portfolio posts

5 Offensive and Defensive Funds to Strengthen Your Portfolio

Filed under: Investing, Retirement and RRSPs, Saving

bull market stocks offensive defensive funds

By Dan Caplinger
Motley Fool

Investors are getting more excited about the stock market now that it has fully recovered from the financial crisis and started to set new record highs. But if you're looking to invest now, you have to protect yourself from the possibility that the long bull market could reverse itself.

It's always tough both financially and psychologically to recover from immediate losses on investments you just bought, so taking steps to avoid big losses is well worth the effort.

With that goal in mind, here are five exchange-traded funds that can strengthen your portfolio against the threat of a possible stock-market decline while still giving you exposure to further gains if the bull market continues.

Tags: ETF, investing, portfolio

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Why Canadian Stocks Are a Good Buy in 2011

by Alia McMullen

Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Financial Crisis, Investing

Canadian investors are in luck: our home stock market is predicted to chalk up some of the best returns in the world this year amid continued economic struggles in Europe and the United States and political turmoil in the Middle East.

"Relative to the U.S. or east Asia, Canada's equity market carries more insurance against a worsening geopolitical climate in the Middle East, in the form of a larger basket of energy stocks and safe havens like gold shares," Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at CIBC, says in an economic report.

He says that while a diversified investment portfolio is always wise, this year it looks like Canadian stocks will offer you some of the best growth opportunities.

Tags: avery shenfeld, AveryShenfeld, banks, bonds, cibc, earnings, europe, gold, growth, inflation, interest rates, InterestRates, investing, investment, materials, middle east, MiddleEast, oil, portfolio, profits, share market, ShareMarket, shares, stability, stock markets, StockMarkets, toronto stock exchange, TorontoStockExchange, treasuries, tsx, united states, UnitedStates

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Favourite Links: Best Dividends for 2011, Year-End Tax Tips, Gap Insurance & More

by Liz Metcalfe

Filed under: Insurance, Investing, Real Estate, Taxes

Best Dividend Stocks for 2011
The Dividend Guy gives a great preview of the dividend stocks he thinks will be hot in the coming year. He goes through sectors one by one, explaining how he's going to be restructuring his dividend portfolio in 2011.

Year End Tax Tips: 2010
Million Dollar Journey has updated a terrific list of things you can do at the end of the year to minimize the income tax load on your income. Hurry! There are only a few days left to 2010.

Tags: Dividends, DividendStocks, gap insurance, GapInsurance, income tax, IncomeTax, portfolio, portfolio growth, PortfolioGrowth

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Look Overseas, Not Just to U.S., for Investment Bargains

by Liz Metcalfe

Filed under: Banks, Investing

In all the excitement over the loonie's parity flirtation with the U.S. dollar, most of investors' focus has been on how to take advantage of the weak U.S. dollar to add U.S. stocks to our retirement portfolios.

Yet the bill with the George Washington on it south of the border isn't the only one that provides a currency edge for bargain-shopping Canadians. Trading in the range of 1.35 CDN in recent weeks, the euro has also lost much of its value compared with the loonie, thanks to the economic woes of Greece, Spain and Portugal. And the U.K.'s glacial recovery from the recession has made the British pound, which historically has hovered around the $2 CDN mark, a steal in the $1.50 CDN range.

Tags: foreign investment, investment diversity, parity, portfolio

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