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How Should a Beginner Invest in Stocks? Try This ETF.

The Motley Fool

You can't go wrong with the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI) -- one of the most popular and stable ETFs on the market. What's an exchange-traded fund? An exchange-traded fund is a collection of securities that you can buy or sell through a brokerage firm on a stock exchange.

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4 Reasons to Avoid a 401(k) for Your Retirement Savings

The Motley Fool

The bulk of them are managed by mutual fund companies, with most of those companies limiting your investment choices to their family of funds. In fact, you may not even have access to that fund company's entire fund lineup.

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Here's How Billionaires Buy Stocks

The Motley Fool

A self-directed brokerage account is the same kind you or I might use and has the same types of stock investing options, including individual stocks, exchange-traded funds, options trading, mutual funds, bonds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

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Missed Out on the Bull Market Recovery? 3 ETFs to Help You Build Wealth for Decades.

The Motley Fool

The reason is that solid dividend-paying stocks generally do outperform their non-dividend-paying peers. Number-crunching performed by mutual fund company Hartford indicates that since 1973, S&P 500 stocks with a long history of dividend growth boast an average annual return of just over 10% versus a much more modest annual gain of 4.3%

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Prediction: CDs Will Earn Less Than This Investment Over the Next 5 Years

The Motley Fool

When it comes to the S&P 500 -- a stock market index that tracks the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies on the stock exchanges -- it's all about digging into past performance. As the last week or so has shown us, the market falls and rises, often based on whatever's going on in the news.

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Palantir Stock Is Joining the Nasdaq-100 Index, and Super Micro Computer Is Being Booted: What Investors Should Know

The Motley Fool

This move by Nasdaq -- which owns and operates its namesake stock exchange and others -- is part of its annual reconstitution of the Nasdaq-100 index, which comprises 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. How does being added to the Nasdaq-100 benefit Palantir and its shareholders?

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Meet the Stock-Split Stock I've More Than Quadrupled My Stake In This Year (Hint: It's Not Nvidia, Broadcom, or Chipotle Mexican Grill)

The Motley Fool

By comparison, a reverse-stock split is designed to increase a company's share price, often with the purpose of ensuring it meets the minimum listing standards on a major stock exchange. Investors usually focus their attention on high-flying companies enacting forward-stock splits. billion shares outstanding.

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