stock prices

The need for perspective comes up virtually every day in the life of a successful investor. That’s because your daily experience helps to mould your view of the world. It gives you an idea, right or wrong, about how current events will affect your investments. When you lack perspective, it’s easy to jump to mistaken conclusions and make costly investing errors. This came to mind on Friday, when the Dow slumped more than 200 points. The drop was at least partly a response to the Paris terrorist attacks. Some investors undoubtedly sold stocks in panic, out of fear that similar attacks would break out throughout the west....

The more complicated features there are in an exchange-traded fund (ETF), the more the managers can charge in fees and the more hidden risks you face when investing in ETFs.

Exchange traded receipts are a novel way for investors to invest in gold bullion

The price of natural gas, like the price of oil, is highly volatile—and influenced both up and down by a wide range of factors. So it’s a bad idea to base investment decisions on predictions of future natural gas prices, and their effects on natural gas stock prices, because these predictions are simply not reliable.

However, you can profit nicely over long periods by investing in well-established or well-managed companies that are active in businesses that involve highly volatile commodities like oil and gas. You profit all the more if you buy these companies when they are cheap in relation to earnings and assets.

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Adding high-quality resource stocks to your portfolio can provide you with a valuable hedge against inflation and provide other hidden benefits

It’s only natural to worry about high risk investments, but overcoming that worry is one of the most important traits a successful investor can have.

Learn when to sell stocks at the right time. Here’s our advice.

One of the least useful investment sayings you’ll ever hear is the oft-repeated “the secret of profitable investing is to buy low and sell high.” It can lead you to waste years in a costly search for a magic way to figure out where “low” is, and how to tell when a price has gone up to “high”. One obvious but erroneous answer to the first question is that a low price per share, particularly less than $1, is a good place to buy. This lures many beginning investors into penny stocks. After all, a winning penny stock can go from under $1 to several dollars. However, zeroing in on that rare event, much less making money at it, is a lot harder than many investors realize. Although the price may seem right, the average penny offers a poor long-term return. After all, it’s hard to create a successful business. It’s much easier and cheaper to set up a company and sell stock to the public. That’s why bad penny stocks always outnumber good ones. ...

Knowing how dividends are taxed in Canada can save you money

The more brokers and the media praise popular stocks, the higher investor expectations are raised—and the farther they have to fall.