query: Louie (season 1) was created by Edward Kitsis.

positive: Louie (season 1) The first season of the American television comedy series Louie premiered on June 29 , 2010 and concluded on September 7 , 2010 . It consisted of thirteen episodes , each running approximately 23 minutes in length . FX broadcast the first season on Tuesdays at 11:00 pm in the United States . The season was produced by 3 Arts Entertainment and the executive producers were Louis C.K. , Dave Becky and M. Blair Breard . The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on June 21 , 2011 .   Louie was created by Louis C.K. , who serves as the series ' sole writer and director . C.K. stars as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .   The season received critical acclaim .

negative: Louie (season 2) The second season of the American television comedy series Louie premiered on June 23 , 2011 and concluded on September 8 , 2011 . It consisted of thirteen episodes , each running approximately 23 minutes in length . FX broadcast the second season on Thursdays at 10:30 pm in the United States . The season was produced by 3 Arts Entertainment and the executive producers were Louis C.K. , Dave Becky and M. Blair Breard . The second season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on June 19 , 2012 .   Louie was created by Louis C.K. , who serves as the series ' sole writer and director . C.K. stars as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .   The season received critical acclaim from critics .

negative: Edward Kitsis Edward Lawrence `` Eddy '' Kitsis ( Born February 4 , 1971 ) is an American television writer and producer , best known for his work with his writing partner Adam Horowitz on the popular ABC drama series Lost and Once Upon a Time .

negative: Louie (season 3) The third season of the American television comedy series Louie premiered on June 28 , 2012 and concluded on September 27 , 2012 . It consisted of thirteen episodes , each running approximately 23 minutes in length . FX broadcast the third season on Thursdays at 10:30 pm in the United States . The season was produced by 3 Arts Entertainment and the executive producers were Louis C.K. , Dave Becky and M. Blair Breard .   Louie was created by Louis C.K. , who serves as the series ' sole writer and director . C.K. stars as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .   The season received critical acclaim .

negative: Louie (season 5) The fifth season of the American television comedy series Louie premiered on April 9 , 2015 , and concluded on May 28 , 2015 . It consists of eight episodes , each running approximately 23 minutes in length . FX broadcast the fifth season on Thursdays at 10:30 pm in the United States . The season was produced by 3 Arts Entertainment and the executive producers were Louis C.K. , Dave Becky and M. Blair Breard .   Louie was created by Louis C.K. , who serves as the series ' sole writer and director . C.K. stars as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .

negative: Louie (season 4) The fourth season of the American television comedy series Louie premiered on May 5 , 2014 , and concluded on June 16 , 2014 . It consists of fourteen episodes ( an additional episode more than previous seasons ) , most running approximately 23 minutes in length . FX broadcast the fourth season on Mondays at 10:00 and 10:30 pm in the United States with back-to-back episodes . The season was produced by 3 Arts Entertainment and the executive producers were Louis C.K. , Dave Becky and M. Blair Breard .   Louie was created by Louis C.K. , who serves as the series ' sole writer and director . C.K. stars as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .

negative: List of Louie episodes Louie is an American comedy-drama television series created , written , directed by , and starring stand-up comedian Louis C.K. . The series premiered on FX on June 29 , 2010 .

negative: Louie (French TV series) Louie is an animated television series ( 39 x 7 ' ) produced by the French company Millimages , created by Isabeau Merle , adapted from the work of Yves Got and directed by Frédéric Mege , Frédérick Chaillou & François Narboux . The series has been broadcast on France 5 in Zouzous , Nickelodeon , Super RTL , Disney Channel , ABC , and CBeebies .   The English voice cast features Emma Tate as Louie , Shelley Longworth as Sophie , Sue Elliott Nichols ( and Matt Wilkinson ) as additional drawings , and The Hot Kool Kids as offscreen speakers .

