The Globe and Mail's Smart Money

The Globe and Mail's Smart Money section is dedicated to giving you what you need to manage your personal finances successfully. Smart Money appears every Saturday in The Globe and Mail and on globeinvestor.com.

Low risk, high growth come together in 2010

Last year's winners were often high-risk, no-profit stocks in the mining and energy sectors; expect the opposite this year

By ROB CARRICK

rcarrick@globeandmail.comWhat not to buy for 2010: Shares of companies with minimal profit growth, or no profits at all. Small, unproven stocks. Volatile stocks.In other words, all the stuff that worked so amazingly well in 2009. This year, do the opposite. Look for larger-size companies with strong profit growth and less volatility. Lower risk plus higher growth? Can you get the two together?

January's winners and losers

By SHIRLEY WON

swon@globeandmail.comWHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?Leaders and laggards among Canadian stock funds during the January market correction.The SandP/TSX composite index shed 5.5 per cent last month after rebounding sharply from the March lows. The energy and materials sectors dragged the index into the red.

An investor with a preference for preferreds

For all their sleep-at-night appeal, preferred shares are among the most intimidating securities for retail investors. To help us navigate the preferred share maze, Investor Clinic spoke to preferred share specialist James Hymas, president of Hymas Investment Management in Toronto

By JOHN HEINZL

jheinzl@globeandmail.com *****No wonder investors are confused by preferred shares.On the one hand, they offer attractive yields, and their dividends are safer than those of common shares because preferred shareholders get priority. If a company gets into trouble, it will cut its common dividend before it can touch its preferred payout.

Tesla admits it has rough road ahead

Losses for electric car company forecast to get bigger before they get smaller

By DAVID MILSTEAD

Investing in the electric car is definitely a long-term play. But potential buyers of Tesla Motors Inc. stock later this year need to realize things are going to get worse for the company before they get better.

Job loss forces rethink on retirement

By DIANNE MALEY

Three years ago, Barb and Andy thought they had all their retirement plans set. She would retire at age 50, he at age 55.That's when Andy was still working as a vice-president of a large non-profit agency.

ETFs play follow-the-leader to mutual funds

Fresh products are all well and fine, but better marketing of the sector's existing lines would make more sense

By ROB CARRICK

rcarrick@globeandmail.comETFs are the investment choice for the independent non-conformist, so why are they playing follow the leader with mutual funds?Offering a huge, even excessive, variety of choices helped the mutual fund industry grow big and strong. With 15 new products issued last week, the exchange-traded fund business seems to be trying for the same outcome.

Finding bargains taking a lot more sleuthing

By SCOTT ADAMS

Investment Editor sadams@globeandmail.com WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?Cheap stocks. Let's find the stocks with the lowest price-to-book-value ratios in the SandP/TSX composite.

Post-traumatic stress investing

Canadians are still holding on to their cash, watching a stock market rebound that's been nearly as astonishing as the plunge that preceded it. And they are still rattled

By ROB CARRICK

The global financial crisis has receded, stock markets have soared and there's even talk the economy is reviving. Yet Canadian investors remain traumatized enough to have taken $90-billion that might otherwise be in the stock markets and stashed it in savings accounts, money market funds, guaranteed investment certificates and other places that pay next to nothing but offer near impregnable safety.

In choosing managers, patience is a virtue

By TOM BRADLEY

Tom Bradley is president of Steadyhand Investment Funds Inc. tbradley@steadyhand.comA consequence of being a non-benchmark manager and running a transparent shop is that we are asked direct and incisive questions. At a presentation last week, a client asked what criteria I would use for changing a manager on one of our funds.

The case for dividend stocks in uncertain times

By ROB CARRICK

rcarrick@globeandmail.comWake up, investors, and smell the dividends.Okay, you can't smell dividends. But you can certainly touch them as they flow into your RRSP, TFSA or unregistered investment account every three months.

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