In his revered investment book One Up on Wall Street, US fund manager Peter Lynch wrote: 'Before buying a stock, I like to be able to give a two-minute monologue that covers the reasons I'm interested in it, what has to happen for the company to succeed, and the pitfalls that stand in its path?'Once you're able to tell the story of a stock to your family, your friends, or the dog? so that even a c

By: Steven Frazer, Daniel Coatsworth, James Crux, Tom SieberBuy family-run businesses if you want to beat the market. It's a bold statement and credible one, according to various bits of research we'll discuss later.Many of these studies categorise a family company as one where the family owns at least a 20% stake in the business and has at least one member on the board.Global brands such as Heine

Doing your homework is the first rule of stock selection and information regarding a company's financial position, track record and prospects is readily available via data sources such as the website of Shares' sister publication MoneyAM (see www.moneyam.com). However, in addition to examining the fundamentals and wading through research issued by brokers, investors should always pay attention to