negative: Lucky Louie Lucky Louie is an American television sitcom created by Louis C.K. , which aired on HBO in the U.S. for one season in 2006 -- and in Canada on Movie Central , The Movie Network , and The Comedy Network . As the show 's creator , writer and executive producer , C.K. also starred as the eponymous central character , a part-time mechanic at a muffler shop .   A first for HBO , Lucky Louie was filmed before a live studio audience , in a multiple-camera setup . Inspired by Norman Lear 's sitcoms , the show depicts the life of an average working class family while using spartan sets and wardrobe . Dealing with a range of topics including sex and racism , the series uses considerable adult language and casts performers widely known as stand-up comedians , including Jim Norton , Laura Kightlinger , Nick DiPaolo , Todd Barry and Rick Shapiro .   HBO ordered 12 episodes , which aired during the 2006 summer season , as well as eight scripts for a second season , before canceling the show in September 2006 -- for numerous reasons ranging from the nature of the show to network economic pressure .

negative: Louie Provenza Detective Lieutenant Louie Provenza is a fictional character from TNT 's television crime drama franchise The Closer/Major Crimes . He appeared on all seven seasons of The Closer and all six seasonable of Major Crimes . The character was created by James Duff , and is portrayed by G. W. Bailey . Generally referred to as `` Provenza '' , the character 's first name was kept secret until his former partner , George Andrews , was heard to use it for the first time in the penultimate episode of the fifth season . It is said that only captains and above are allowed to address him by his first name and that even his own grandchildren call him `` Lieutenant '' . He is also the only member of his academy class still on active duty with the rest having retired by the beginning of season 2 of Major Crimes .

negative: Louie Anderson Louie Perry Anderson ( born March 24 , 1953 ) is an Emmy Award-winning American stand-up comedian , actor and television host . Anderson created the cartoon series Life with Louie , has written three books , and was the initial host of the third revival of the game show Family Feud , from 1999 to 2002 .   In September 2016 , Anderson won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as Christine Baskets on the FX television program Baskets .

negative: Dead of Summer (TV series) Dead of Summer is an American supernatural horror television series created by Adam Horowitz , Edward Kitsis and Ian Goldberg for Freeform . The series is set in the 1980s at Camp Stillwater , a Midwestern summer camp . In November 2015 , Freeform gave a straight-to-series order .   The series premiered on June 28 , 2016 and concluded on August 30 , 2016 . Dead of Summer was produced by ABC Signature and Kitsis/Horowitz . Adam Horowitz , Edward Kitsis and Ian Goldberg wrote and executive-produced the series . Steve Pearlman served as executive producer . On November 8 , 2016 , Freeform cancelled the series after one season .

negative: Adam Horowitz Adam Horowitz ( born December 4 , 1971 ) is an American screenwriter and producer .   He is known for his work with writing partner Edward Kitsis on Felicity , Black Sash , One Tree Hill , Popular , Fantasy Island , Birds of Prey , Life As We Know It , and Lost .   He currently works on the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time , which he and Kitsis created .

negative: Once Upon a Time (season 1) The first season of the ABC television series Once Upon a Time premiered on October 23 , 2011 and concluded on May 13 , 2012 . The series was created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz . The series centers around the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke , and the Evil Queen 's ( Lana Parrilla ) plot to destroy everyone 's happiness so she can be the only one with a happy ending .   Once Upon a Times first season received `` generally favorable '' reviews from critics . Metacritic gave it a score of 66 out of 100 based on 26 reviews . Washington Posts Hank Stuever called the series `` a smartly-crafted reward for fans of light fantasy , with the right mix of cleverness , action and romance . '' Verne Gay of Newsday said the series `` glows with a near-theatrical shine , challenging viewers to think about TV drama as something other than boilerplate . ''   The pilot episode was watched by 12.93 million viewers and achieved an adult 18-49 rating/share of 4.0 / 10 . Those numbers dipped late in the season to a series low of 8.36 million viewers and a 2.8 / 8 adult 18-49 rating/share in April 2012 , but rebounded slightly for the season finale with 9.66 million viewers and a 3.3 / 10 adult 18-49 rating/share .

