%; Hyundai Motor Co., 3.8%; LG Electronics, 2.4%; Hyundai Mobis (Hyundai auto parts and service), 2.3%; Samsung Electronics preferred shares, 2.2%; LG Chemical, 2.2%; and Korea Electric Power, 2.0%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Information Technology, 28.1%; Financials, 18.3%; Industrials, 14.7%; Materials, 13.3%; Consumer Discretionary, 12.0%; Consumer Staples, 5.1%; Telecommunication Services, 3.3%; Energy, 2.4%; Utilities, 2.2%; and Health Care, 0.6%....

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $41.85 (New York Exchange symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers), is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The fund’s geographic breakdown includes: Brazil, 14.8%; South Korea, 12.4%; China, 11.2%; Taiwan, 10.4%; South Africa, 8.1%: Hong Kong, 6.8%; Russia, 6.3%; India, 6.0%; Mexico, 4.6%; and Israel, 3.3%. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund’s top holdings are Samsung Electronics, 3.9%; Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), 2.7%; Petrobras (Brazil: energy), 2.6%; Banco Itau Holding Finance (Brazil: banking), 2.5%; Posco (steel), 2.2%; China Mobile (China: wireless), 1.9%; Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), 1.8%; KB Financial Group Inc. (South Korea: banking), 1.8%; and Banco Brandesco (Brazil: banking), 1.7%....

Some investors rely on chart reading (or technical analysis), when they’re aiming to add hot stock picks to their portfolios. That’s because relying on charts seems much simpler than delving into and weighing a company’s fundamentals. We always look at charts when we select stocks to recommend in our newsletters, including Stock Pickers Digest, which focuses on more aggressive investments. And some successful investors find it helps to know a little about charts. But if you rely on charts at all, you should view them as just one of many things to consider when you make investment decisions. ...

Smartphones have become increasingly popular in recent years. Aside from functioning as mobile phones, these devices have many computer-like functions, including Internet access and email. The smartphone market is highly competitive. Two large cap stocks, Apple and Research in Motion, are the dominant players. However, other firms, such as Motorola, Palm and Garmin, have introduced new smartphones in recent months, as well. ...

A good stock broker can help you manage your investments if you don’t want to do it yourself. However, good stock brokers have always been hard to find. And, as any good stock broker or experienced investor can tell you, bad brokers are all too common. By “bad brokers,” we mean those who put their own interests above their clients’. Keep in mind, however, that a bad stock broker can do this in a perfectly legal fashion, by catering to their clients’ whims and weaknesses. Here are four ways to tell if brokers are putting their interests ahead of yours:...

Last week, the Persian Gulf nation of Dubai asked creditors of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World for a stay in payments on its roughly $60 billion U.S. of debt. The news raised fears that the country could eventually default on its debt, and caused a drop in world stock markets. Asian and U.S. banks were particularly hard hit. Like their international counterparts, Canadian bank stocks initially declined when the story of Dubai’s debt problems broke. But they quickly recovered, mainly because investors realized that the big-five Canadian banks are much better insulated from the problems in Dubai than many of their Asian, European and U.S. counterparts....

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. $30 (New York symbol A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 346.0 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; WSSF Rating: Average) makes testing systems that help improve the quality of electronic products, such as cellphones, set-top boxes and high-speed Internet equipment. The company gets 50% of its revenue from these systems, which it sells to over 30,000 contract manufacturers, as well as research and development labs. It also provides associated services. Agilent recently separated its circuit-board testing operations into a stand-alone division. This business, which accounts for about 5% of Agilent’s revenue, makes equipment that helps its customers find and repair defects in circuit boards....