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  • How to Choose a Stock

    Buying individual stocks can augment an already diversified investment portfolio. Here’s how to get started.

  • How to Find Your Cost Basis

    Brokers are now required to keep better tabs on the costs of your investments. Here’s what do for investments made before 2011.

  • How to Choose a Stock Mutual Fund

    When choosing a stock mutual fund, consider performance, manager track record and cost before investing.

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    Latest Stocks News

    WSJ.com - Apr 5, 2013

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    Pay Off That Mortgage Now!

    Want to beat the Treasury market? Pay off your mortgage.Repaying a mortgage early offers, in essence, a risk-free return in the form of the interest saved. Nowadays anyone with a mortgage of 4% or 5% can earn more by repaying the loan than ...

    • MarketWatch - Apr 4, 2013

  • Mom and pop: The world’s worst investors; Commentary: They buy high, sell low, and the ending is predictable

    Oh, brother.I don’t know Mark Villa and Lucie White, a pair of doctors in Houston, Texas, who were featured in a big story in our sister publication, The Wall Street Journal, a few days ago.

    • WSJ.com - Mar 31, 2013

  • Five Really Dumb Money Moves You've Got to Avoid

    You know the smartest things to do with your money. But what are the worst moves? What should you avoid?Weirdly enough, they are things that a surprising number of people are still doing—even though they probably know, in their heart of ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 30, 2013

  • Buybacks That Companies and Investors Can Love

    Plenty of big companies are buying back gobs of their own stock, but only a handful are doing so in a way that gives a bullish signal for investors. Among them are WellPoint (ticker: WLP), Seagate Technology (STX), Western Union (WU), and ...

    • Barrons.com - Apr 2, 2013

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    A Chip Stock With 50% Upside

    Chip stocks have hit a rough patch, and Photronics (ticker: PLAB) is no exception.The Brookfield, Conn., company, valued at just $400 million, makes photomasks, or plates that allow light to shine through in patterns to create miniscule ...

    • WSJ.com - Mar 31, 2013

  • Quarterly Quota

    MarketBeat bloggers Paul Vigna and Steven Russolillo give their take on the biggest hits of the first quarter.

    • WSJ.com - Mar 29, 2013

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    Why Italy Looks Cheap

    You would have to be crazy to invest in the Italian stock market, right?After all, the country is plunged into yet another political crisis. It is struggling through its longest recession since World War II. Italy's national debts are among ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 26, 2013

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    Investors Are in Good Hands with Insurance Stocks

    Sandy was the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, yet it didn't sink insurance stocks. In fact, since the end of October when the storm cleared Ace Limited (ticker: ACE) is up 13%, Travelers (TRV) 19% and Allstate (ALL) 23%, versus ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 28, 2013

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    Mattress Firm's Shares Can Bounce Higher

    Shares of Mattress Firm Holding soared 12% Wednesday after the retailer raised its sales guidance. The retailer's stock looks likely to head higher still.

    • Barrons.com - Mar 23, 2013

  • A Rewarding Development

    America's high-tech companies are ramping up spending on research. That's a good sign for the country's competitiveness—and an opportunity for stock investors.

    • WSJ.com - Mar 22, 2013

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    Low-Quality Stocks Have Zoomed. Time to Shift Gears?

    "Junk" continues to beat "quality" on Wall Street. Nearly four years after the end of the recession of 2007-09, it should be the other way around.

    • WSJ.com - Mar 15, 2013

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    Stocks, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll

    Looking for a new investing idea? Consider investing in ideas.Some investors are tapping the emerging field of intellectual property, which encompasses patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, in hopes of finding better ...

    Latest Stocks News

    Barrons.com - Mar 21, 2013

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    A Top-Notch High-Yield Fund

    "Cash is king." Well, not always.Conditions continue to be punishing for investors holding cash. Short-term Treasuries and bank deposits pay well less than 1%, while inflation has run at 2% over the past year. That means the cost of keeping ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 19, 2013

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    3 Small Stocks With Big Upside

    Investors are hungry for dividends, and big U.S. companies are delivering. Payments among Standard & Poor's 500 members will hit a record high this year after 77 increases just last month. The portion of index members that pay ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 14, 2013

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    Boom or Bust for Netflix, Amazon.com and Salesforce.com?

