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Dividend
Stocks
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to Basic Training Contents
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Stocks
For a Weak Economy
If the economy is
softening, your best stock bets might be steady-eddies with minimal
downside risk, and paying higher dividends than you get from CDs.
Energy pipeline operators, organized as
Master Limited Partnerships might fill that bill.
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How
to Find the Best Dividend Stocks
Dividend stocks, if chosen carefully, have two
advantages over other stocks. If the share price goes nowhere for a few
months, you still collect the dividend, so you get paid to wait. Also,
if the stock drops, the dividend yield to new investors rises,
attracting more buyers. Here's how to find the best
dividend stocks.
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BDCs
For High Dividends
It’s
getting harder for dividend investors to find high dividend-yield
stocks. But, several stocks in one category, Business Development
Companies, are paying dividends equating to 7% to 8% yields.
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Subprime
Lending vs. REITs
Fallout from the
subprime lending fiasco is pressuring all REIT share prices. Is this a
buying opportunity? Here’s what REIT investors need to know.
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Rural
Telecoms Pay Big Dividends
If the market been a little too exciting for you lately, it may be time
to consider something really boring, say, rural telephone companies. You
won’t be bored after you check out their dividend yields.
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Are
REITs Right For You?
Over
the five-years ending December 31, 2004, real estate investment
trusts (REITs), returned 23%, on average, annually vs. the S&P
500’s 1% average annual loss. Here’s how to find the best REITs.
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Finding
and Evaluating High Dividend Stocks
Dividend
paying stocks are getting more attention, and for good reason. Here’s
how to find and evaluate high-yield dividend paying stocks.
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the
15 Percent Strategy
If
you do the math, you’ll find that 15 percent doubles your money in
five years. Here’s a strategy that seeks stocks capable of returning
15 percent annually through a combination of stock dividends and
capital appreciation.
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Dogs
of the Dow
Are you too busy
to do the analysis required to select stocks for investment? How about
a stock selection approach that requires less than one hour per year.
This intriguing stock selection strategy called the Dow Dividend
Approach, more popularly known as the Dogs of the Dow, has beaten the
overall stock market substantially over the last 26 years.
Evaluating
Financial Health
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Basic Training Contents
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Ignore
the Experts - Figure It Out Yourself
Can
anyone predict the market? Apparently not!
But
CXO gives you the information you need so you can
figure out which way the market is likely to head on your own.
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Bulletproof
Stocks
It’s easy to get excited about a
company’s growth story and forget the basics;
such as does it have the financial strength to overcome the inevitable
obstacles it’s bound to encounter. Dozens of
companies have failed in recent years, leaving their shareholders with
nothing. Fortunately, you don’t have to scrutinize financial statements
to avoid such problems. Here's a simple checklist for
pinpointing the financially strongest candidates.
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Use
Cash Flow to Spot Bankruptcy Candidates
We’ve
heard a lot about accounting fraud, but recently bankrupt Consolidated
Freightways simply ran out of cash to pay its bills. Here’s how you
could have used cash flow to determine that Consolidated was risky
business months before it filed bankruptcy..
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How
to Spot an Impending Bankruptcy
The Enron and Kmart bankruptcies demonstrate that we can’t
depend on market analysts to keep us out of trouble. Yet, anyone with
Internet access could have figured out that owning Enron and Kmart was
risky business months before they finally folded. Here’s how.
Evaluating
Stock Market Advice
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to Basic Training Contents
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Why
Investors Can't Make Money Following
the Analysts
Can
you make money following stock analysts’ advice? The answer depends on
who you are.
For
those with the big bucks such as hedge funds
and other big players, the answer is yes. But it’s a different story for
individual investors. Here’s why.
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Pay Attention to Analysts - Just Don't Follow Their Advice
The
analyst buy/sell ratings and earnings forecasts contain important
information that could help you make money. But ignore their ‘buy/sell’
ratings. Here are the details.
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Guidance
Predicts Share Price Direction
Until recently, when a
firm reported earnings, its stock went up if earnings beat analysts’
forecasts and down if they didn’t’ But that was then. Now, the rules
have changed. Here are the details.
