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Information technology has been the best-performing market segment over the past 25 years, although there have been some big downs along with the big ups. Going forward, we still see top information technology stocks—and the ETFs that hold them—as an attractive component of an investor’s overall Manufacturing sector holdings.


Please see the supplement on page 70 for more information about the risks and rewards involved in technology ETFs....

Over the past 10 years, Microsoft’s shares have soared, rising nearly 950% and far outpacing the 174% gain for the S&P 500 Index.


That impressive climb reflects two main factors. First, the company pivoted from selling its software as a one-time purchase to a cloud-based subscription model on its Azure platform....

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an example of an investment idea that could boost your investment returns—or more likely end up of costing you money. All in all, we think that the biggest, surest gains from AI will come from investing in established businesses that are already profitable and growing, and that can gain all the more by applying AI to their operations.


Here are two companies that are already profitably taking advantage of AI, and they will be among the leaders in the push to extend AI’s use:


TWILIO INC., $61.44, is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol TWLO; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (www.twilio.com; Shares outstanding: 171.2 million; Market cap: $10.5 billion; No dividends paid.) spends a high 30% of sales on R&D—that includes spending to expand its Twilio CustomerAI technology.


The hi-tech offering combines AI with real-time customer data flowing through Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform....

When doing investing research on publicly traded companies, sometimes the bad reviews of a company are more honest than the good reviews of another.

OPERA LTD. (ADR), $13.34, symbol OPRA on Nasdaq, offers a web browser with 304 million monthly active users. In addition to its browser, it provides news through its AI-powered newsreader.

Opera started up in 1994. The company has long positioned itself as an alternative to browsers pre-installed on computers and devices, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

The company generates revenues from three operating segments: Advertising (58% of revenue), Search (41%), and Technology Licensing and Other Revenue (1%)....

When I hear from investors, they often ask what we do to produce the investment advice they get from our publications, and the portfolio management they get from Successful Investment Wealth Management Inc., our portfolio management affiliate. The short answer is that my research associates and I read a lot.

I personally read a large variety of publications and other reading materials, and take a skeptical view of all of it....

VANGUARD FTSE GLOBAL ALL CAP EX CANADA INDEX ETF $56.71 (Toronto symbol VXC; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $1.8 billion) tracks the FTSE Global All Cap ex Canada Index. Companies located in the U.S. make up the largest component (63.4%), followed by Japan (6.6%), the U.K....

With Google investing in AI, technology evolves, bringing both opportunities and complexities to the forefront.

FIVE BELOW INC., $181.38, symbol FIVE on Nasdaq, is a retailer that offers a broad range of merchandise for teen and pre-teen customers. Most of its products are priced between $1 and $5. However, in recent years, it has added merchandise priced above $5 through its Five Below and Beyond format....

We first recommended Alphabet (then called Google) as a buy for aggressive investors in our August 2011 issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster at $607 (or $15.175 adjusted for splits). Since then, the stock has gained a whopping 767.8% for our subscribers.

That success is largely due to the early effectiveness of its Internet search algorithms, which delivered more useful results to its users than competing search engines....