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: OraSure Technologies, $15.07, symbol OSUR on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 58.4 million; Market cap: $880.1 million; www.orasure.com), manufactures HIV tests, Hepatitis C tests, substance abuse tests, freezing systems for removing warts, and genetic tests.


The company has two business segments: OraSure contributes 75% of overall revenue; DNA Genotek accounts for 25%.


OraSure’s HIV infectious disease tests contribute 38% of annual revenue, followed by molecular and genetic tests (25%), substance abuse tests (10%) and freezing systems (10%)....
Today, many investors might not immediately recognize the name of master investor John Templeton. In the final quarter of the last century, however, Templeton was as famous and highly regarded as Warren Buffett is today.


Templeton got his start as an investor during the 1930s Depression....
A: Brookfield Property Partners LP, $30.44, symbol BPY.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 262.0 million; Market cap: $21.6 billion; www.brookfieldpropertypartners.com), owns, operates and invests in commercial real estate worldwide.


Brookfield Asset Management (symbol BAM.A on Toronto) first sold shares of Brookfield Property Partners to the public in April 2013....
A: Dollarama Inc., $121.49, symbol DOL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 118.6 million; Market cap: $13.7 billion; www.dollarama.com), is Canada’s leading dollar-store operator, with 1,095 locations across the country.


Dollarama’s revenue rose from $1.86 billion in 2012 to $2.06 million in 2013 (fiscal years end January 29)....
A: CP Rail, $212.10, symbol CP on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 147.7 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; www.cpr.ca), did discuss a potential merger with U.S. railway CSX Transportation (symbol CSX on New York) in early 2015. CSX had previously spurned a 2014 merger attempt by the company....
A: You must convert your RRSP into a RRIF no later than the year you turn 71, as you did. When you hold a RRIF, you must withdraw a minimum each year and report that amount for tax purposes. (You may withdraw amounts above the minimum at any time.) In your case, as you mentioned, you need to make a withdrawal this year when you turn 72.


Revenue Canada sets your minimum withdrawal for each year according to a schedule that starts at 5.28% of the RRIF’s year-end value at age 71, moves to 5.40% at age 72, reaches 6.82% at age 80, and levels off at 20% at age 95.


We feel that the overall direction of the market is upward....
Dear Inner Circle Member,


Today, many households and even some individuals have five or 10 separate investment accounts. These accounts may include RRSPs (regular and spousal), TFSAs and other registered accounts, personal and joint accounts, corporate accounts, LIRAs from past employment, children’s accounts, trust accounts and so on.


In addition, some investors have one or more of what you might call “legacy” accounts....
A: True North Commercial REIT, $6.25, symbol TNT.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 29.1 million; Market cap: $182.5 million; www.commercialtruenorth.com), owns light industrial properties across Canada.


As of December 31, 2016, the trust owned 30 buildings, which provide a total of 1.9 million square feet of leasable area....
A: Carbon scrubbing, also called clean-coal technology, aims to reduce the amount of harmful emissions and particulates, such as sulfur dioxide and mercury, emitted from coal-fired power plants. The process for doing this involves treating low-quality coal before burning it, and installing special equipment to capture emissions before they enter the atmosphere.


However, carbon scrubbing does not remove carbon dioxide (CO2)....
A: Deutsche Bank AG (ADR), $18.52, symbol DB on New York (ADRs outstanding: 2.1 billion; Market cap: $35.1 billion; www.db.com), is a German global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Frankfurt.


Deutsche Bank has been among the worst performers in the European banking industry....