With each passing year, the United States has lost its edge, a new report suggests. Whether it’s national education scores, health care efficiency, environmental stewardship or a host of other measures, the country has slipped down from the top of the leaderboard. But by… Read More

As investors gear up for another earnings season, all signs point to decent quarterly results. Analysts steadily lowered their first-quarter profit forecasts during the past few months, and in the… Read More

Nothing good lasts forever, including the amazing bull market that investors have enjoyed this year. Fueled by ultra-low interest rates, solid corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve that says it… Read More

After the release of the monthly employment report, the stock market offered hope to the bears — and then the bulls — that the trend was in their favor. At the end of the day, it looks… Read More

Last year, my individual stocks returned just over 33%. Compare that to the S&P 500’s returns of 16% — including dividends. (For better or worse, beating the S&P 500 seems to be the goal of… Read More

Few investors have an unlimited supply of money to keep buying new stocks. So to maintain a healthy dose of cash for the next… Read More

For years, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been hailed as the king of the e-commerce hill. After all, it pioneered the industry, gaining a competitive market share in nearly every field it’s asserted itself. But as with any company, size and time seem to… Read More

You may not know his name now, but you soon will. University of Rochester professor Robert Novy-Marx has developed a new formula, and it has caught the attention of Wall Street. The Wall Street Journal reports that Greenwich,… Read More

To the dismay of average investors, great companies such as Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), Priceline.com Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) come with a steep price tag. Each has a stock price above $500, making it nearly impossible for small-time investors to… Read More

Peter Lynch, in his heyday with Fidelity Magellan fund‘s (Nasdaq: FMAGX), took a remarkably powerful yet simple approach to wealth-building: Avoid companies that provide products or services that are too hard for the layman to understand. Indeed, Lynch’s maxim, “Invest in what you… Read More