stock prices

Here are three easy-to-avoid errors that most investors make when investing money in the stock market. All three can seriously hinder your portfolio’s long-term results. 1. Taking an overly optimistic view of speculative investments: Some investors generally put too high a value on speculative ventures. They want to believe that innovations will succeed, and that they’ll get a fair chance to profit from investing money in these companies. Their innate politeness stops them from asking tough questions of smooth-talking promoters. Excess optimism plus a shortage of information leads them to pay too much. That’s why we focus on well-established companies rather than start-ups, even in Stock Pickers Digest, our advisory for investing money in aggressive stocks. Most of our Stock Pickers Digest buys are far better established than your average penny stock....

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 successfully investing in the stock market. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “It pays to stay aware of market risk, but don’t let it become an obsession.” As we saw in the past few years, stock prices do sometimes reach a market peak or “top,” then go into a deep slump that lasts a year or two, or even longer. However, some investors and advisors make a career out of analyzing past market tops and the declines that followed. These “top-stalkers” always seem to think the next such decline is just around the corner. Here are three common top-stalker categories:...

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 fundamental stock market investing tips. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a specific tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “The value of a company as an investment depends on its business, not on the stock price or number of shares outstanding.” When a company splits its shares, it is simply cutting itself up into a different number of pieces, without changing its fundamental value. It simply wants its stock to trade in a price-per-share range that seems reasonable to investors....

The Greek bailout and the poor financial state of major countries rattled the market again this week. Everybody agrees that high government debt and deficit spending are serious problems that must be fixed, but opinions differ about urgency. The biggest pessimists see government debt-and-deficits as terminal conditions that are too far advanced to be reversed. Others see the debt-deficit as more akin to a serious case of high blood pressure – a risk factor, not a death sentence. My view is that a combination of budget cuts, economic growth and a dash of inflation may be enough to gradually unwind the debt-and-deficits problem over a period of years if not decades....

The Greek bailout and the poor financial state of major countries rattled the market again this week. Everybody agrees that high government debt and deficit spending are serious problems that must be fixed, but opinions differ about urgency. The biggest pessimists see government debt-and-deficits as terminal conditions that are too far advanced to be reversed. Others see the debt-deficit as more akin to a serious case of high blood pressure – a risk factor, not a death sentence. My view is that a combination of budget cuts, economic growth and a dash of inflation may be enough to gradually unwind the debt-and-deficits problem over a period of years if not decades....

The Greek bailout and the poor financial state of major countries rattled the market again this week. Everybody agrees that high government debt and deficit spending are serious problems that must be fixed, but opinions differ about urgency. The biggest pessimists see government debt-and-deficits as terminal conditions that are too far advanced to be reversed. Others see the debt-deficit as more akin to a serious case of high blood pressure – a risk factor, not a death sentence. My view is that a combination of budget cuts, economic growth and a dash of inflation may be enough to gradually unwind the debt-and-deficits problem over a period of years if not decades....

Whether you’re a beginning or experienced investor, it’s always a good idea to review the fundamental points of successful investing. That’s what we give you in our new “Investor Toolkit” series. Every Wednesday, we’ll give you a new fundamental easy investing tip and show you how you can put it into practice right away. We hope you enjoy and profit from it. Today’s tip: “Sound investor habits and attitudes are as important as good investments.”

To succeed as an investor, you need to cultivate three personal mental strengths:...

Attractive opportunities for short selling stocks come along from time to time, but it’s a hard way to make money. That’s because short sellers face a number of unique disadvantages that don’t apply to buyers. (See below for three risks to be aware of if you’re considering short selling stocks as an investment strategy.) ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused broker Goldman Sachs of misleading investors about the risks of investing in certain mortgage-backed securities. Fears that the SEC will launch similar lawsuits have hurt the stock prices of most major U.S. banks. As well, Congress may pass new laws aimed at preventing another financial crisis. These reforms could force banks to raise more capital to cover bad loans, or sell some of their businesses. Despite the uncertainty, we still like the long-term prospects of these two high-quality banks:...

Here are four common mistakes to avoid when investing in the stock market. All can seriously hinder your portfolio’s long-term results. 1. Focusing too heavily on cutting costs: Cutting the costs of investing has an immediate, obvious benefit: it leaves you with more money. But some cost-cutting investment techniques can wind up costing you money in the long run. For example, some investors routinely refuse to pay the market price for stocks when they buy. They always put a bid in below the offer price, in hopes of buying at a slightly better price. However, some of your good investments are going to go up as soon as you buy, and keep going up. Other investments will go down. If you always put in a bid below the current market price when you buy, you’ll filter out all your good investments. You’ll save a few cents from time to time. But you’ll always buy all your bad investment choices, and none of your good investments....