Before the explosive growth of the new fangled Internet machine, apartment and house hunters relied on the classified ads in the local newspaper or the slick-paper, free real estate guides that were strategically placed outside of grocery store entrances and in other high-traffic retail areas. Well, free to the… Read More

I confess. I love a good IPO (initial public offering). As part of the research for my Fast-Track Millionaire newsletter, I pore over every prospectus filed each month to take a look at who… Read More

For more than a century now, small-cap stocks have outperformed large caps quite reliably. Sure, some years are better than others and some years are downright bad. But throughout the past 80 years, small caps have averaged an annual gain of 11.0%, while large caps have averaged an annual gain… Read More

My colleague Nathan Slaughter knows just about everything there is to know about the energy industry. He’s been warning investors that just because the price of oil is touching $100 a barrel doesn’t mean you should necessarily buy stocks like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) or Chevron (NYSE: CVX). Read More

So far this year, the market (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) has rallied almost 5%. In stark contrast, this leading big-box retailer is down about 15% to start off 2011 and is trading near its lows of 2010. I can’t find any valid reason for this near-term… Read More

They finally did it. Gasoline prices have been creeping ever closer to the $3-a-gallon mark in my hometown. Now they’ve pierced through. And with oil touching $100 a barrel, gas stations may as well be in a race to see who can reach $4… Read More

Given the popularity of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android phones in the United States, it would be tempting for investors to think the growth story behind the smartphone revolution is almost over. But that’s not the case. In fact, it may be just… Read More

High yields are hard to find these days. A three-year CD is paying about 1.5% on average. A 10-year treasury bond is paying 3.5%. The dividend yield of the S&P 500 is just 2.1%. So, in the current environment, is… Read More

#-ad_banner-#It’s the most consistent way I know to beat the market. Even better, there is rarely a bad time to start investing in these securities. You could have put your money into these stocks at the peak of the tech bubble, or the October 2007 market peak for that matter. Dozens of them are showing a triple-digit profit since then. I don’t want to make it seem you can’t lose money with these unique investments. You certainly can, especially if you aren’t patient. But there’s no doubt the odds are in favor… Read More

#-ad_banner-#It’s the most consistent way I know to beat the market. Even better, there is rarely a bad time to start investing in these securities. You could have put your money into these stocks at the peak of the tech bubble, or the October 2007 market peak for that matter. Dozens of them are showing a triple-digit profit since then. I don’t want to make it seem you can’t lose money with these unique investments. You certainly can, especially if you aren’t patient. But there’s no doubt the odds are in favor of making money, not losing it. We’ve been advocating these types of ideas for years and it has made the subscribers of my newsletter pretty happy… So what are these “magic” investments that have worked so well over the years… despite some of the worst financial turmoil we’ve ever seen? They’re simple. They are “boring” dividend payers that are able to maintain — and raise — their dividends no matter what. They’re among the most lucrative ways I’ve found to make money. Take a look:… Read More

The stock market has seen plenty of ups and downs in the past 25 years. Through it all, hedge fund Baupost Group’s Seth Klarman has managed to stay on the right side of the ledger, racking up an average annual gain of about 20%. Read More