Fools were out and about this week in an investing world jampacked with actions and ideas. Here are three articles you might find useful as you decide how to invest your money.
4 Things to Do If You Panicked Last Week
You're not a loser until you quit. You can be a stock market winner even if you panicked and sold stocks during recent rockiness.
"[S]ucceeding at investing comes down to breaking the cycle of self-destructive emotional responses to bad markets," wrote Fool writer and editor Dan Caplinger. "If you want to stop seeing episodes like this happen again and again throughout your investing career, you need to clamp down on what may seem at the time like a perfectly rational response to crisis situations."
Getting back on track is not as easy as buying back the shares you sold, so read Dan's article for advice on how to learn from your (and many other people's) mistakes.
Does Wal-Mart Have High-Quality Earnings?
Fool editor and writer Jim Royal used methods from Hewitt Heiserman's It's Earnings That Count to check on the health of earnings at Wal-Mart
"Apparent profits on the income statement won't always tell you the whole story," Jim wrote. "Instead of looking just at the reported numbers, you need to find companies with authentic earnings power."
Read Jim's article for insight on how to calculate a "defensive income statement" and an "enterprising income statement" for your companies by modifying how metrics including advertising and fixed capital investments are counted. In Wal-Mart's case, Jim found that it "shows consistently strong and growing enterprising profits and fluctuating defensive profits."
Tom Gardner: A Freestyle Love Supreme Investment
In keeping with the theme of learning from others, Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner tells readers about "three key principles that have led to my greatest-ever investments." To set the scene, he writes about his decision to buy shares in a small, off-Broadway show (the core performers were in an improv rap group called Freestyle Love Supreme).
"[W]hen I invest in companies beloved by their employees, customers, and shareholders, I call them my Freestyle Love Supreme investments," Tom wrote. He names six companies that have all three factors, including Buffalo Wild Wings
Read Tom's article for the full rundown on Freestyle Love Supreme investments and to see the other three companies on his list of greats.
