investment advice

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 investment advice, including ways in which you can maximize your retirement income. 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: “It’s important to understand the limits of annuities if you plan to incorporate them into your retirement income.”...

I’d say a product walking out of the store is a good reason for further study, but don’t buy blind. Because there might have been a temporary

Some investors rely on technical analysis (basically, chart reading) when picking stocks. Relying on charts seems simpler than delving into a company’s fundamentals.

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $55 (Toronto symbol BNS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $60.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s third-largest bank, with assets of $637.1 billion.

During the financial crisis, the bank’s revenue fell 4.9%, from $12.5 billion in 2007 to $11.9 billion in 2008 (fiscal years end October 31). As the crisis passed, revenue rebounded by 45.6%, to $17.3 billion, in 2011.

Earnings fell 23.9%, from $4.01 a share (or a total of $4.0 billion) in 2007 to $3.05 a share (or $3.0 billion) in 2008. That’s largely because the bank’s loan-loss provisions rose as some of its clients fell behind on their payments. Writedowns of securities also contributed to the drop. However, earnings recovered to $3.31 a share (or $3.4 billion) in 2009, and reached $4.62 a share (or $5.0 billion) in 2011.

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Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. Last week, an Inner Circle member, pleased with his investment in one U.S. stock, wanted to know if it would continue to pay off. This company uses personal sales representatives to sell its skin care and nutritional products and gets most of its sales in foreign markets like China....

This week, an Inner Circle member wanted Pat’s opinion on the one of the world’s largest drug stocks. The leading maker of generic drugs,

Low interest rates continue to fuel loan demand at Canada’s big five banks. However, rising competition for new borrowers has forced all five to launch aggressive new promotions—including special mortgage rates as low as 2.99%—that are weighing on their profits. Even so, we continue to see all five banks as buys. In fact, every Canadian investor should own two or three of them. For new buying, Bank of Nova Scotia remains our favourite. It’s the most international of Canada’s banks, and it’s in a particularly strong position to profit from rising prosperity in Asia and Latin America. That cuts its reliance on slower growing regions like North America and Europe....

Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. Last week, an Inner Circle member had a particularly intriguing question about commodity stocks. Specifically, he wanted Pat’s opinion on a company that is using a revolutionary technology in an area in which traditional methods don’t work....

When you decide you want to invest on your own in the stock market, you face a decision every investor has encountered. You have to choose whether to use a discount broker, a full-service stock broker, or a portfolio manager. This decision is no formality; it will play an important role in the way you approach your investments. Here is how the three choices stack up:...

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 investment advice, including how to use financial ratios and other information in your stock research. 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 the price-to-sales ratio correctly and you can uncover stocks with strong growth potential.”...