Scam Avoidance: A New Guide From the NFA

The National Futures Association (NFA) has published an investor education booklet entitled “Scams and Swindles: An Educational Guide to Avoiding Investment Fraud.”

The guide describes common characteristics of investment scams and outlines steps individuals can take to avoid them. These characteristics include:

• A demand for an immediate decision: Swindlers often insist that you should or must make your decision “right now” before the opportunity for fast profits disappears. In reality, the only thing that will disappear is your money.
• A request for a credit card number other than to make a purchase: A fraudster may ask you for your credit card number “for identification” or some other plausible reason. Whatever the ploy, once a swindler has your card number, you will likely see unauthorized charges appear on your statement.
• An investment that is “without risk”: Except for obligations of the U.S. government, all investments have a degree of risk.

Single copies of “Scams and Swindles” are offered free of charge. Individuals may order a copy of the publication by calling NFA’s Information Center toll-free at 800-621-3570 or by E-mailing NFA atinformation@nfa.futures.org. You also have the option of viewing and printing the publication by downloading it from the Investor Learning Center of NFA’s Web site (www.nfa.futures.org).

Source: National Futures Association.

Keeping Your Feet on the Ground as the Stock Market Soars

Dean Junkans, CFA and chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank, warns investors not to get too giddy over current market heights. “Although there are a number of positive economic indicators at play right now, investors need to keep their optimism in check to ensure they’re armed with the right investment strategies for long-term success in the current and future market environment.”

Junkans notes several areas of concern, including the possibility that second-quarter earnings may not reach the heights of the first quarter, job numbers may weaken, and worries over consumer spending due to high gas prices, a declining housing market and mortgage equity withdrawals.

What should investors do?

Junkans offers five tips on how to reap the rewards of the current environment while ensuring portfolios are appropriately managing market risk:

• Trim domestic equities and consider a tactical 5% move to cash
• Take gains on small caps, overweight large-cap multinationals
• Underweight domestic bonds, especially high yield
• Overweight international equities
• Reallocate public REIT exposure—trim domestic, add to global

Source: Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Seeing Green: The Top 20 Eco-Stocks for 2007

SustainableBusiness.com has announced its 2007 list of “Top Sustainable Stocks”—the 20 most innovative companies, large and small, that are having an important impact on creating an environmentally sustainable society. The list is designed to showcase public companies that, over the past year, have made substantial progress in either greening their internal operations or growing a business based on an important green technology.

SustainableBusiness.com provides global news and networking services to help green businesses grow.

The list includes:

Energy Efficiency
Comverge (NASDAQ: COMV) U.S.
Fuel Tech (NASDAQ: FTEK) U.S.
Novozymes (Copenhagen: NZYM.CO) Denmark
Royal Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG) Netherlands

Renewable Energy
First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) U.S.
Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA) U.S.
Renewable Energy Corp. - REC (Oslo: REC.OL) Norway
Schmack Biogas AG (Germany: SB1B.DE) Germany
Vestas (Copenhagen: VWS.CO) Denmark

Natural Resources: Water, Forests
Best Water Technology (Vienna: BWT.VI) Austria
Precious Woods (Geneva: SWX: PRWN) Switzerland

Green Building
Herman Miller (NASDAQ: MLHR) U.S.
Interface (NASDAQ: IFSIA) U.S.
Land Securities (London: Land.L) Britain

Consumer Products
Canon (NYSE: CAJ) Japan
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) U.S.

Natural Foods/Natural Products
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) U.S.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) U.S.
Groupe Danone (DANO.PA) Netherlands
Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) U.S.

Source: Progressive Investor newsletter, SustainableBusiness.com.