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When
Sell Means Buy
An
analyst’s rating downgrade usually drives a stock price down. But
if the reason for the rating change was solely valuation, the
downgrade could be a buying opportunity.
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Watch
Out for Ground Floor Opportunities
If
you’re like me, you probably receive frequent e-mails from people
you don’t know alerting you to opportunities to get in on the
ground floor of exciting new businesses. Unfortunately, in many
cases, it’s more about making money from selling stock to
unsophisticated investors than about starting a groundbreaking new
business.
Industries
& Sectors
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Pick
Hot Industries
Savvy
investors know that your chances of making money depend more on
selecting the right industry than it does on picking the right
stock. Here’s how to spot hot industries.
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Get
the Industry Scoop
Many
investment professionals consider keeping abreast of industry trends
just as important as pouring over financial statements. It makes
sense. Knowing that your candidate’s currently hot products are
about to go out of fashion would surely influence your analysis. Here’s
where to find the info.
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Industry
Timing Using Exchange-Traded Funds
Not everybody
loses money in a weak market. Investors in the right industry can make
money, even in rough markets, if they know when to get in, and when to
get out. Here’s how to use Exchange-Traded Funds for industry
timing.
Mutual
Funds/Exchange-Traded-Funds
(ETFs)
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to Basic Training Contents
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Make
Money From Rising Commodity Prices
Soaring oil, corn, wheat and other commodity
prices are squeezing consumers. But you don’t have to take it anymore.
Thanks to exchange-traded-funds, you can make money from rising
commodity prices.
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Closed-End
Funds Can Make You Money
Closed-end funds offer advantages over regular mutual funds, but most
investors don’t know much about them. Here’s what you need to know.
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PowerShares' ETF Results: Nothing to Shout About
A year-ago I described a new twist on exchange-traded-funds (ETFs)
marketed by PowerShares Capital Management, which appeared to have an
advantage over the competition. Last week, I checked on how the
PowerShares funds have done over the past year. Unfortunately, so far,
the results have been mixed.
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Use
Funds to Invest in Oil
If you
believe that high oil prices have become a fact of life, this may be a
good time to check out investing opportunities in the sector. Here are
some ideas for doing it with mutual funds.
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Do Managed Mutual Funds Outperform Index Funds?
Not necessarily, at least according to research I
recently conducted on the topic. Here are the details.
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Screening
For Mutual Funds
Mutual funds offer advantages over owning individual
stocks in this rough and tumble market. Here's how to use
Morningstar's free mutual fund screener to find worthwhile
mutual fund
candidates.
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How
to Pick the Best Mutual Funds
The amount of data pertaining to a mutual fund's
performance can be overwhelming. Not to worry! Here
are a few simple rules for picking the best funds.
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Power
of Compounding
Probably the most
important thing you need to know about building wealth is the power
of making regular periodic investments and reinvesting rather than
spending the profits. The results you’d get are astounding. Starting
with nothing, you'd have a cool $1.7 million in 30 years if you just
match the market's historical returns. Here's how.
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Exchange-Traded
Funds (ETFs)
Sophisticated
investors such as hedge fund managers have recently adopted
exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as their favorite investment vehicle.
But there is no reason why individual investors can’t also exploit
the benefits of ETFs. Here's what you need to know.
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Beware
of Fund Manager Changes
A mutual fund’s
past performance gives us a good clue to the future. After all, if a
fund manager has been a good stock picker in the past, he or she will
probably continue to pick good stocks. But all bets are off if the
fund changes managers. Here’s how do you find out about fund
management changes and a passel of other worthwhile info.
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Making
Bond Investments Pay
The
current stock market is driving many investors to look to bonds as an
alternative. Here are some tips for finding and evaluating bond
mutual funds.
How
to Research & Analyze
Stocks
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to Basic Training Contents
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Finding
Google
Most
investors are looking for the next Google: stocks with rapidly growing
earnings that will send their share prices through the roof. Here are 6
important rules for spotting hot growth candidates.
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For
Every Stock, There's a Season
Making money
on a stock may be as much about when you buy as what you buy. Here's
how to find the best time of the year to buy your favorite
stock.
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Death
List = Risky Stocks
With the Dow
hitting new highs almost daily, the market has been fun lately.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and pay too
much for stocks that have already seen their best days. Here’s how to
identify stocks in that category.
