One of my favorite tools for picking stocks is a paradigm I call Old Faithful, named after the geyser in Yellowstone Park. This paradigm fizzled last year, but has an outstanding long-term record. To appear on the Old Faithful list, a stock must: Post good profits (15% return on equity). Have debt under control (debt less than stockholders’ equity). Be cheap (no more than 15 times earnings and two times book value). Show decent earnings growth (averaging at least 10% a year for the past five years). Drawn from the Old Faithful screen, here are four stocks I feel optimistic…

The health care sector has declined by 0.18% in 2025. This is better than the S&P 500’s drop of 6.06%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) is graphed below. Looking within the sector is instructive. Market sentiment and breadth in the sector are at lows only seen during excessive selling. Short-term, the percentage of healthcare stocks exceeding their lower Bollinger Band suggests a near-term low. There is also insider buying, a positive signal that is not showing up in other sectors. The graphs tell us more. We see that relative strength has been rising since September. This is…

UK companies delivered fewer cash payouts in the first quarter versus a year earlier, though the level of dividends was higher than analysts’ forecasts. Total dividends dropped 4.6% between January and March to £14 billion, according to Computershare. The financial services provider said that while the headline figure “looks disappointing,” it added that the decline “simply reflects lower one-off special dividends and a handful of large cuts rather than indicating broader weakness.” On an underlying basis, which strips out the impact of special cash rewards but reflects currency effects, fell 0.2% year on year to £13.6 billion. They had been…

If you are thinking of working with a qualified financial advisor or planner, there are a few different ways the relationship can look. With those different methods come different availability of investment vehicles, care standards, and outputs. Here are some of the ways you can engage with a qualified financial advisor and how to figure out which method is going to make most sense for you. Note On Licensing Please note that when I mention financial advisors, that is a broad term. It doesn’t speak to any specific level of licensing. People with no licenses or just an insurance license…

Investors, in an era where volatility whiplashes portfolios and headlines, are increasingly uncertain about which compasses to trust. Macro fears, rate hikes, geopolitical tension, inflation, and AI disruption have reshaped risk perceptions and left many fund allocators sitting on cash, waiting for clarity. That’s why this Forbes series speaks directly to the decision-makers managing real capital through real chaos. This time it’s growth investing. In this second installment, I sat down with David Souccar and Rob Hansen of Vontobel, a firm synonymous with quality growth investing. Unlike many chasing speculative stories, Vontobel’s discipline is rooted in predictable businesses, durable moats,…

Since the Trump Administration unveiled its reciprocal tariff policy on April 2, headlines have focused on the wide range of rates applied to different countries. Now, President Trump and other government officials are beginning to pivot towards other areas of global trade friction to accomplish their goal of reducing trade deficits. U.S. strategy appears to be shifting to the less obvious but often more harmful trade obstacles called non-tariff barriers. These NTB measures, including quotas, licensing requirements, product standards, digital taxes, and ownership restrictions, are significant obstacles to expanding U.S. exports across strategically important sectors such as agriculture, technology, media,…

In a world where financial security remains elusive for many, the concept of building wealth that spans generations might seem like a distant dream. Yet for young professionals and newly married couples, laying the groundwork for lasting financial legacy is not only possible—it’s essential. Wealth management begins with simple habits that compound dramatically over decades The fundamentals remain timeless: spend less than you earn, invest in low-cost index funds rather than paying hefty advisor fees, optimize your tax strategy, and make prudent decisions about major expenses like vehicles and housing. A used car or reasonable lease often outperforms a shiny…

Sometimes there’s a dividend play out there that we love—but it’s just the wrong time to buy it. That’s the story with an 11.6%-paying closed-end fund (CEF) that’s pretty well-known (for a CEF, that is!). It’s the Gabelli Equity Trust (GAB), run by Mario Gabelli, whom you may have seen on the cable news channels over the years. To get at why we’re dodging this well-run fund now, we need to first talk about a phrase you may have heard a lot more from said business channels lately: “soft data.” Ring a bell? Basically it refers to numbers that are…

Let’s talk about consumer staples dividend stocks today. If we’re heading for a slowdown then we need to be picky about our payouts. When the economy slows, discretionary spending is often punted but staples continue to be bought. Today we’ll discuss five dividends between 4.2% and 10.7%. These “must have” products can provide our portfolios with important recession-resistant qualities. Year-to-date staples have been flat and, in this market, that is great. Their sideways action has lapped the over-owned S&P 500 this year: Consumer staples stocks tend to have more stable operations that result in more stable share performance in turbulent…

Week in Review Asian equities were mostly higher this week as Hong Kong and Indonesia outperformed while Pakistan and Mainland China underperformed. It was a “roller coaster” week for tariff signaling as President Trump suggested he would lower tariffs soon and was beginning negotiations with China, while China’s Ministry of Commerce stated that no talks with the US had begun yet on trade. Online education and educational technology provider TAL Education was the first China internet company to report earnings for Q1 2025, missing estimates on revenue, net income, and earnings per share in its Thursday morning report. The company…