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.

Don't shy away from funds in your online account

The key is to look for the lowest-fee funds so you're not paying for advice you're not getting

By ROB CARRICK

With the freedom of an online brokerage account comes the responsibility of choosing smart investments.Mutual funds, anyone? Many online investors consider themselves too savvy to buy funds, which they see as over-priced for what they deliver. But funds can work well in an online brokerage account, if you choose shrewdly.

Hedge funds on top in five-year snapshot

By SHIRLEY WON

swon@globeandmail.comWHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?Leaders and laggards over the past five years.Given that some managers may engage in a game of musical chairs between firms, five years is a decent period to look at long-term performance.

Putting stocks through the PEG test

Price-to-earnings ratios tell only part of the story, according to Peter Lynch. Factoring in growth provides a much more valuable tool

By JOHN REESE

validea.comSince the dawn of securities analysis, the price-to-earnings ratio has been the most widely cited variable in stock market parlance.Check the business section of your daily newspaper and you'll likely find that the P/E is the only valuation metric listed along with each stock's price. Read most stock recommendation columns or listen to TV pundits, and you'll hear the P/E ratio cited scores of times every day.

How to be a Buffett: Follow these steps

By JOHN HEINZL

jheinzl@globeandmail.com Warren Buffett's investing prowess has spawned countless imitators hoping to strike it rich by following the Oracle of Omaha's techniques.But few are as disciplined as Pavel Begun.

Dollar General's new shares aren't cheap

But the biggest U.S. retail IPO in 17 years has a good story to sell to investors in a dry new-issue market

By DAVID MILSTEAD

Dollar General Corp.'s merchandise is low-priced, but its shares are not - and that says a lot about what kind of companies are succeeding in a warming IPO market.

Meagre income leaves few options

By DIANNE MALEY

At 65 and single, Kathleen finds herself in the same unenviable position as thousands of other Canadian women. She has a home she loves but her pension income is so meagre she fears she may not be able to stay there for much longer.

RIM and Microsoft? The rumour mill churns

By ANDREW WILLIS

awillis@globeandmail.comResearch In Motion rumours are something of a cottage industry. From trading desks to tech blogs, everyone has a theory on what's next for the BlackBerry maker.

Precision keeps its house in order

By GORDON EDALL

gedall@globeandmail.com WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?After turning our eye to the earnings picture for the SandP 500 this quarter, we're going to shift our focus to what's been happening on the SandP/TSX composite index.

The party is rolling again, so it's time for caution

By TOM BRADLEY

Tom Bradley is president of Steadyhand Investment Fundstbradley@steadyhand.comHere I go again. Just when everyone is starting to enjoy themselves, I'm getting uneasy. It's time for investors to temper their expectations for returns and prepare for some bumps in the road.

Has market got ahead of itself? This man says yes

By ROB CARRICK

rcarrick@globeandmail.comNot comfortable with the high-flying stock market? Neither is money manager Vito Maida.Warning: Mr. Maida isn't to be judged on his results this year. The $75-million portfolio he runs for the high-net-worth clients of his firm, Patient Capital Management, made 11.1 per cent through the first nine months of the year, compared to 30 per cent for the SandP/TSX composite index.

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