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When
to Sell
You can find
plenty of advice about when to buy stocks, but knowing when to sell
is equally important. Here are my selling rules.
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Stock
Risk Score Sheet
Everybody knows that buying stocks involves risk, but some stocks are a
lot riskier than others. Here’s a simple score sheet for evaluating the
risk of stocks that you already hold or are considering buying.
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Pick
Stocks Like Warren Buffett
Many
investors consider Warren Buffett to be a pretty good stockpicker.
Here's how to find stocks that Buffett might like.
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Brushing
Up On Basics
Your
mail tells me that new investors might not understand all
of the terms that I use in these columns. So, here's an explanation
of some of the stock market jargon I’ve been throwing at you. But
experienced hands need not tune out. As usual, I’ve included
enough of my own debatable opinions to make it interesting.
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Selling
Short Can Backfire
I get a lot of mail asking me to
describe a strategy for picking short-selling candidates. That mail has
gone unanswered. Now I’m going to tell you why.
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Cramer
Can Help You Make Money
Watching Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" TV show
is like a visit to the loony bin. But Cramer can teach you how to be a
better investor. Here's the best news: you don't have to watch him on
TV.
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Use
Cash Flow to Spot Problems Early
Investors who bought
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts at its August 2003 peak and never sold would
have $150 worth of stock today for every $1,000 that they originally
invested.
But
those savvy to analyzing cash flow had plenty of warning that
something was amiss.
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Survival
of the Fittest
Survival of the fittest, the law of nature that says, "Only the strongest survive," is a principal that investors should apply to qualifying stock candidates. Here's how.
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Get
a Jump on the Big Players
Institutional
players move your stock’s share price big time when they buy or
sell. Knowing how they think will help you predict which way your
stocks are likely to move next.
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How
to Detect Creative Accounting
Almost
every day we’re hearing about how corporations have played fast and
loose with accounting rules to hype their earnings. Here’s how to
spot firms that rely on the nonrecurring trick to make expenses
disappear
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Two
Easily Detected Red Flags
The
last time I looked, shares of discount retailer “99 Cents Only
Stores” were trading at $14 or so, down around 60%. But careful
investors who heeded two simple ‘red flags’ had plenty of time
to get out with little or no loss. Here are the details.
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Analyzing
Stocks Just Got Easier
Good news for
fundamentally inclined stock investors. Put away your green
eyeshades, analyzing stocks just got easier.
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Easier
Way to Spot Accounting Red Flags
Stocks
usually take a big hit when a company reports earnings below
expectations. That’s why some investors go to great lengths to
detect “red flags” warning of such events. But you don’t have
to. Here’s an easier way.
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Six
Quick Growth Stock Checks
Don’t spend time
analyzing stupid stocks. Here are six items you can check in a
minute (no kidding) that will help you rule out bad ideas so you can
spend your time researching worthwhile candidates.
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How
to Gauge Interest Rate Risk
Interest
rates are likely to go up when the economy improves. Here’s how to
gauge the risk to your stocks in a rising interest rate
environment.
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Picking
the Industry Leader
In the stock market, it pays to bet on the leader. Here's how to
pick the strongest player in an industry sector.
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Focus
on ROE Instead of Earnings
Investors
would fare better by focusing on a firm's profitability rather than
earnings per share when researching a stock. Why? Because as you'll
soon see, one profitability measure, return on equity, can help you
gauge a firm's earnings growth prospects.
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How
to Profit From Stock Buyback Announcements
You
may be able to improve your stock returns by focusing on firms that
are buying back their own shares. But be sure your companies are
actually doing it rather than just talking about it. Here’s how to
do the analysis.
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How
to Spot Takeover Targets
Even in this market, you usually make money if you are lucky enough
to hold a stock when the underlying firm is bought out. Her are some
ideas for spotting acquisition candidates.
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New
Rules for Valuing Stocks
Investors
typically rely on P/E ratios to value stocks. Now valuation is even
more important, but in many cases P/E isn’t meaningful because
recent earnings, the “E” in P/E, are either depressed or
non-existent. Here’s how to get around that problem along with two
more ideas to help you evaluate stocks in this market.
