stock picks

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 the fundamentals of successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can use it to increase your chances of making winning stock picks. Today’s tip: “Corporate earnings statements can help you find winning stock picks if you read between the lines.” A company’s earnings are different from an employee’s salary. Earnings are indefinite and subject to revision, even years later. Companies have to estimate many costs, and make yearly write-offs against earnings, according to arbitrary rules....

On Thursday, May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at around 10,860. Later that afternoon, it suddenly fell 9.2%, to 9,869.62. In the space of just a few minutes, it had recovered most of these losses, and closed at 10,520.32. It’s now back to its pre-crash level of around 10,860. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the drop, but an exact cause has not yet been found. No matter what caused the crash, some of the trades that occurred between 2:40 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. eastern time have already been cancelled. The New York and Nasdaq exchanges have cancelled all trades that occurred during that window that were more than 60% higher or lower than the stock’s price just before the plunge....

Here are three common mistakes many investors make when selecting Canadian stock picks. All three can seriously hinder — or eliminate — your portfolio’s long-term profit potential. 1. Buying low-quality investments: Most of the bad deals in Canadian stock picks exhibit the usual tip-offs. For example, many lack a history of earnings or dividends. They may also spend way too much time publicizing themselves, and too little time building their businesses. To increase your stock market returns, we feel you should invest mainly in high-quality, dividend-paying companies. We also feel you should diversify by spreading your money out across the five main economic sectors (Resources & Commodities, Finance, Manufacturing & Industry, Utilities and Consumer)....

The results are in and they couldn’t be clearer: The Successful Investor is Canada’s top investment advisory. That’s according to a recent analysis by the U.S.-based Hulbert Financial Digest, which is generally thought of as the bible of investment newsletter performance measurement. According to Hulbert, The Successful Investor outperformed all other Canadian newsletters over the past 5 years — and ranked fifth among all 140 newsletters that Hulbert tracks. Hulbert has been following The Successful Investor since 2002....

The U.S. restaurant industry has faced tough challenges over the past 18 months. That’s because the economic downturn has prompted more consumers to eat at home, or to spend less when they dine out. The best U.S. restaurants have done a good job of cutting costs during the slowdown. Some have improved their menus by introducing new items and focusing on value-priced meals. And a few have taken advantage of the slowdown to expand into new markets with strong growth potential. That has helped these restaurants report improved results. It also puts them in a good position to profit as the global economy continues to improve. In light of the improvement in the U.S. restaurant industry, we’ve updated our buy/sell/hold advice on two U.S. restaurant growth stock picks, Ruby Tuesday (symbol RT on New York), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (symbol CMG on New York), in the current issue of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for more aggressive investors....

A subscriber to Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing, recently asked us how much importance we give to a company’s name when we’re selecting growth stock picks to recommend in our newsletters and investment services. He felt that a poorly thought-out company name may reflect a poorly thought-out business plan and a low chance of success. He specifically asked about Tucows Inc. (symbol TC on Toronto). We recently updated our buy/sell/hold advice on the company in a Stock Pickers Digest Email Hotline. See below for more details on this growth stock pick’s outlook. ...

Our Successful Investor rating system is a key guide we use to make stock market picks for our newsletters and investment services, including Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our publication that focuses on top-quality U. S. stock market picks. We continue to recommend that Canadian investors hold 25% to 30% of their portfolios in well-established U.S. companies, like the stock market picks we recommend in Wall Street Stock Forecaster. To help you quickly and easily determine whether a U.S. stock is appropriate for your portfolio balance and risk tolerance, we display one of our six Successful Investor ratings next to every stock we cover in Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

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Growth stocks are companies whose earnings growth is expected to be above the market average. These firms often pay little or no dividends. Instead, they invest any extra money in furthering their growth. These stocks are long-term investments. They can be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they share the common trait of growing at a higher than average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole. (You can get all the details on how to select appropriate stocks for your portfolio in our new special report, “Canadian Stock Market Basics: How to Trade Stocks and Make Good Investments in Canada.” Click here to download this free report and get started right away.)...

Stop-loss orders are a stock trading strategy investors use to sell a stock if it falls to a specific price. For example, if you own a $12 stock, you might tell your broker to sell it “on stop” if it hits $10. This may limit your losses if you paid more than $10. If you paid less, it may preserve some of your profits. ...

Some investors rely on chart reading (or technical analysis), when they’re aiming to add hot stock picks to their portfolios. That’s because relying on charts seems much simpler than delving into and weighing a company’s fundamentals. We always look at charts when we select stocks to recommend in our newsletters, including Stock Pickers Digest, which focuses on more aggressive investments. And some successful investors find it helps to know a little about charts. But if you rely on charts at all, you should view them as just one of many things to consider when you make investment decisions. ...