[GregWeld]

I was just reviewing how to describe the "TOOLS" a guy can use to research stocks... and one of the things that people just don't get is what is called TOTAL RETURN. That is the stock - re-investing the dividends - and the stock price appreciation.

Schwab has a "Research tab" -- you can research stocks - or bonds or etfs (exchange traded funds). If you go to the STOCK tab -- you can enter a symbol or name... That will pull up a page with a SUMMARY of the stock... and in the GRAPH that comes up labeled "COMPANY PERFORMANCE" -- there is a underlined heading "Total Return"... when you click on that it will show you a graph comparing that companies total return against the S&P 500 (Standard and Poors 500 stock index) and a selected INDEX fund for the category that the stock you're checking is in. Using Kinder Morgan Partners as an example -- it pulls up the ENERGY ETF (ETF are exchanged traded funds that are a basket of stocks that make up an index - not unlike a mutual fund).

When you look at KMP (Kinder Morgan Partners) you'll see a CHART - and right beside that (to the right of it) it shows IN GREEN the total return for 1 year - 3 years - and 5 years.

Now - everyone wants to hit a "Microsoft" and become an instant millionaire -- FUGIDABOUDIT!

BUT here's real investments that I listed in an earlier post and their FIVE YEAR TOTAL RETURNS:


Kinder Morgan Partners --- KMP -- 129.5%

Altria --- MO -- 104%

Phillip Morse --- PM -- 112.3% (3 year period since they were spun off from MO just 3 years ago)

COKE --- KO -- 59.6%

McDonalds --- MCD -- 161.1%

Johnson & Johnson --- JNJ -- 13.4%

Annaly Capital Management --- NLY -- 113.6%

AT&T --- T -- 5.9%

Con Edison --- ED -- 59.3%

I don't know about you guys -- but 100% RETURN on my money in a 5 year period gets my blood flowing... beats a savings account that's for sure!