    Some pricey dot-com stocks have slaughtered the bears that bet against them over the past five years. Shares of Salesforce.com (ticker: CRM), whose software helps companies manage customer interactions, have tripled. Amazon.com (AMZN) stock ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 16, 2013

  • New Threat to Municipal Bonds: Lower State Taxes

    State finances are on the mend, presenting a new wrinkle for holders of tax-free municipal bonds: A handful of states are pushing to cut income-tax rates. That could cause their bonds to underperform in coming years by reducing local demand ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 13, 2013

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    Cheap Stocks in a Rising Market

    With U.S. stocks trading near record highs, deep value investors would seem to face limited choices. Not so, says David Steinberg, managing partner at DLS Capital Management, a Chicago area investment firm overseeing $300 million.

    • WSJ.com - Mar 8, 2013

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    Looking for Buys in Real-Estate Stocks

    Real estate, which led stocks into the ravine, is helping to lead them out of it.Investors who bought the Vanguard REIT Index exchange-traded fund, which owns stocks that hold commercial properties, have seen their money rise about 19% ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 9, 2013

  • Climb Aboard the Oil Train

    With North America producing more crude oil than its pipelines can carry, railroads are stepping in to transport the overflow to refineries that turn it into gasoline and other useful products. That should add to their profits for years—and ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 7, 2013

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    14% -- The Most Important Number for Stocks

    Corporate profits have recently accounted for 14.2% of income generated in America -- a record high. The average since 1929 has been 10.1%. With stocks hitting new highs, the key to deciding whether prices are still attractive hinges on ...

    • WSJ.com - Mar 8, 2013

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    My Best Move; Stop Hedging Around; Hedge funds have amassed a record size of assets. If only their results were as impressive.

    THESE HAVEN'T BEEN the best of times for hedge-fund managers. In the past few years, the industry has been hit by embarrassing scandals, fund failures and, in many cases, disappointing returns. But people are still buying. They don't know ...

    • WSJ.com - Mar 1, 2013

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    Stocks for Thick and Thin

    Is it possible to find stocks that perform well in both up and down markets?You will need to think big and cheap.The search for this kind of holding is especially urgent now, as stocks flirt with record highs and worries of a new bear ...

    • Barrons.com - Mar 5, 2013

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    Eaton May Generate More Upside

    Eaton has been a stellar performer for shareholders, long-termers and newcomers alike. Over the past 15 years the stock has returned 8.8% a year, nearly twice as much as the Standard & Poor's 500 index. It has also done twice as well as ...

    • MarketWatch - Mar 5, 2013

  • Are speculators really driving up gasoline prices? Commentary: Why the Great Oil Conspiracy doesn’t quite add up

    Have you heard about the great conspiracy behind gasoline prices?Apparently, it’s the one that’s causing prices to skyrocket at the pumps. Gas is up about 50 cents so far this year, hitting an average of about $3.80 a gallon nationwide.

    Latest Stocks News

    WSJ.com - Mar 4, 2013

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    Putting Stocks in Hock: Securities Are Backing for More Big Loans

    With loans still hard to come by, wealthy investors are embracing a somewhat surprising and potentially risky strategy: pawning their stocks and bonds.

    • Barrons.com - Mar 2, 2013

  • Shaking the Money Tree

    Dividends are becoming more important to total stock returns because companies are diverting a rising portion of their profits to them. Yield hunters should focus on companies with plenty of potential for payment growth. Good bets include ...

    • WSJ.com - Mar 1, 2013

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    By Brett Arends; How to Play Investing's Wild Frontier

    Finding the real emerging markets can be tougher than it sounds.Most emerging-market funds are dominated by a handful of big stock markets, such as South Korea, China, Brazil and India. But some of the most interesting opportunities might ...

    • WSJ.com - Mar 3, 2013

  • Stocks Testing Records—But There's Still Room to Run

    The market is surmounting a wall of worries to approach all-time highs. The best news: There are reasons to think the good times will continue.

    • Barrons.com - Feb 28, 2013

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    Screening for Stocks Buffett Might Buy

    When Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest person in the world, acquires a stake in a company, investors pay close attention, especially as shares often rise when such news is disclosed.

