conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Research with the genre: Business & Money, Investing?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'Investing Online For Dummies'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first four paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Investing Online For Dummies
  Most portfolio-tracking sites make it easy to download your stocks to a spreadsheet. Using Yahoo! Finance, for instance, you'd scroll to the bottom of your portfolio, click the Download Spreadsheet link, and then click Save.
  Performance-tracking websites focus on measuring how your portfolio is doing. These sites provide much more detail about your portfolio's risk and return than general portfolio-tracking websites. They take the mathematics seriously and explain exactly how they're getting the numbers they are getting. But best of all, their computers do the work so that you don't have to. Sites to check out include the following:
  By measuring your portfolio's risk and return, you're already miles ahead of many other online investors. You have the know-how to tweak and refine your investments to make sure that you get the optimal return for the risk you're taking.
  You wouldn't sail a ship without a map or bake a cake without a recipe, but so many online investors do the equivalent when they buy and sell stocks and other assets without understanding how they fit into a broader plan. That plan, in investment language, is called an asset allocation. Your asset allocation determines how much of your portfolio is placed into different types of asset classes, or types of investments — typically stocks, bonds, and cash. By following this plan, you can make sure that you get the maximum return for the amount of risk you're taking. One controversial study even claims more than 90 percent of a portfolio's swings, on average, is due to the asset allocation.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is another paragraph?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: And that's the basis of the dividend discount model approach to valuing stocks. The idea is that most companies pay a dividend, and those that don't will. The size of the dividend a company pays, and how quickly it grows, can help you figure out how much a company is worth. You can find an ugly formula for a dividend discount model, but I'll spare you the agony.fool.com/research/2000/features000406.htm`) provides a helpful description.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Motley, Fool, `www, finding.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: And that's the basis of the dividend discount model approach to valuing stocks. The idea is that most companies pay a dividend, and those that don't will. The size of the dividend a company pays, and how quickly it grows, can help you figure out how much a company is worth. You can find an ugly formula for a dividend discount model, but I'll spare you the agony. If you can't resist finding out how the calculation is done, Motley Fool (`www. fool. com/research/2000/features000406. htm`) provides a helpful description.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Due to their structures, though, hedge funds aren't held to the same regulatory scrutiny that other investments are. Rules require hedge funds to be offered only to "accredited investors" who have an annual income of $200,000 or more or $1 million in net worth. Hedge funds also charge very hefty fees, making them largely unattractive to individual investors.
  Some investors think it's the ultimate "buy" recommendation when a company says it's planning to buy back its own stock. Stocks often rise after a company tells Wall Street it's launching a stock-buyback program. After all, who better to know whether the stock is undervalued than the company itself?
  But investors should be skeptical of buybacks. For one thing, just because a company says it will buy back stock doesn't mean it will. Academic studies show about a third of companies that say they will buy back stock never do.
  It's easy to confuse real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, with housing. But your home and an investment in REITs are very different. First of all, REITs largely invest in commercial real estate, such as office buildings, shopping centers, hospitals, and malls — not single-family homes.
  Another thing to remember is that your home, although it can appreciate in value over time, isn't an investment per se. It's your shelter. You own your home as a place to live, and if you make money on it, that's a secondary perk. REITs, on the other hand, are purely designed to be investments. Cohen & Steers (`www.cohenandsteers.com`), an investment research firm dedicated to real estate, provides comprehensive details about REIT investing.