An American depositary receipt (ADR) is a negotiable certificate that trades like a common stock and is issued by a U.S. bank; it represents shares of a non-U.S. publicly traded company. ADRs are priced in U.S. dollars, and dividends are paid out in U.S. dollars. The actual shares of the foreign company are held by a custodian bank in the company’s home country, subject to the terms specified on the ADR certificate.

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In the world of investing, no one piece of financial information tells all. But the price-earnings ratio comes close, containing a wealth of information about the market’s expectations for earnings growth.

However, if you look through any investment information resource commonly used by individual investors, you’ll find numerous definitions of the term.

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Reprinted with the permission of the American Association of Individual Investors
Why is it that bright, educated people who come across stocks that could make them wealthy for life, so frequently fail to capitalize on golden opportunities—not enough brains or education?
No, not even close.
Two things are responsible: Beating ourselves, and a lack of knowledge. Beating ourselves [...]

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Reprinted with the permission of the American Association of Individual Investors
What can you learn from three decades of monitoring investment newsletter performance?
Plenty.
It was nearly three decades ago that the Hulbert Financial Digest (HFD) began independently monitoring the performance of investment advisory newsletters. I’m devoting this column to a couple of the most important investment lessons [...]

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When I went to business school a few years ago (OK, maybe it was more
than a few years ago) I remember my finance professor telling the class
that it was a mystery why closed end mutual funds traded at a discount.
Presumably he was tapped into all the latest academic research about
such matters so I assumed it was a mystery. It wasn’t until years later
that I came to believe that there really isn’t much of a mystery - and
my theory isn’t that complicated, though putting it into words is
difficult.

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Reprinted with the permission of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
Yield is a term that is used quite often in the investment universe. But it is frequently a source of investor confusion.
The problem is that “yield” has many different meanings, and thus many different implications for investors.
The basic dilemma is that yield may or [...]

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Reprinted with the permission of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
If you’ve ever been to the track, you know that big winnings come from betting against the crowd.
Bet on the favorites and you may cash in a couple of small winning tickets; but scope out an underdog the crowd doesn’t believe can win and [...]

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Preferred stocks are oft overlooked securities that have interesting qualities of both stocks and bonds. While common stocks are the preferred investment vehicle of most risk investors, and bonds are the domain of risk-averse income seeking investors, preferred stocks are a mixture (hybrid if you will) of fixed income securities and common stocks. The [...]

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Individual investors seeking to asset allocate and build a diversified portfolio are likely to not find any better investment product to serve their purpose than ETFs. As the name implies, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are investments that combine the advantages of index funds with the trading flexibility and continual pricing of individual stocks and [...]

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The stock market has risen relentlessly, and real estate and commodity markets have peaked. It’s a good chance to park some cash, as a lucky few did in the late 1990’s. Are bonds the answer? That’s for you to decide. But just as the Internet and e-broker platforms revolutionized stock investing ten years ago, now it’s becoming easier for individual investors to invest in individual bonds. Here’s why.

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