high quality stocks

The Dynamic Strategic Yield Fund is a mutual fund that holds mostly high-quality stocks and real estate investment trusts. But it also holds 35.2% of its portfolio in bonds. We don’t generally recommend bonds right now. That’s because bonds are unlikely to perform as well in the next few years as they have in the last few, mainly because interest rates will likely hold steady or rise. That means the fund would only earn interest income on its bonds; instead of capital gains, its bond holdings could produce capital losses. The fund has 34.4% of its bond holdings in corporate bonds. As a general rule, the safest bonds are issued by or guaranteed by the federal government. Next are provincial issues or bonds with provincial guarantees. After that come corporate bonds....

In fact, when we’re conducting stock research we reject many potential new recommendations out of hand. After all, it’s relatively easy to

These days, many investors who are approaching retirement worry that their retirement investing won’t generate enough income once they’ve stopped working. We recommend that you base your retirement planning on a sound financial plan. Here are the 4 key variables that your plan should address to ensure that your retirement investing generates enough income in retirement:

1. How much you expect to save prior to retirement;
2. The return you expect on your savings;
3. How much of that return you’ll have left after taxes;
4. How much retirement income you’ll need once you’ve left the workforce.

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You may have an old stock certificate or two in your files, issued by an unfamiliar firm. Perhaps you bought the stock yourself, or inherited it. The stock market pick’s certificate may be registered in your name, or in the name of an earlier owner — the friend or relation who left it to you, or a total stranger. One way to determine the value of a certificate like this, if any, is to try to deposit it in an account with a discount broker. If the issuing company’s corporate charter has been cancelled, the discount broker will reject the certificate and return it to you. If the stock has been taken over by another company, the discount broker will try to collect the securities or cash that the buying company paid for it. ...

Tonight at 6 p.m., we’ll issue 2 urgent “sell” recommendations in our Successful Investor Email/Telephone Hotlines. If you’re holding these 2 companies, we think it’s crucial that you sell them immediately to take profits—and avoid the potential for big losses—in your investment portfolio. Read on to learn how you can be among the first to get full details on these stocks with no cost and no obligation. ...

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:...

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....

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 piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Cut risk in your aggressive portfolio with our ‘sell-half’ rule.” Our “sell-half” rule says that if a stock you own has doubled, you should sell half so you get back your initial stake. Once you’ve recovered your initial investment, you’ll be able to think more clearly about the stock....

Investing is different from many other pursuits in one crucial way: doing the wrong thing as an investor can actually make money for you, but only temporarily. Buying low-quality Canadian penny stocks is a mistake that many investors make. Some get hooked on it, since low-quality stocks can be highly profitable over short periods. That’s because they are generally more volatile than the high-quality stocks (the kind that have a history of earnings, if not dividends) that we recommend in our Successful Investor newsletter. Here are 2 risks you face when you overindulge in Canadian penny stocks:...