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
CORTEVA INC., $55.94, is a buy. The company (symbol CTVA on New York) is a leading developer of new seeds and crop chemicals, including herbicides and insecticides, for the agriculture industry. Corteva separated from DowDuPont in June 2019.

The company has announced what it believes is a breakthrough in one of the world’s most important staple crops—wheat—with a proprietary non-GMO hybrid technology....
PFIZER INC., $26.59, New York symbol PFE, is a buy.

The company is one of the world’s largest makers of prescription drugs. Its top-selling brands include Enbrel (arthritis), Ibrance (breast cancer) and Prevnar (pneumonia).

With the March 2025 payment, Pfizer will raise your quarterly dividend by 2.4%....
FEDEX CORP., $274.41, New York symbol FDX, remains a buy for long-term gains.

The company delivers packages in the U.S. and 220 other countries.

FedEx now plans to spin off its FedEx Freight operations as a separate company. This business is a leading provider of less-than-truckload (LTL) services, which combines freight from multiple customers into a single vehicle....
CAE INC., $35.19, Toronto symbol CAE, is still a buy for long-term gains.

The company is a leading maker of flight simulators for commercial and military aircraft. It also operates pilot-training schools in over 40 countries.

Activist investment firm Browning West LP recently disclosed that it now owns 4.3% of CAE’s shares.

Browning wants to participate in the selection of a new chief executive officer now that current CEO Marc Parent will retire in August 2025....
ProShares Ultra Gold ETF, $92.36, symbol UGL on New York (Units outstanding: 3.1 million; Market cap: $286.3 million; www.proshares.com), aims to move 200% in the same direction as the price of gold.

The fund relies on futures contracts and other derivatives to boost the returns on gold....
The shortages of computer semiconductors during the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the production of a wide variety of products, from computers to cars. It also highlighted the importance of those computer chips to the modern global economy.

The shortage, in fact, prompted the U.S....
AGNICO EAGLE MINES LTD., $112.41, symbol AEM on Toronto, owns currently producing gold mines in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico.

Specifically, it owns the La Ronde, Canadian Malartic, Goldex, Maccassa, Detour Lake, Meliadine, Meadowbank and Hope Bay mines in Canada....
MERCK & CO. INC., $98.05, is a buy. The drugmaker (symbol MRK on New York) is a pharmaceutical leader in oncology, acute-care and animal health drugs as well as vaccines.

Merck is now making a foray into the lucrative obesity market. The company has announced that it is licensing global rights to an investigational oral GLP-1 receptor, HS-10535, from Chinese biotech Hansoh Pharma.

For the exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize this pre-clinical candidate, Merck will make an upfront payment of $112 million to Hansoh Pharma, with Hansoh also being entitled to receive up to $1.9 billion in milestone payments and royalties on sales....
CANADIAN TIRE CORP., $153.58, Toronto symbol CTC.A, is a top pick for 2024.

The company operates 502 Canadian Tire stores, which sell automotive parts and services, and household and sporting goods; franchisees run most of the locations. The company’s other operations also enrich its outlook....
PFIZER INC., $26.37, New York symbol PFE, is your #1 Income Buy for 2024.

The company is one of the world’s largest makers of prescription drugs. Its top-selling brands include Enbrel (arthritis), Ibrance (breast cancer) and Prevnar (pneumonia).

With the March 2025 payment, Pfizer will raise your quarterly dividend by 2.4%....