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How
to Analyze a Company's Business Model
If
you were buying a real business, you’d probably spend considerable
time analyzing each prospect’s profit potential. Yet few investors
spend much time analyzing the business models of the stocks that
they purchase. They’d be better investors if they did. Here's how
to get started.
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How
to Set Target Prices
Setting
target prices is something that professional money managers almost
always do, but individual investors almost never do. Most are not
aware of the importance of setting target prices, nor how to go
about doing it, even if they want to. Here’s a simple procedure
for estimating target prices.
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How
to Spot Serial Acquirers
Acquisition-fueled
growth is similar to a pyramid scheme. It works at first, but if you
do the math, you’ll see that it has to fail. Here’s how to spot
serial acquirers.
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A
New Look at Value Investing
I’ve
recently had the occasion to talk to several value-style managers
about their selection strategies. As a result, I have a new
appreciation for the craft, and in fact, value investing makes a lot
of sense to me. Here’s a rundown on what I’ve learned.
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Get
a Second Opinion
Even if you’ve done a
thorough job of analyzing a stock, it pays to get a second opinion
before you buy. Here are three sites ready and willing to give you
their take on your picks.
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Stock
Scouter, a Powerful Stock Analysis Tool
Microsoft’s
MSN Money's powerful free tool will
help you analyze stock investment candidates. Here are the
details.
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Save
Time -- Prequalify
Fundamental
investing requires spending time gaining an understanding of a
company’s business and its growth prospects. Here are some quick
rules that I use to eliminate weak candidates before I do serious
research.
Finding
Stocks to Analyze (Screening,
Tips, etc.)
Return
to Basic Training Contents
Please note: the Reuters
stock screener mentioned in many of these articles is no longer
available.
However, you can usually run the same screens using the free
MSN Money Deluxe Screener.
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China
Stocks
With the U.S. economy sputtering, many investors are turning their
sights to China. And for good reason! China is experiencing
unprecedented growth as it emerges from third-world status to a major
economic power. Here’s how to find and research
China stocks that are listed on U.S.
exchanges.
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Zacks'
Offers Lots of Free Advice
Zack’s
site offers many useful tools that will help you find
good investment candidates. Here’s a rundown.
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Stocks
for a Strong Market
The market is usually
strong from mid-October through year’s-end. Here’s a screen for finding stocks
likely to do well, assuming that the market performs as expected.
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Time
to Look at Shipping Stocks
Given the uncertain outlook for the U.S. economy,
this might be a good time to consider shipping stocks, that is,
companies that operate ocean-going cargo vessels.
Here's how.
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Cash
Rich Stocks: Rx For Credit Jitters
How to find
cash rich stocks with no-debt and strong growth prospects, your best
plays in this jittery credit market.
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Interesting
Drug Candidates
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s recent problems got me thinking
about generic drug makers as an alternative to the big guys.
Unfortunately, my research found that generics were a bad idea. But, in
the process, I discovered other interesting prospects in the drug
field..
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Little
Book Beats the Market
The best selling stock
market book these days is “The Little Book That Beats the Market.” The
reason is no mystery. The book describes a simple formula that,
according to its author, would have averaged a 31% annual return from
1988 through 2004. It’s worth a look.
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Momentum
Strategies Don't Get
the Attention They
Deserve
Despite their
heavy use by hedge fund managers, TV pundits usually refer to
momentum in a negative context, such as “the momentum crowd has
driven the stock of XYZ
up to outrageously overvalued levels.” But momentum strategies
work. Here’s a rundown and a screen for finding momentum
candidates.
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Fast
Growers Best For Slowing Economy
In a slowing
economy, you’ll do best owning small-companies that are in the
beginning stages of exploiting a new market opportunity. Here's
how to find them.
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Finding
Stocks in the Value Bin
With so many stocks well off
their historic highs, this is a good time to look for value-priced
stocks. But cheap stocks have a nasty habit of getting cheaper.
Here’s a strategy for finding value-priced stocks with the best
turnaround prospects.
