How To Invest

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

[text_ad]

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.

[text_ad]

Read More Close
How To Invest Library Archives
A: BMO Europe High Dividend Covered Call Hedged to CAD ETF, $21.18, symbol ZWE on Toronto (Units outstanding: 33.9 million; Market cap: $718.0 million; www.bmo.com/gam/ca/investor/products/etfs), holds mostly high-quality European stocks....
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that “The drop in the stock market may be the start of a widely awaited correction. I strongly doubt that it’s the start of a bear market or long-term falling trend.” I’m sticking with that opinion.

It seems matters are progressing as they usually do in a correction....
A: Kirkland Lake Gold, $17.21, symbol KL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 202.2 million; Market cap: $3.6 billion; www.klgold.com), owns and operates two big mines: the Macassa operation in northeastern Ontario, and the Fosterville mine in Australia’s Victoria state....
A: Altius Minerals Corp., $14.11, symbol ALS on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 43.2 million; Market cap: $586.2 million; www.altiusminerals.com), owns royalty interests in 15 operating mines that produce both precious and base metals, including copper, zinc, potash, and both thermal and steelmaking coal....
Dear Inner Circle member,

Now it’s “official”—the stock market has fallen by 10% from its peak, which means it has entered a correction phase. We’ll say more about that as needed.

For this week, we’ve prepared a special report on the spinoff of Fortive from its former parent company, Danaher.

That split supports our view on the value of spinoffs: in terms of investing, they are the closest thing you can find to a sure thing, regardless of market ups and downs....
A: Genworth MI Canada, $41.30, symbol MIC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 91.9 million; Market cap: $3.7 billion; www.genworth.ca), is the second largest Canadian mortgage insurer. It provides this service through its subsidiary, Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Company of Canada.

Genworth’s U.S....
A: MAG Silver Corp., $13.11, symbol MAG on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 80.8 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; www.magsilver.com), is focused on developing its 44%-owned Juanicipio project in Mexico.

Global silver miner Fresnillo plc....
A: Liquor Stores N.A. Ltd., $12.03, symbol LIQ on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 27.8 million; Market cap: $331.3 million; www.liquorstoresgp.ca), is North America’s largest publicly traded liquor store operator, with 231 outlets....
This drop in the stock market may be the start of a widely awaited correction. I strongly doubt that it’s the start of a bear market or long-term falling trend.

This quote from Investopedia.com provides one widely accepted definition of a market correction:

What is a ‘Correction’?

A correction is a reverse movement, usually negative, of at least 10% in a stock, bond, commodity or index to adjust for an overvaluation....