If REITs were players’ pieces on a Monopoly game board, then they all just drew the equivalent to an “Advance to Go, Collect $200” card. Real estate investment trusts — well-loved by investors for their… Read More

They rarely make headlines, but that doesn’t make them sub-par investments. Indeed, the lack of limelight for some large cap stocks keeps their volatility in check and lets them trade at their actual value rather than at the market‘s daily whim — all of… Read More

At the beginning of any new year, something feels intuitively right about stepping into the prior year’s high-momentum stocks. It’s a rarity, however, for sectors and industries to lead the market two years in a row. In fact, one year’s best performers tend… Read More

It’s no big secret how most stocks have been devalued during the past three months. Debt worries in Europe, combined with sluggish economic data in the United States (including a pesky unemployment rate above 9%) have had investors heading for the exit. Read More

It’s been said the best gifts sometimes come in the smallest packages. The same is often true for dividend-seekers — some small cap stocks can provide a reliable and sizeable source of income that’s quite uncharacteristic for a company of their size. And, aside from surprisingly large… Read More

A little hysteria can go a long way, especially when it concerns financial markets. And with gold prices plunging 15% last month, it almost goes without saying all those SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) owners are now biting their nails, wondering whether the three-year rally has finally run… Read More

Despite a decade’s worth of turbulence for the market, much of it painful, it’s amazing how so many investors keep coming back to the same stocks and the same stories that have already punished their portfolios at least once. Examples of these let-downs include… Read More

Think the credit-card business has been forever crimped by the Credit Card Reform Act of 2009? Or, maybe you think it’s simply dead in the water because nobody wants, needs, or can get credit after 2008’s lingering debt debacle. This is what the… Read More

I’ve been in the investing business a long time. I’ve witnessed two nasty bear markets and three bull markets, including the massive one from the 1990s. I’ve seen a technology boom then bust, a collapse of the… Read More

The list of investing mistakes I’ve seen (and as a stock broker in the go-go 1990s and early 2000s, I had an opportunity to see plenty of them) is longer than I care to recall. Over-committing, over-trading, sector concentration, you name it — I saw it all as so many… Read More