best stocks
You hear a lot of negative stock market commentary these days, but it’s old, and none of it is particularly convincing. Some concerns Europe’s finances. Greece is still going broke. That surprises no one. But now the commentators add that France could be the next Greece in a few years, if it fails to make needed changes etc. Other concerns revolve around offhand economic observations and predictions. One story has it that productivity growth is drying up because all the big inventions—the Internet, computers, cell phones etc.—have already made the bulk of their impact on the economy. We heard something like that in the 1970s and early 1980s, another period when the stock market failed to make any progress for a number of years. Back then, when pessimists said all the big inventions had already been introduced, they were referring to automobiles, airplanes, telephones, motion pictures, radio and TV. Others are based on valuation analyses. Pessimists complain that p/e ratios are above historical averages, despite the weak economic outlook (it’s weak because all the big inventions have already been introduced). But to some people, stocks are never cheap enough to offset what they see as the insurmountable negatives....
Picking stocks whose share prices will rise is not the only goal that successful investors set for themselves. You also add a great deal of value to your portfolio when you select stocks that are prepared to distribute their profits to the shareholders. A company can share the wealth in two main ways—it can buy back its own shares, or it can pay dividends. Both pay off for investors, which is why a number of the best stocks we recommend have a history of doing both....
Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice and insights, such as how we pick our top stocks. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Here are 5 more ways in which our exclusive ratings system helps investors make stock selections with a much better chance of success.”...
When it comes to adding value to your investing efforts, one of the least productive things you can do is to try to “time” the market. By that, I mean attempting to sell good stocks at what looks to you like a price peak, in hopes of buying them back at lower prices. One of the hardest things about successful investing is that it’s easy to form a strong opinion on the market’s next price trend, and then find the market does something totally different from what you expected. That’s why you want to confine your buying mostly, if not entirely, to high-quality stocks. They tend to hold on to their value over long periods. Sometimes your strong opinions will turn out right. Other times, you’ll sell at what looks like a high price, only to find that some new information comes along that spurs the stock to much higher prices. Sometimes, you’ll sell a stock that looks “high,” then use the money to buy something else that looks cheap. But your cheap stocks get even cheaper while the rest of the market continues to rise....
As the stock market rebounded in 2009 from one of the worst crises in years, Pat McKeough was invited by Jonathan Chevreau of the Financial Post to appear on his ‘Wealthy Boomer’ telecast. In a two-part interview, Pat aired his views on a wide variety of investment subjects. Now, with the stock market coming off last autumn’s lows, we think it’s an appropriate time to replay the interview, entitled “40 stocks to retire on” on YouTube. Pat discusses not only specific solutions for volatile markets, but also how his investment advice applies in all market conditions. Here is part one of the interview (part two will be posted on Monday, February 20).
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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice, in this case showing you how we judge winning stock picks. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Use our TSI Network ratings system to pick the right stocks: Part 2”...
As you know, I take investor expectations into account when making investment decisions. When investor expectations are high, it pays to be skeptical and wary. That’s why we advise downplaying stocks that are in the broker/media limelight. When that limelight focuses on a stock, it tends to push up investor expectations. When stocks fail to live up to investor expectations, as they inevitably do from time to time, their stock prices can plunge. Sometimes, however, the best stocks you can find are those that are just entering the limelight, and that are likely to spend a long time there due to great performance. So it pays to look on investor expectations as a valuable tool. But they are just one tool of many that you need to consider when you make investment decisions. The same idea works in reverse. Sometimes, low expectations become common when a stock runs into internal or industry turmoil. Great buying opportunities can appear when investor expectations get low enough on companies that still show signs of financial stability and long-term growth possibilities....
When we select the best stocks for our newsletters and investment services, we use a number of different factors, of course. Below we examine three factors that can be easily overlooked by many investors. When you use these tips wisely, they can give you a distinct advantage in spotting the best stocks for your portfolio....
Our TSI Network rating system is a key guide we use to find the best stocks to recommend in our newsletters and investment services, including Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on top-quality U. S. stocks.