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Dogs of the S&P
The Dogs of the Dow were all
the rage back in the early 1990s. The stockpicking strategy
sported a convincing market-beating track record, yet only
required about an hour per year to pick the stocks. However the
Dogs’ strategy has some serious shortcomings as evidenced by its
recent so-so performance. Here’s my idea for an improved Dogs of
the S&P 500.
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Get Free Stock Tips From Real
Pros
You can spend serious money getting stock tips, but you can get
them free from mutual fund managers. Here’s how.
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Cornerstone
Growth -- A Strategy For All Seasons
Are you unsure
whether the market is heading up or down? Here's a stock picking
strategy that, historically, at least, seems to produce remarkably
steady long-term returns, in both strong and weak markets.
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How to Pick Oil Stocks
Oil prices are flirting with
all time highs, and oil company stocks, which generally move with
oil prices, have outperformed the market this year.
Nevertheless, investors
should still consider buying oil stocks. Here’s why, and how to
find the best stocks.
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Famous Gurus Will Analyze Your Stocks
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get famous gurus such as Peter
Lynch or Benjamin Graham to help you pick stocks? It turns out
that you can, here’s how.
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Favorite Web Pundits
Although,
many sites now charge for access, there is still plenty of good
investing advice available free for the asking if you know where
to look. Here are some of my favorites.
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Taking
Screening to the Next Level
Portfolio123 is a new site
with the goal of providing you with tools for creating
automatically managed stock portfolios. It looks like it has
succeeded. Here’s how it works.
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Robot
Stocks: Simple Strategy = Big Returns
Here’s a simple stock
selection strategy that returned 63% in 2003, compared to the S&P
500’s 29%. What’s more, this strategy is no flash in the pan. It
outperformed the S&P by at least 19 percentage points in each of
the past five years.
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How to Find the Best Busted-Growth Stocks
Investors
looking for growth stocks will find few candidates using
traditional strategies. Here’s how to pinpoint worthwhile
candidates amongst the heap of busted growth stocks.
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Benjamin Graham's
Asset Value Strategy
Finding low-risk stocks
should be priority number one in this market. Benjamin Graham
described a strategy for identifying deep value, and in his view,
low-risk candidates, in his book, “The Intelligent Investor,”
published in 1949. Here’s a rundown.
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Beat the Nasdaq With Less Risk
How would you like to
beat the returns of the Nasdaq without the stomach-churning
volatility? The PaceSetters Database has done just that since
1988. Here are the details.
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Web
Investing Resources
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to Basic Training Contents
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Important New
Investing Resources
Investing resources on the Web are multiplying
and evolving in ways that few of us would have predicted.
Here are some of the best.
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Investing
for Beginners
Is investing an
undecipherable puzzle? Here are five sites where you can get up to speed
on the basics of investing.
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Four
Good Sites
There is
still plenty of free information on the Web
that will help you make better investing decisions. Here are four
worthwhile sites that I haven’t told you about before.
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Free
Stock Screeners Becoming Rare
Worthwhile free stock
screeners are becoming scarce on the Web, as evidenced
by Business Week’s recent shutdown of its
user-friendly screeners. Here’s a rundown on the best of what’s left.
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Best
Investing Sites for 2007
Since we’re starting a new year, this is a good
time to give you my take on some of the best investing sites for 2007.
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Free
Tips From S&P
S&P
gives away plenty of money making stock market advice for free.
Everything from profitable stock portfolios to industry outlooks.
Here’s where to find it.
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Yahoo's
Powerful
New Analysis Tools
Yahoo
recently overhauled the way it presents stock data, and in the process
has added three powerful new tools that will help you pick better
stocks. Here are the details.
Predicting
Stock Market Direction
Return
to Basic Training Contents
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Sites
For Predicting the Economy
Are we heading into a
recession? You can find any answer you want by picking the right guru.
That’s why it’s important to do your own research. Here’s where to
start.
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New
Tool Spots Market Trends Early
New ETF performance
reports available on at least two sites give you a way to easily spot
market trends, whether they involve industries, types of stocks (e.g.
value, growth, or large-cap), countries, or whatever. Before, only
institutional investors with giant computer systems at their disposal
could do such an analysis.
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Which
Way is the Market Headed?
What’s next for the stock market ? Here are my favorite gurus for
predicting the future direction of the economy and the stock market.
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