How To Invest

In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.

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Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.

If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)

If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.

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How To Invest Library Archives
A: Savers Value Village Inc., $12.37, symbol SVV on New York (Shares outstanding: 155.6 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; www.savers.com), is the largest for-profit thrift operator in the U.S. and Canada. It operates 354 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Australia under the Savers, Value Village, Village des Valeurs, Unique and 2nd Ave. banners.
The company first sold shares to the public and began trading on June 29, 2023, at $18 a share. It now trades at nearly half its IPO price.



Savers Value Village was founded by Bill Ellison, who opened the first store in San Francisco’s Mission District in 1954. His father was a career officer with the Salvation Army who managed their second-hand clothing stores. He helped finance his son’s first store.
A: The decision to go public or remain private depends on a number of factors that a company’s owners must evaluate from the unique perspective of the firm.


The main reason that a company sells shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO) is to raise capital from a large number of investors. This capital could be used for any number of things—from funding growth by acquisition and the expansion of existing operations to funding research and paying down debt. Share capital is also generally cheaper than debt financing, especially for junior companies that have to pay high interest rates on loans.
A: Live Nation Entertainment Inc., $164.93, symbol LYV on New York (Shares outstanding: 232.0 million; Market cap: $38.4 billion; www.livenationentertainment.com), is the largest live entertainment company in the world. In 2024, it connected over 788 million fans across its concerts and ticketing platforms in 21 countries.

Live Nation is the largest producer of live music concerts in the world. The company connected 151 million fans to about 11,000 artists at 54,000 events in 2024. It has exclusive booking rights for (or at least an equity interest in) 394 venues globally. These include House of Blues music venues and prestigious locations such as The Fillmore in San Francisco, Brooklyn Bowl in New York City, and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
A: Pan American Silver Corp., $47.34, symbol PAAS on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 361.8 million; Market cap: $17.1 billion; www.panamericansilver.com), is a leading producer of silver and gold in the Americas.


The company has operating mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. It also owns the Escobal mine in Guatemala, which has suspended its operations. In addition, Pan American has interests in exploration and development projects.



The company operates through two segments: Silver and Gold.
A: Loblaw Companies Ltd., $57.07, symbol L on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $67.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) is still a buy.
The retail giant operates 1,089 supermarkets under several banners, including Loblaws, Zehrs, Provigo, Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills.



In March 2014, it purchased the Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and shares. Shoppers operates 1,361 drugstores across Canada.
“Why do companies undertake stock splits, and what’s the impact?”

It’s a double-barrelled question that comes up every so often from our Inner Circle. Just below is the most recent example. Our answer hasn’t changed much over the years.

In brief, when a company splits its shares, it is merely 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.