Everybody talks about the stock market. And when they do, the assumption is that the listener understands what the stock market is, and what it isn’t. Sometimes, though, the listener may not be entirely sure what the stock market is at all. It’s one of those things in modern life that we take for granted, [...]

Stocks go up, stocks go down. And while most investors are in it for the upswing, some investors are willing to bet their money on the misfortunes of a stock. They do this by short selling – actually selling stock they don’t own, borrowing the stock to be delivered to the buyer, and then buying [...]

There’s an old Steve Martin joke, and it goes like this: how do you avoid paying taxes on a million dollars? Okay, first, get a million dollars… Insert mild laughter here. Unless, of course, you really do have a million dollars. Which brings us to our real focus today. Assuming you have extra cash lying [...]

Choosing a broker to serve your investing needs is very much like selecting a doctor to help maintain your health. And if you know anything about doctors, you know that they tend to specialize, and that no two of them are exactly alike. In fact, on rare occasions one of them can get you killed. [...]