Sectors and Areas

One of the keys to successful investing lies in understanding various industry sectors and their cyclical nature. Like the market itself, sectors will experience periods of sustained growth, followed by periods of declining value due to a variety of factors and trends. The more you know about sectors of the economy and the circumstances that affect them, the better you can adjust your portfolio to minimize risk and maximize your profit potential.

Click on any of the following list of sectors and areas to learn more them.

Consumer

Simply put, consumer products are those purchased by final consumers for personal consumption. These include chemically formulated products used by household or institutional consumers such as detergents, cleaning compounds, cosmetics, personal care products, disinfectants, sanitizers, and automotive specialty products. [more ...]

Defense

In an age of international conflict and homeland security, defense stocks are consistently among the best performers. The demand for military hardware, aircraft and high-tech security systems is such that companies, such as Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin – just to name a few – receive billions of dollars of contacts each year from both the public and private sectors. Consequently, their publicly traded shares, though sometimes expensive, are also among the strongest, offering a potentially high rate of return and substantial dividends. [more ...]

Energy

The energy sector is comprised of a spectrum of companies involved in the construction or provision of oil rigs, drilling equipment and other energy-related service and equipment, as well as companies engaged in the exploration, production, marketing, refining and/or transportation of oil and gas products. [more ...]

Financial

In terms of earnings, financial services is the largest industry in the world. In fact, the industry represents 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500. The sector is comprised of organizations that deal with money management, including merchant banks, credit card companies, consumer finance companies, government sponsored enterprises, and stock brokerages. [more ...]

Gold

If there is one commodity that defines real wealth, it is gold. In fact, gold forms the basis for the monetary standard used by both the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements. [more ...]

Mining

All that glitters is not gold. Base metals, including copper, nickel, lead, zinc, coal, iron ore, aluminum, palladium, titanium and uranium, are also in great demand in both industrialized and emerging world economies. [more ...]

Natural Resources

By definition, natural resources are naturally occurring substances – such as fuel, minerals, timber and wildlife – that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified form. These resources become commodities when they are subjected to extraction and purification. Thus, the natural resources sector includes a variety of industries, such as mining, petroleum and natural gas extraction, fishing, hunting, forestry and hydroelectric power. [more ...]

Real Estate

The real estate sector is comprised of a wide array of developers, renovators and facilitators. The latter includes banks, mortgage companies and real estate brokers. [more ...]

Silver

Like gold, silver is considered a precious metal that is both practical and a valuable investment. Used in currency, ornaments, utensils and jewelry, silver also serves many scientific purposes since it has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity for a metal. [more ...]

Uranium

Talk about a rare metal – only an estimated 4.7 million tons of economically minable uranium reserves are known to exist on Earth. Although that’s enough to last for 85 years, underinvestment in the latter part of the twentieth century may produce supply problems in the years ahead. [more ...]