investment advice

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. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Focus your investing strategy on quality and diversification—not economic forecasts.” Economic forecasts attract way more investor attention than they deserve, in view of the meagre advantage, if any, that they add to your investing strategy. In fact, most experienced, successful investors feel skeptical, if not downright cynical, about economic forecasts, for three reasons....

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. 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: “Smart investing limits the danger of lawsuits.” Lawsuits are an everyday risk in business. For example, U.S. lawnmower engine maker Briggs & Stratton (symbol BGG on New York) recently paid $18.7 million U.S. to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of using misleading labels on its lawnmower engines....

It has been one year since Apple Inc. (symbol AAPL on Nasdaq) unveiled its iPad tablet computer. This device is a complete personal computer that uses a touch screen instead of a traditional keyboard. That makes it more portable and easier to use than a traditional laptop. Apple sold roughly 300,000 iPads on the first day the device was sold in U.S. stores. The iPad continues to be a very strong seller for Apple: In its latest quarter, the company sold 7.3 million iPads. In response to the ongoing popularity of the iPad, other technology stocks, such as Research in Motion and Samsung, are preparing to launch new tablet computers of their own in the coming months....

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, including portfolio diversification. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....

We’re pleased to see that many investors now follow our brand-new Facebook page. You can view our new Facebook page — www.tsinetwork.ca/facebook — by clicking here. We’d like even more investors to follow our Facebook page and profit from the free, lower-risk investment advice we post there. That’s why we’re offering a new free special report for Facebook followers only, “Case Study: How TSINetwork.ca Picked 5 Takeover Stocks in 11 Weeks.” When you indicate that you “like” our new Facebook page (more on that below), you can download this new free report....

Intel Corp. (symbol INTC on Nasdaq), is the world’s largest computer chip maker.

For 2010, the company reported record revenue of $43.6 billion. That’s up 24.2% from $35.1 billion in 2009.

Earnings jumped 76.1%, to a record $11.6 billion from $6.6 billion in 2009....

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 advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “The 4-year rule is one of the most valuable rules you can use as an investor.” One of our long-standing pieces of investment advice is the 4-year rule. It goes like this: an attractive buying opportunity appears in North American stocks about every 4 years, usually within a few months of the U.S. mid-term election (the last one of these took place in November 2010). Investors who buy around this time tend to make substantial profits over the next couple of years....

On January 21, Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, will unveil a stock that’s well positioned for big gains in 2011. In fact, we think this potentially high return investment’s prospects are so bright we’ve named it Stock Pickers Digest’s #1 stock pick for the coming year.

Hidden pluses give this stock the potential for big gains in the months ahead

This Canadian firm is in a great position profit as the North American economy and consumer confidence continue to improve. Plus, it has recently signed agreements with other international firms that let it tap into rich new markets with less risk.

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BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $56 (Toronto symbol BNS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $56.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s third-largest bank, with assets of $526.7 billion. The bank recently agreed to buy the 82% of DundeeWealth Inc. (Toronto symbol DW) that it does not already own. Dundee- Wealth manages investments and operates a brokerage. The company also owns the Dynamic family of mutual funds, and provides financialplanning and investment advice. The deal will double the size of Bank of Nova Scotia’s mutualfund business, and make it Canada’s fifth-largest mutual-fund company. Bank of Nova Scotia will pay $2.3 billion in cash and stock for the rest of DundeeWealth. If Dundee- Wealth shareholders approve, the sale should close in the first half of 2011. The new operations should add $0.12 a share to the bank’s annual earnings in the third year following the purchase....

Canada’s big five banks have posted strong results since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. All five should have no trouble complying with new international regulations aimed at avoiding another crisis. As well, their strength is helping them buy other financial companies in the U.S. and other countries, often at bargain prices. ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $53 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $74.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank, with total assets of $726.2 billion. In its 2010 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2010, Royal earned $5.2 billion, or $3.46 a share. That’s up 35.4% from $3.9 billion, or $2.57 a share, in fiscal 2009....