negative: Eddie (Louie) `` Eddie '' is the ninth episode of the second season of Louie . It first aired on the FX channel in the United States on August 11 , 2011 . The series stars stand-up comedian Louis C.K. as a fictionalized version of himself and this episode has him reconnecting with an estranged friend from the comedy club circuit who confesses that he is planning on killing himself and just wants to say good bye to the only person who will associate with him . The episode was received positively by critics .

negative: Life with Louie Life with Louie is an American animated series . The show is based on the childhood of stand-up comedian Louie Anderson , growing up with his family in Wisconsin , although Anderson himself is from Minnesota .   The first two episodes aired in primetime on Fox .

negative: The Louie Show The Louie Show is an American sitcom television series that aired from January 31 until March 6 , 1996 .

negative: Louie (TV series) Louie is an American comedy-drama television series on the FX network that began airing in 2010 . It is written , directed , edited , and produced by the show 's creator , comedian Louis C.K. . He also stars in the show as a fictionalized version of himself , a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City . The show has a loose format atypical for television comedy series , consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments ( described by FX president John Landgraf as `` extended vignettes '' ) that revolve around Louie 's life , punctuated by live stand-up performances .   The show has been met with critical acclaim and was included in various critics ' 2010s top-ten lists of TV shows . C.K. has received several Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his acting , writing , and directing , and has won for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 64th and 66th Primetime Emmy Awards .   In August 2015 , FX announced the series would go on an extended hiatus and return when Louis C.K. is ready to continue working on the series . In an April 2016 interview with Howard Stern , C.K. claimed that though he did n't want to close the door on the series , he did n't want to have any obligation to FX to do another season .

negative: Born to Run (Lost) `` Born to Run '' is the 22nd episode of the first season of Lost . It was directed by Tucker Gates , written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz , and based on a story by Javier Grillo-Marxuach . It first aired on May 11 , 2005 , on ABC . The character Kate Austen ( Evangeline Lilly ) is featured in the episode 's flashbacks . The title Born to Run is an allusion to the Bruce Springsteen song and album of the same names .

negative: The Doctor (Once Upon a Time) `` The Doctor '' is the fifth episode of the second season of the American ABC fantasy/drama television series Once Upon a Time , and the show 's 27th episode overall , which aired on October 28 , 2012 .   It was co-written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz , while being directed by Paul Edwards .   In this episode , Regina is reunited with Daniel , while flashbacks show her past with Victor Frankenstein . Also in present-day Enchanted Forest , Emma , Mary Margaret , Mulan , and Aurora meet Captain Hook .

negative: Fire + Water (Lost) `` Fire + Water '' is the 37th episode of Lost . It is the 12th episode of the second season . The episode was directed by Jack Bender , and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz . It first aired on January 25 , 2006 , on ABC . The character of Charlie Pace ( Dominic Monaghan ) is featured in the episode 's flashbacks .

negative: List of awards and nominations received by Louie Louie is an American television comedy created , written , directed by , and starring stand-up comedian Louis C.K. . The series has aired for five seasons on the cable channel FX since June 29 , 2010 . The show centers on a fictionalized version of C.K. 's life as a comedian , father , and divorcé .   Since its debut , the series has earned widespread critical acclaim and has been nominated for a variety of different awards , including twenty-two Primetime Emmy Awards ( three wins for the series ) , eight Television Critics Association Awards ( three wins ) , two Golden Globe Awards , four Writers Guild of America Awards ( three wins ) , three Directors Guild of America Award , two Screen Actors Guild Awards , and two Producers Guild of America Awards .   C.K. has been nominated for nineteen individual awards for his role as the series lead , seven as director , nine as writer , and thirteen as producer . Several of C.K. 's collaborators have also been nominated for various awards including series producers M. Blair Breard , Tony Hernandez , Dave Becky , Vernon Chatman , and Steven Wright , frequent co-writer and recurring guest star Pamela Adlon , and guest actors Melissa Leo , David Lynch , and Sarah Baker . As of 2016 , Louie has won 16 awards from a total of 62 nominations .

