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I’ve found that projects in the real world do have a lot in common with investing. Treat investments as a business.

Today’s Investment of the Week is the third installment in our series of occasional interviews with the expert contributors of the Dick Davis Digests. Today’s interviewee is Nate Pile, editor of Nate’s Notes, who shares his thoughts on investing and more below. Chloe Lutts: When did you found Nate’s Notes? What...

This week I’m pleased to bring you something very special: an interview with Dick Davis Digest founder Dick Davis. Prior to founding the Digest, Dick Davis worked at Merrill Lynch, where he began a prolific career as a stock market commentator for radio, television and newspaper. His daily TV market report...

Water is not a globally traded commodity. In fact, unless you’re talking about the bottled stuff, it’s barely a commodity at all. You rarely if ever hear consumers grumble about higher water bills the way they gripe about gas prices. And while many people do take steps to save water...

Today I’m bringing you a special Q&A with Cabot Small-Cap Confidential Editor Thomas Garrity. Earlier this week, Timothy Lutts told you that small-cap stocks are leading the current market advance: while the Dow Industrials are up 26% over the past 13 weeks, the S&P 600 Small-Cap 600 Index is up a whopping 39%. Even better, stocks currently recommended by Cabot Small-Cap Confidential are up 49% in the past 13 weeks. The Q&A should help you better understand why small-cap stocks are leading the market, what you should be looking for now in individual stocks and where Tom sees the market and small-cap stocks going in the second half of 2009. Enjoy!

High yields and safety are not mutually exclusive. You can have both! Here are three safe high yield dividend stocks to buy now.

Today I’m bringing you a Q&A with Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter Editor J. Royden Ward. You haven’t heard from him in a while, so I wanted to bring you up to speed on his latest thinking about what happened in 2008 and where he sees the stock market and value stocks headed in 2009 and beyond.

If I try to think rationally about this problem, here’s what I get. Debt is bad; equity is good. Consumers and businesses are already working to reduce their debt loads, and as they continue, they will develop stronger balance sheets and greater financial health, which is a good thing. (One aspect of this that is often forgotten is that this debt shrinkage is right on schedule for aging baby-boomers.)

My stock idea is, very simply, the #1 stock on my watch list right now. The company sports most of the characteristics of past leaders--fast sales and earnings growth, healthy profit margins, a unique position in a mass market, and a huge opportunity for growth going forward.

How safe are the toys your kids are playing with this Christmas? After the widespread toy recalls of 2007, I assumed the toy industry would have straightened its act out. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The Ecology Center, a Michigan nonprofit, tested 1,500 children’s toys this year for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC and other harmful chemicals.

In my mind, just as the failure of the sub-prime market triggered the collapse of the housing industry, the collapse of the housing industry will trigger the deflation of our debt bubble. Eventually, if all goes well, the end result will be a smaller debt load for the U.S. and a smaller debt load for American consumers as well ... which in my mind means living in houses we can afford.

Despite a Ukraine conflict that’s roiled markets, Explorer stocks had a good week. And while Sea (SE) reported a mixed and disappointing quarter, Ford (F) made a big announcement as it moves into a new era.

The past week has seen the market rocket higher on hopes for a massive $2 trillion economic stimulus plan that would try to help consumers and businesses get through the tunnel of productivity and financial devastation that this pandemic has created.

The quick rebound in the major indexes and many growth stocks this week has been very encouraging—it doesn’t completely clear the air from some of the abnormal action last week, but it’s definitely a plus. We remain mostly bullish, though we continue to pick entries carefully, especially with so many stocks reporting earnings in the next couple of weeks.

While things are a bit giddy in the short-term and we’re still in the midst of earnings season (three of our stocks release their numbers tonight or tomorrow), our trend-following indicators bullish and growth stocks are acting great. Thus, you should keep your optimist’s hat on.

After stumbling last Wednesday, the market is back on its feet, with the major indexes all hitting new highs in recent days. Technology stocks have led the way, a reversal of the Dow outperformance we’d seen over the past two weeks.

In such an environment it’s easy to assume the worst and miss the flipside of the equation – great companies trading at prices that just a month ago we would have considered incredible. Market volatility and uncertainty are creating great opportunities.

So far, earnings season hasn’t had that much of an impact on the overall market. I don’t think investors know quite what to make of this quarter. It’s bad. But everyone knows that going in.

The S&P 500 is now up over 40% from the bottom in March and less than 10% from the all time high. Forget about a bear market. It’s not even a correction any more.