As you've glanced through long lists of our recent articles, have you ever wondered which ones have grabbed the attention of the most readers? I certainly have, so I did a little digging. Here's a list of 10 of our most-read recent articles. (And no, dagnabbit -- much to my surprise, my "The Poetry of Investing" article inexplicably didn't make the cut.)

Check out some of these articles. You might find some stocks to perhaps buy or sell, and your portfolio may thank you for it later. Better still, it's likely that the articles will teach you a thing or two about investing.

"Don't Invest Another Penny" by Paul Elliott
Paul exposes a great danger in mutual fund investing, by showing how a great investment in Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) would have been significantly deflated by fees.

"4 Ways to Ruin Your Retirement" by Rich Smith
Want to wreck your retirement and end up destitute? Who doesn't? Rich Smith offers some tips on getting there, starting with "Road to Ruin No. 1: Trust Uncle Sam." Road No. 3 is "Buy High, Sell Low," something too many of us do. Rich offers some tragic examples, such as how Lucent (NYSE:LU) destroyed some 96% of shareholder wealth since the turn of the millennium, and how Sun Microsystems lost 86% in the same time. Fortunately, Rich offers some helpful guidance on how to avoid these ugly roads to ruin.

"The Finest Investment Vehicle Ever Designed" by Shannon Zimmerman
Shannon starts off this article by saying, "I have a strong bias toward the investment option of choice for more than 90 million of us, one that no less an authority than Jack Bogle has called the 'finest vehicle for long-term investing ever designed.' Among other things, if you're after smart diversification and access to asset classes that might otherwise elude you, mutual funds should be your very first stop." He then goes on to offer tips on finding the best funds.

"The Optimistic Prediction of Warren Buffett" by Bill Barker
Bill begins with, "In November 1999, Warren Buffett dropped a bombshell on investors when he wrote (with Carol Loomis) in Fortune magazine that the most likely average annual returns for investors in the market for the following 17 years would be 4%." That might sound terrible, but Bill explains why there's a good reason to be hopeful about the next decade -- perhaps we might even hope to earn 9% or more per year, on average. (A clue: He lists some companies' average P/E ratios in 1999 and today -- like Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), with a P/E half of what it used to be.)

"The Demented Dividend Guru" by Tim Hanson
Tim tackles [Warren Buffett partner] Charlie Munger's assertion that dividend investing advocate Jeremy Siegel is "demented." This is a tough topic for me, because I have so much respect for both of their brains. Click in to learn about the new index funds Siegel helped design.

"Buy Before It's Too Late" by Seth Jayson
Sometimes the biggest investment mistakes we make are the stocks we don't buy. Seth confesses to a bunch of missed opportunities: "Successful value investors from Buffett to Olstein have explained that you can't time the bottom and you can't wait for a catalyst. By the time that happens, it's too late. So when something's cheap, you buy it. If it gets cheaper, you buy more."

"The Best Person to Manage Your Money" by Kate Ward
I'd always known that some professional money managers charge a lot for their services, but Kate's two examples in this article blew me away. I pity the people who choose options like that. Consider instead the money manager whom Kate recommends.

"You Don't Need a Million to Make a Million" by Selena Maranjian
In this article, I explain how reachable a million dollars is if you invest patiently and intelligently. For example, "Invest $10,000 per year and earn 10% per year on average, and in about 25 years, you'll have amassed a million dollars." You don't need to find the next Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to do so, either -- not-so-exciting Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), for example, has appreciated at an annual average of about 15% over the past 15 years, as have many other well-known, relatively stable companies.

"308 Incredible Companies" by Tim Hanson
Tim lays out a compelling case for small-cap stocks, explaining: "From June 1996 through June 2006, 308 stocks could have earned you greater than 20% annualized returns over the past 10 years -- turning a $10,000 initial investment into more than $60,000. Of those 308 stocks, 285 of them were small caps 10 years ago."

"Stop! In the Name of Loss" by Jim Mueller
Investors are often advised to set stop-loss orders to automatically sell various holdings, if they fall a certain percentage. Jim Mueller makes a strong case for ignoring that advice. He points out, for example, that if you'd bought Altria (NYSE:MO) in early 2003 and sold after its first 15% drop, you'd have lost 11% of your investment. But if you'd held on through that downswing and the following upswing, you'd be up some 108% today. The corresponding numbers for Humana (NYSE:HUM) are 50% and almost 500%. Wow.

In sum
These are just a few of our most popular articles. If you'd like to review even more articles, bookmark this page.

Here's to a happier portfolio! (And hey -- consider forwarding this article to anyone whose financial future you care about. Just click on the "Email this Page" link near the top of the page.)

Time Warner is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick, and Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation.

Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Microsoft and Time Warner. For more about Selena, view her bio and her profile. You might also be interested in these books she has written or co-written:The Motley Fool Money GuideandThe Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens. The Motley Fool is Fools writing for Fools.