    • Barrons.com - Feb 26, 2013

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    Retail Takeover Targets

    Barnes & Noble announced Monday that it would consider a buyout offer from its chairman, Leonard Riggio (see "Just the First Chapter in a Barnes & Noble Bid?", Feb. 25). The book chain faces slipping sales but carries a beaten-down ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 23, 2013

  • Duking It Out in Women's Handbags

    Coach and Michael Kors both turn posh handbags into lavish profits, but only one of the stocks lately has worn well. Michael Kors is up 45% over the past 12 months. Coach is down 37%.

    • WSJ.com - Feb 22, 2013

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    By Brett Arends; The Small-Cap Stock Trap

    If you think big-company stocks have risen a long way lately, you should look at small-company ones. They have been on a tear—raising questions of just how much risk investors are willing to take on in today's gung-ho market.

    • Barrons.com - Feb 21, 2013

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    Refiner Stocks: Buy High, Sell Higher

    Shares of oil refiners have shot well ahead of the broad stock market over the past year. Valero Energy (ticker: VLO) is up 88%; HollyFrontier (HFC), 66%; and Tesoro (TSO), 93%. Yet these three fetch an average of just eight times this ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 16, 2013

  • A Smarter Charitable Deduction

    If lawmakers reduced the tax break for donating to charity, would givers turn stingier? That's an important question that Congress considered on Valentine's Day in hearings deciding the fate of the charitable-giving tax deduction. The ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 16, 2013

  • The Coming Smartphone Slowdown

    Six years ago, 1% of the world's population had smartphones. This year, the number will hit 27%. It will continue rising for years to come, but the growth rate in sales is about to start slipping, according to a recent analysis by JPMorgan. ...

    • WSJ.com - Feb 17, 2013

  • With Stock Prices Soaring, Investors Fear Another Crash

    Dow 14000? Again?Like Lucy with her football, forever enticing Charlie Brown to one more kick, Wall Street is waving at Main Street yet again and shouting, "Have a little faith—try me one more time."

    Latest Stocks News

    WSJ.com - Feb 15, 2013

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    By Jason Zweig; Value Stocks Are Hot—But Most Investors Will Burn Out

    "Most people aren't cut out for value investing, because human nature shrinks from pain," the money manager Jean-Marie Eveillard told me this past week. His words are a reminder that making money on cheap stocks—the goal of every value ...

    • WSJ.com - Feb 15, 2013

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    By Brett Arends; Cash Shouldn't Be the Only Apple of Your Eye

    Is there a secret pile of cash hiding in your stock portfolio? And, if so, is there a way to get at it?Many investors must be wondering following the news that Apple has come under pressure to return more of its $100 billion-plus cash hoard ...

    • MarketWatch - Feb 15, 2013

  • The end of an investing era; Commentary: Individual stocks are so 1990s; funds and ETFs rule now

    NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Someone must have sounded an all-clear signal on New Year’s Day because in January, after five years of fasting and penitence in the bond market, investors poured money into U.S. stocks.

    • Barrons.com - Feb 12, 2013

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    Health Care Takeover Targets

    Last year there were plenty of takeovers in the health-care sector -- but mostly bite-size ones. The number of deals rose 6% and ranked second among the past 10 years, while the dollar value plunged 38% and ranked ninth, according to data ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 14, 2013

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    Pitney Bowes' Enticing 10.8% Yield

    Correction: A previous version of this story understated management's revenue growth projection for this year.Pitney Bowes stock holds two distinctions. Its eye-opening 10.8% dividend yield is the highest among companies in the Standard ...

    • MarketWatch - Feb 14, 2013

  • 8 reasons the city beats the suburbs; Commentary: Recent blizzard shows superiority of urban living

    Like everyone in New England, I’ve spent the week fielding anxious calls, emails and Facebook messages from people around the country — and the world, for that matter — asking whether I had survived the great blizzard.

    • WSJ.com - Feb 8, 2013

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    As Stocks Surge, Is It Time for Some Protection?

    You buy insurance for your home, your car and maybe even your iPad. Should you buy it for your portfolio as well?Many investors, as they watch stock prices rebound to levels last seen in 2007, might be wondering if it is time to cash in ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 9, 2013

  • Cashing in on Capex

    Companies are ramping up spending on machines, software, and other productive assets. That's good news for stocks, especially those in the energy, industrial, and technology sectors. Investors should favor Cameron International (ticker: ...

