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
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., $73.82, symbol ALNY on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 84.7 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; www.alnylam.com), develops drugs based on RNA interference (RNAi). Unlike traditional treatments, RNAi suppresses the expansion of specific genes associated with certain diseases. This process won a Nobel Prize in 2006, but no company has successfully launched a treatment using this technology. Recently, Alnylam reported positive clinical trial results for ALN-PCSsc, a treatment for high cholesterol. Alnylam and its partner, the Medicines Company, plan to begin Phase I trials in the next few weeks....
North West Company Inc. $28.42, symbol NWC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 48.5 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; www.northwest.ca), sells food and everyday products and services through 225 stores, mainly in northern communities across Canada and Alaska. It also operates stores in remote regions of Hawaii, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. North West converted from an income trust to a conventional corporation on January 1, 2011. In 2002, North West and privately held Giant Tiger signed a 30-year agreement that grants North West the exclusive right to open and operate Giant Tiger stores in Western Canada. Ottawa-based Giant Tiger operates over 200 discount stores that sell value-priced clothing, food and seasonal merchandise....
Columbia Sportswear Co., $51.09, symbol COLM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 70.3 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; www.columbia.com), is a leading maker of outdoor apparel (80% of sales) and footwear (20%). The company’s main brands include Columbia, Sorel, Mountain Hardware, Montrail, OutDry and Pacific Trail. It sells most of its products through mass retailers. It also operates its own stores and sells goods online. The U.S. accounts for about 57% of its sales, followed by Latin America/Asia Pacific (24%), Europe (12%) and Canada (7%)....
GW Pharmaceuticals PLC (ADR), $55.37, symbol GWPH on Nasdaq (ADRs outstanding: 21.9 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; www.gwpharm.com), is a U.K.-based firm that is developing pharmaceutical drugs derived from cannabis (marijuana). GW started up in 1998. It began trading on the London Stock Exchange in 2001. The company listed its ADRs on Nasdaq in May 2013 with an offering of 3.5 million ADRs at $8.90 each (one American Depositary Receipt is equal to 12 GW common shares). The company’s main product, Sativex, relieves symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis. The drug comes as a peppermint-flavoured mouth spray. Sativex is now available in 28 countries—but not in the U.S....
As I’ve often pointed out, the stock market tends to put on an above-average rise in U.S. Presidential Election years. This provides a statistical rationale for optimism in 2016, since the next election is this November. But it’s no guarantee that the market will rise, for a couple of reasons. First, several ominous factors are weighing on the market right now, in addition to the election. These include the outlook for interest rates; the trend in prices for oil and other commodities; the rise in terrorist activity; the Chinese economic slowdown; and the sharp rise in the U.S. dollar and corresponding drop in the Canadian dollar. An abrupt shift in any of these factors could have a big influence on the market for the remainder of the year and beyond....
As I’ve often pointed out, the stock market tends to put on an above-average rise in U.S. Presidential Election years. This provides a statistical rationale for optimism in 2016, since the next election is this November. But it’s no guarantee that the market will rise, for a couple of reasons. First, several ominous factors are weighing on the market right now, in addition to the election. These include the outlook for interest rates; the trend in prices for oil and other commodities; the rise in terrorist activity; the Chinese economic slowdown; and the sharp rise in the U.S. dollar and corresponding drop in the Canadian dollar. An abrupt shift in any of these factors could have a big influence on the market for the remainder of the year and beyond....
Hi. Can you give me your take on Icahn Enterprises? Is this is a good way to invest alongside Carl Icahn and get a great dividend at the same time? Thanks. A: Icahn Enterprises L.P., $56.62, symbol IEP on Nasdaq (Units outstanding: 129.0 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion; www.ielp.com), is a holding company with interests in 10 business segments: Investment, Automotive, Energy, Metals, Railcar, Gaming, Mining, Food Packaging, Real Estate and Home Fashion. Its main subsidiaries include CVR Energy (oil refining, nitrogen fertilizers), WestPoint Home (bedsheets, blankets, towels), Viskase Companies (plastic food containers), Tropicana Entertainment (casinos) and PSC Metals (scrap-metal recycling)....
Stag Industrial Inc., $17.07, symbol STAG on New York (Shares outstanding: 68.1 million; market cap: $1.2 billion; www.stagindustrial.com) is a Boston-based real estate investment trust that focuses on single-tenant industrial properties throughout the U.S. Stag holds 281 properties, including 210 warehouses and distribution centres, 50 light-manufacturing plants and 21 office and mixed-use properties. In all, these holdings contain 52.1 million square feet of leasable space. Stag’s occupancy rate is 95.7%. The trust first sold shares to the public on April 15, 2011, for $13.00 each....
Ten Peaks Coffee Co. Inc., $10.49, symbol TPK on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 9.0 million; Market cap: $89.0 million; www.tenpeakscoffee.ca), owns the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company, a Burnaby, B.C.-based firm that removes caffeine from coffee beans. Ten Peaks also owns and operates Seaforth Supply Chain Solutions, a coffee-handling and storage business in Vancouver. The company’s proprietary Swiss Water Process is a chemical-free way to remove caffeine from coffee. That’s in contrast to most other methods, which use chemicals like methylene chloride and ethyl acetate....
Trican Well Service, $0.51, symbol TCW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 148.9 million; Market cap: $70.7 million; www.tricanwellservice.com), provides specialized products, equipment and services that are used during the exploration, drilling and development of oil and gas reserves. Calgary-based Trican operates in Canada, the U.S., Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Norway. Falling oil and gas prices have cut drilling activity in Canada and the U.S. by about 50% in the past year. That lowered Trican’s revenue by 52.7% in the third quarter of 2015, to $325.5 million from $688.5 million a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it lost $53.6 million, or $0.36 a share, compared to a profit of $36.2 million, or $0.24 a share....