negative: Three Minutes `` Three Minutes '' is the 47th episode of Lost . It is the 22nd episode of the second season . The episode was directed by Stephen Williams , and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz . It first aired May 17 , 2006 , on ABC . The emotionally conflicted character of Michael Dawson is featured in the episode 's flashbacks . It also marks a transition for Mr. Eko , from his project of building a church , to his self-appointed role of entering the numbers in the computer .

negative: Once Upon a Time (TV series) Once Upon a Time is an American fairy tale television series that premiered on October 23 , 2011 , on ABC . The show takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke , Maine , whose residents are characters from various fairy tales transported to the `` real world '' town and robbed of their original memories by a powerful curse .   It borrows elements and characters from the Disney-franchise and popular Western literature , folklore , and fairy tales . Once Upon a Time was created by Lost and Tron : Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz .   For the first six seasons , the series aired on Sundays at 8:00 pm ET/7 :00 pm CT. . On May 11 , 2017 , ABC renewed the series for a 22-episode seventh season , moving to Friday 8:00 pm ET/7 :00 pm CT. .   A spin-off series , Once Upon a Time in Wonderland , consisting of 13 episodes , premiered on October 10 , 2013 , and concluded on April 3 , 2014 .

negative: Smallville (season 1) Season one of Smallville , an American television series developed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar , began airing on October 16 , 2001 , on The WB television network . The series recounts the early adventures of Kryptonian Clark Kent as he adjusts to his developing superpowers in the fictional town of Smallville , Kansas , during the years before he becomes Superman . The first season comprises 21 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 21 , 2002 . Regular cast members during season one include Tom Welling , Michael Rosenbaum , Kristin Kreuk , Annette O'Toole , John Schneider , Sam Jones III , Allison Mack , and Eric Johnson .   The season 's stories focus on Martha and Jonathan Kent 's ( O'Toole and Schneider ) attempts to help their adopted son Clark ( Welling ) cope with his alien origin and control his developing superhuman abilities . Clark must deal with the meteor-infected individuals that begin appearing in Smallville , his love for Lana Lang ( Kreuk ) , and not being able to tell his two best friends , Pete Ross ( Jones III ) and Chloe Sullivan ( Mack ) , about his abilities or his origins . Clark also befriends Lex Luthor ( Rosenbaum ) after saving Lex 's life . The season also follows Lex , as he tries to assert his independence from his father , Lionel Luthor ( John Glover ) .   The episodes were filmed primarily in Vancouver and post-production work took place in Los Angeles . Gough and Millar assisted the writing staff with week-to-week story development . `` Villain of the week '' storylines were predominant during the first season ; physical effects , make-up effects , and computer generated imagery became important components as well . Limited filming schedules sometimes forced guest actors to perform physical stunts , and the series regulars were more than willing to do stunt work . Episode budgets ultimately became strictly regulated , as the show frequently ran over budget during the first half of the season . The pilot broke The WB 's viewership record for a debut series , and was nominated for various awards . Although the villain of the week storylines became a concern for producers , critical reception was generally favorable , and the series was noted as having a promising start . The first season was released on DVD on September 23 , 2003 , and included various special features that focused on individual episodes and the series as a whole . It has also been released on home media in regions 2 and 4 in the international markets .

negative: Margo Kitsy Brodie Margo Kitsy Brodie ( born April 12 , 1966 ) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York .

negative: Broken (Once Upon a Time) `` Broken '' is the first episode of the second season of the American ABC fantasy/drama television series Once Upon a Time , and the show 's 23rd episode overall . It premiered September 30 , 2012 .   In this episode , Mr. Gold decides to get revenge on Regina ; and later in the Enchanted Forest , Phillip , Aurora , and Mulan face a wraith .   It was co-written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz , while being directed by Ralph Hemecker .

