The advantage to this is that an investor can weigh a fund's performance against real alternatives, not hypothetical returns.

Economic theory may assert that investors weigh each stock and then pick the most attractive one, but in practice money managers often follow the herd.

Prospective investors must weigh the company's history of past technical successes in classified areas, coupled with its diverse array of businesses, he said.

But investors considering the funds for the first time should weigh two drawbacks.

But investors focusing on Dell's income statement should also weigh its balance sheet.

At issue is the way that investors can weigh in on the Severstal deal.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which had already slid 5 percent from its peak, continued to drift down, as investors weighed signs of higher inflation.

The problem is, during the Internet craze, investors weighed the nonfinancial data too heavily, he said.

So how should an investor weigh the current news?

Stock prices advanced yesterday for the first time since Monday, after investors weighed the week's Government statistics and concluded that the economy was expanding moderately.