The third calendar quarter ends Wednesday, and earnings season -- a loosely defined period during which many companies report financial results -- starts in early to mid-October. Wall Street's published forecasts suggest that operating earnings underlying the S&P 500, the

Takeovers and positive clinical results often drive big moves in biotech stocks. For example, Medarex, a human antibody specialist with 40 drugs in trials, traded at $8.40 a share in mid-July when Bristol-Myers Squibb () announced it would pay $16

The financial advisers we speak with every week say that most investors shouldn't be concerned with short-term movements in the stock market. It's better to avoid the roller coaster rides in favor of allowing a portfolio to grow slowly and

Investors sometimes forget that stocks aren't merely abstract instruments made for betting. They represent shared ownership of real companies. So picking good stocks resembles picking good businesses off of a for-sale-by-owner list. Blind hope that the value of, say, a