    • Barrons.com - Feb 7, 2013

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    Pension Windfall Winners

    Companies with underfunded pensions are getting a boost this year from a combination of rising share prices and a jump in bond yields. That could make their shares more attractive.

    • MarketWatch - Feb 7, 2013

  • Could Microsoft be the next Dell? Commentary: The math could support a leveraged buyout of Mr. Softy

    Could Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer follow Michael Dell’s lead? Could Microsoft  get taken private?It sounds far-fetched, and maybe it is. After all, Microsoft is one of the world’s largest companies, with a market value of $230 billion.

    • WSJ.com - Jan 18, 2013

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    Uranium: Mining a Contrarian Play With Big Potential

    Is it time to go nuclear with your portfolio?Investors looking for a bold contrarian bet should consider the stocks of companies exposed to uranium, the fuel used in nuclear reactors. Uranium prices have been in a slump since the reactor ...

    • WSJ.com - Jan 25, 2013

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    Housing Is Back—But Housing Stocks Are Due for a Fall

    Stock investors seem convinced that housing is headed for another boom. The shares of companies that build homes have rocketed in the past 18 months in anticipation of much better times.

    Latest Stocks News

    WSJ.com - Jan 18, 2013

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    Is All This Stock Market Optimism a Red Flag?

    Investors are feeling more bullish—and that should make you nervous.U.S. investors plowed more than $18 billion into stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the week ended Jan. 9, according to fund tracker Lipper. That was the ...

    • Barrons.com - Jan 17, 2013

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    Top-Rated "Wide-Moat" Stocks

    So-called wide-moat stocks are racking up impressive gains and should continue to do so.Recent analysis by Morningstar, the investment research company, suggests Express Scripts (ticker: ESRX), Oracle (ORCL) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) ...

    • Barrons.com - Jan 15, 2013

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    Finding Value in the Market

    With U.S. stocks trading near five-year highs, it's a good time for investors to turn cautious on the market's priciest corners. That means selling out of cigarettes, polo shirts, hotels and more.

    • MarketWatch - Jan 15, 2013

  • Why U.S. might be ‘a nation of deadbeats’; Consumers have been paying down debt, but walking away from more

    President Obama said on Monday that “we are not a nation of deadbeats,” but instead a people who “pay our bills.”Really?A close look at the data reveals a very different story — and one that gets far too little airing in public discourse.

    • Barrons.com - Jan 12, 2013

  • Four Boffo Ways to Play the Box Office

    Shares of the top three listed movie-theater companies gained an average of 63% in the past year, upstaging the broad stock market and most asset classes. Domestic box-office receipts in 2012 surged 6%, to $10.8 billion, a record. This year ...

    • Barrons.com - Jan 12, 2013

  • Mapping Out a Muni Strategy

    Municipal bonds just got a last-minute reprieve from Congress -- and some added appeal for 2013.A year-end deal to raise tax revenue left a century-old tax perk for munis intact. The deal also increased taxes on high earners, making munis ...

    • Barrons.com - Jan 10, 2013

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    Why Boeing Can Soar 50%

    Boeing investors hit a frightening patch of turbulence this week—but shares could nonetheless surge more than 50% over the next three years.

    • MarketWatch - Jan 9, 2013

  • Are junk bonds really ‘junk’? High-yield bonds aren’t nearly as risky as most investors believe.

    Most portfolio managers will tell you that high-yield bonds — corporate bonds issued by companies with relatively weak prospects or balance sheets - are “risky,” and that they should only make up a small percentage of a portfolio. Grandma, ...

    • Barrons.com - Jan 8, 2013

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    4 Big Investing Mistakes of 2012

    As Wall Street's lawyers are quick to remind, past performance may not be indicative of future results. But that doesn't mean you should ignore what's gone before. Here are four lessons from 2012 that can help you make smarter moves when ...

    • MarketWatch - Jan 7, 2013

  • Make China the next stop for your investments; Commentary: Slower growth doesn’t derail strong potential

    LONG BEACH, Calif. (MarketWatch) — After the push-and-shove debate over the so-called fiscal cliff, stock buyers might want to put their money in a place where investing entails less drama.

 
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