Selecting an online broker could be one of an investor’s most important choices. The selection process for online brokerages can involve a couple of components. One is good, old-fashioned gut instinct. The other is a hard analysis of the facts.

‘Protected funds’ aim to limit your losses, so can they still produce growth?

Mutual-fund and exchange-traded fund investors take to the U.S. stock market’s sidelines in the second quarter, preferring to watch the game rather than play. And what a game it was.

Is the stock market a place to make money or is it a financial wolf in sheeps clothing?

The long term used to mean three-, five- or 10-year holding periods for stock investors looking to wring out risk and boost their odds of making money. Then came the 2000s, dubbed the Lost Decade, when the U.S. stock market posted negative returns in a decade for the first time since the 1930s.That poor 10-year stretch put a big dent in the boilerplate stay-the-course personal finance advice …

Making money in the stock market is as much about avoiding big losses as it is about scoring big gains.

It’s that time again, the time of year when insecurities about the stock market and busy schedules drive people to experts for help doing taxes and picking mutual funds for IRAs.

The pain of the stock market meltdown is becoming a more distant memory thanks to the stunning rebound of mutual fund returns.

Rob Carrick rounds up the best in personal finance reading on the Web

There’s a long and boring history of hacks, typically on the right, blaming or crediting presidents for whatever the stock market happens to be doing at the moment.