diversification

I hope you are enjoying and profiting from the free investing advice you get in our TSI Network daily updates. Our dailies aim to educate you on best practices in investing. They cover a range of investment topics, and explain conservative investment strategies you can use to build the best portfolio for you, and grow your wealth with less risk. ...

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. But the quality of ETFs varies widely. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads. So you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. Here are six foreign ETFs we like:...

A key part of our three-part tsinetwork.ca portfolio management advice is to downplay stocks that are in the broker/public-relations limelight.

(The other two parts are to invest mainly in well-established, dividend-paying companies and spread your money across the five main economic sectors: Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities.)

It’s especially crucial to downplay stocks that are getting a lot of attention from brokers in the media....

Imperial Oil’s large oil and gas reserves should last for decades. But the company also owns four refineries that convert crude oil into gasoline and other fuels. Imperial also operates 1,900 Esso gas stations. This diversification helps shield the company from volatile oil and gas prices. Moreover, Imperial focuses on politically stable North America. That makes it an ideal resource stock for safety-conscious investors. IMPERIAL OIL $51.49 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $43.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.9%; www.imperialoil.ca) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company. Imperial earned $0.95 a share in the three months ended December 31, 2010. That’s up 50.8%, from $0.63 a share a year earlier. The rise was mainly the result of higher oil and gas prices, and improved profits at Imperial’s refineries. Revenue rose 18.2%, to $6.9 billion from $5.9 billion....

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $23.94 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 250.9 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.8%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT). It has interests in 297 shopping malls in Canada, including 10 under development. These properties contain over 70 million square feet of leaseable area. The trust has a 97.4% occupancy rate. RioCan also owns stakes in 31 malls in the U.S. through joint ventures. As well, it owns 14% of Cedar Shopping Centers, a U.S. REIT that owns malls anchored by supermarkets and drug stores, mainly in the northeastern U.S. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, RioCan’s revenue rose 21.7% to $222.8 million from $183.1 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit rose 25%, to $0.35 from $0.28. RioCan’s units yield 5.8%....

The IA Clarington Sarbit U.S. Equity Fund holds mostly high-quality stocks balanced across the five main economic sectors. The fund is okay to hold if you want to invest in U.S. stocks, but don’t want exposure to the U.S. dollar. However, we advise putting around 25% of your portfolio in U.S. stocks, without removing the U.S. dollar exposure. We see exposure to the U.S. dollar exposure as a plus — a valuable form of diversification. A: The Excel India Fund holds mostly high-quality stocks, although it does have a high 2.98% MER. However, the Excel India Fund is okay to hold....

Direct TV, $43.54, symbol DTV on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 866.8 million; Market cap: $38.6 billion; www.directv.com), markets satellite-based pay-TV services through two divisions. DIRECTV U.S., which supplies 87% of Direct TV’s revenue, has 18.6 million subscribers. DIRECTV Latin America (13% of revenue) owns PanAmericana, which has 2.7 million subscribers, as well as 74% of Sky Brazil (1.9 million subscribers) and 41% of Sky Mexico (1.9 million subscribers). The company also owns three regional sports networks. Direct TV broadcasts through its fleet of 10 satellites....

CRITICALCONTROL SOLUTIONS CORP. $0.78 (Toronto symbol CCZ; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-877-215-5883; www.criticalcontrol.com; Shares outstanding: 46.6 million; Market cap: $36.4 million; No dividends) sells software and services that help businesses better manage, access and store their information. CriticalControl gets about 60% of its revenue from clients in the oil and gas industry, followed by government (20%), health care (10%) and finance and retail (10%). About 45% of Alberta’s provincial-government ministries are clients. The company estimates that 85% of western Canada’s oil and gas firms use its products. CriticalControl has two main divisions:...

Members of our Inner Circle service often ask for our advice on stocks they are thinking of buying that we don’t cover in our newsletters. These companies range from large multinational companies to the most speculative penny mines and gold investments. For example, an Inner Circle member recently asked for our advice on Northern Abitibi Mining. The company has reported some promising drill results from its gold project in Newfoundland. To give you a sense of how my Inner Circle service works, I’d like to share this question, and our answer, with you. I hope you enjoy and profit from it....