The U.S. equity market indices reached another record high yesterday.The S&P 500 closed at 1,569.19 crossing the high reached in October 2007 before the financial crisis. Similarly the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at another record high of 14,578.54. Click to enlarge   Source:  S&P 500 Climbs to Record Amid GDP Growth, Europe Optimism, Bloomberg Despite the ongoing crisis …

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The dividend yield of the U.S., Canadian and Australian equity markets as of March 18, 2013 was 2.1%, 3.0% and 4.2% respectively according data provided by The Financial Times.Generally U.S. equities tend to have lower dividend yields than foreign equities. Recently I came across an article by Jonathan Jacob in Canadian Investment Review in which he …

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Many retail investors are coming to the realization that stock picking is a losing game. The folks that lost all or most of their investments during the dot-com bubble of the 190s jumped back into the market thinking it was safe only to take a hit again by the great global financial crisis of 2008-09. …

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Investors can the amplify returns of an investment in a stock by reinvesting dividends.This return known as the Total Return will be substantially higher than the Price Return  in the long-term  due to the effect of compounding. The difference in returns between the total return and price return will be especially significant for companies with above-average and growing …

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Diversification helps reduce risk and volatility of a portfolio. Some investors falsely assume that diversification eliminates risks altogether. This is not true. Diversification only helps to reduces risk but not eliminate it. For example, a well-diversified portfolio of stocks may fall 15% when the market falls 20% or 25%. In a major market crash such …

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