investment

Avoid so-called penny stocks to buy today that are highly speculative and you will stay out of some of the most-risky investments on the market
A: VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF, $14.54, symbol BUZZ on New York (Units outstanding: 4.7 million; Market cap: $67.6 million; www.vaneck.com), holds 75 stocks, each with a market cap of $5 billion or more; each also generates social media attention.

The fund tracks the BUZZ NextGen AI U.S....
Alcon’s stock lets you tap into the rapidly growing contact lenses and cataract surgery markets. Moreover, investors are set to benefit from the company’s expanding technological leadership.

Alcon’s history enhances its appeal. The company was spun off by Novartis in early 2019....
What is an ESG fund? Learn all about this type of fund and why we think smart investors should avoid them in favour of this alternative strategy
KINAXIS INC., $142.40, symbol KXS on Toronto, provides cloud-based subscription software that big companies use to manage their supply chains. Kinaxis is based in Ottawa. The company’s shares began trading in June 2014 at $13 a share.

Kinaxis’s main product is RapidResponse, which helps manage supply, demand, inventory, order fulfillment, and capacity planning....
ADT INC., $8.39, is a buy. The company (symbol ADT on New York) is a leading provider of monitored security products and services to residential and commercial customers in the U.S. It has more than six million residential and small business customers.

The company sells security and automation systems to help detect intrusion and hazards such as smoke, fire and flooding....
BANK OF MONTREAL, $127.44, Toronto symbol BMO, remains a buy.

With the August 2022 payment, Bank of Montreal raised your dividend by 4.5%, to $1.39 a share from $1.33. The new annual rate of $5.56 yields a high 4.4%.

The bank recently agreed to acquire California-based Bank of the West from France’s BNP Paribas for $16.3 billion U.S.

Bank of the West provides a variety of retail and commercial banking services to over 1.8 million customers through 514 branches in 24 states, mainly in the Western and Midwestern regions of the U.S....
3M COMPANY, $123.10, New York symbol MMM, remains a buy for long-term gains.

The company makes over 60,000 consumer and industrial goods, including air purifiers, adhesives, bandages and components for medical devices. Investors tap its main brands, including Post-it notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard protection and Thinsulate insulation.

The company has completed the merger of its Food Safety business with Neogen Corp....
A: Harvest Healthcare Leaders Income ETF, $7.74, symbol HHL on Toronto, (Units outstanding: 131.6 million; Market cap: $1.0 billion; www.harvestportfolios.com), holds a portfolio of 20 large-cap global healthcare companies....
A healthy sense of skepticism is the most powerful and effective weapon you can apply to protect yourself from poor choices and outright bad investments.

You can run into bad investments at any time, in good and bad markets. However, poor investment choices have become more and more common in the past few years....