As an investor, you know that 2011 was a somewhat “choppy” year, with the financial markets going through many ups and downs. So what can you expect in 2012?

As baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra is quoted as saying: “It’s hard to make predictions — especially about the future.” And these words are certainly applicable for anyone who would like an accurate forecast of the investment climate.

Yet we do know of some factors that may affect your portfolio in the months ahead. Here are a few of them: read more »

You don?t need to have young children to be keenly aware that we?ve reached that ?back-to-school? time of year. Whether you?re shopping for school supplies or not, you may want to take a cue from this season to think about getting a little more education yourself — specifically, investment education.

Many people find the language of investing to be confusing, but with a little effort, you can learn important concepts and principles. And the more you know about investing, the better off you’ll be because, in the investment world as in other areas of life, knowledge is power. read more »

As an investor, you might think it’s easy to evaluate your investments’ performance. After all, the bigger the gain, the better, right? This statement is true enough, but as an investment strategy, it’s incomplete — and, if followed rigidly, it could lead you to make some mistakes that could hinder your progress toward your financial goals.

What are some of these potential mistakes? Here are a few to consider: read more »

Company “A” through mergers and acquisitions, has had exponential growth in the past few years.

For the first part of their growth they had some Information Technology guys who decided that one type of network architecture was the only way to handle things. Those guys have moved on so Company “A” found new IT guys who naturally decided that another type of network architecture was the only way to handle things. read more »