It’s fun to be right about a stock and I picked a real winner. Since I wrote about it on Nov. 11, 2010, this stock’s value has soared more than 35%, from around $39 a share to $53, compared with barely a 10% gain for the S&P 500. Read More

If you started the year with three wishes and one of them was for more consistency from the energy sector, you wasted a wish. Although many energy stocks are up this year, by double-digits in some cases, others are flat and still others are down (also by double-digits in some… Read More

Most of the stuff that’s on sale this time of year isn’t worth the plastic it’s wrapped in. Yet almost everyone winds up dropping hundreds or even thousands of dollars on “holiday bargains” that provide a quick thrill and then are just as quickly forgotten. A better use for your… Read More

Gold is the worst investment around. Anyone buying it now is doing so at their own risk, near the end of a bull run that’s apt to end badly. A major clue gold’s time is up: institutions and hedge funds are starting to… Read More

Investing guru Warren Buffett doesn’t think much of diversification . In his view, it’s for investors who don’t really know what they’re doing. Those who do can actually lessen risk by betting big on a few investments they thoroughly understand, Buffett asserts, and will earn the greatest returns in the… Read More

Imagine hearing this from your financial advisor: “I’ve got a great stock for you. It’s down -20%, the company lost $7 billion this year, and its reputation stinks.” You’d probably get up and walk out the door, right? But what if, just before you… Read More

To make money in stocks, it often helps to study history’s greatest investors. Like many finance enthusiasts, I’m a fan of Peter Lynch, who’s best known for his spectacular results as manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund from 1977 through 1990, when the fund’s total returns averaged +29% a year. Read More

Health care reform is going to be unimaginably expensive, costing roughly $1 trillion in the next decade. One of the many ways Uncle Sam plans to raise the necessary cash is with a 2.3% tax on the sale of all medical devices, starting in 2013. That’s obviously… Read More

So many stocks are having a great year. Oil refiner Sunoco (NYSE: SUN), for example, has shot up more than +47%. Southern Copper (NYSE: SCCO) has spiked +38% and its competitor Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) has gained about +27%. Many broad indexes are looking good, too, like the… Read More

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is a compelling investment. Analysts expect the software giant’s stock to return +70% to +110% during the next three or four years. Furthermore, its current price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 12 looks cheap next to its five-year average P/E… Read More