Investing

This article is part of our Rising Stars Portfolios series.In early November, I chose Transocean (NYSE: RIG) as the first purchase for my Messed-Up Expectations (MUE) Portfolio. At the time, the market was expecting free cash flow (FCF) growth of 0.7% per year or less for a decade, followed by no more growth -- ever.

Question: If the stock symbol for General Motors (NYSE: GM) was short for "Government Motors," then what, pray tell, did Citigroup's (NYSE: C) ticker denote?

I'm done defending Lazaridis now. Onstage at this week's Dive Into Mobile industry conference, he came across more as a clueless spin-meister than a brilliant technologist. That is not how you save a dying dinosaur from extinction.

P/E ratios and profit margins are all well and good, but to find the best retailers and manufacturers, you'll need to keep an eye on inventory as well.

The next generation of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) trendsetting iPad tablet may be coming sooner than you think.

There's a sensible way to profit whether a stock goes up or down, and you usually only need to invest hundreds of dollars, rather than thousands.

There's no foolproof way to know the future for Xerox (NYSE: XRX) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result. Rest assured: Even if you're not monitoring these metrics, short-sellers are.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's also worth big bucks.

It seems like the good times are always just around the corner for Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM). But the market opportunity will evaporate unless the company can find a real catalyst soon.

In addition to maintaining this moratorium, the administration is also delaying two western and central Gulf lease sales currently scheduled for March and August 2011. This will give the Department of the Interior time to conduct thorough environmental impact studies. Next year could therefore be the first since 1965 to see no new lease sales.