negative: Poker/Divorce `` Poker/Divorce '' is the second episode of the American comedy-drama television series Louie . It first aired on the FX channel in the United States on June 29 , 2010 , and was written and directed by the show 's creator and star , Louis C.K.

negative: Pilot (Louie) `` Pilot '' is the series premiere of the American comedy-drama television series Louie . It first aired on the FX channel in the United States on June 29 , 2010 , and was written , directed , and edited by the show 's creator and star , Louis C.K.

negative: Lacey (Once Upon a Time) `` Lacey '' is the 19th episode of the second season of the American ABC fantasy/drama television series Once Upon a Time , and the show 's 41st episode overall . It aired on April 21 , 2013 .   In this episode , Mr. Gold goes on a date with Belle . In flashbacks , Rumpelstiltskin forces Belle to accompany him on his search to catch a thief .   It was co-written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz , while being directed by Milan Cheylov .

negative: The L Word (season 1) The first season of American/Canadian co-produced drama television series , The L Word premiered on Showtime on January 18 , 2004 and ended on April 11 , 2004 , created by Ilene Chaiken , Michele Abbot , and Kathy Greenberg . The series portrayed the lives of a group of lesbians and their friends , connections , family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles , California city of West Hollywood .   The series was highly popular and was Showtime 's highest rated series . It was renewed for a second and third season .

negative: D.O.C. (Lost) `` D.O.C. '' is the 18th episode of the 3rd season of Lost and the 67th episode overall . It was aired on April 25 , 2007 . The episode was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Fred Toye . The character of Sun-Hwa Kwon ( Yunjin Kim ) is featured in the episode 's flashbacks .   The title is a reference to the medical phrase of the same name which stands for ` Date of Conception ' , referring to the episode 's plot of discovering Sun 's D.O.C.

negative: Lou! (TV series) Lou ! is a French animated comedy television series created by Julien Neel , based upon his comic book series of the same name . It was produced by Go-N Productions and directed by Jérôme Mouscadet . The series follows the adventures of Lou and her mother .   The series made its debut on April 5 , 2009 , and ran for one season with a total of 52 episodes . Go-N Productions has launched an official YouTube channel for the English-language version of the series on April 21 , 2015 .


query: Jason Bourne has Julia Stiles as part of the cast.

positive: Jason Bourne (film) Jason Bourne is a 2016 American action thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse . In this fifth installment of the Jason Bourne film series and direct sequel to 2007 's The Bourne Ultimatum , Matt Damon reprises his role as the main character , former CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac Jason Bourne .   In the film , Bourne remains on the run from CIA hit squads as he tries to uncover hidden truths about his father . CIA director Robert Dewey ( Tommy Lee Jones ) orders the CIA head of cyber-security Heather Lee ( Alicia Vikander ) to hunt him down . Julia Stiles , Vincent Cassel , Riz Ahmed , Ato Essandoh and Scott Shepherd also star . Principal photography on the film commenced on September 8 , 2015 . The film premiered in London on July 11 , 2016 , and was theatrically released in the United States on July 29 , 2016 , by Universal Pictures . The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success , grossing $ 415 million worldwide .

negative: The Bourne Identity (2002 film) The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American-German action spy thriller film . It is an adaptation of Robert Ludlum 's novel of the same name . It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne , a man suffering from extreme memory loss and attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) . The film also features Franka Potente , Chris Cooper , Clive Owen , Julia Stiles , Brian Cox and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje . This , the first in the Jason Bourne film series , is followed by The Bourne Supremacy ( 2004 ) , The Bourne Ultimatum ( 2007 ) , The Bourne Legacy ( 2012 ) , and Jason Bourne ( 2016 ) .   The film was co-produced and directed by Doug Liman and adapted for the screen by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron . Although Robert Ludlum died in 2001 , he is credited as the film 's executive producer alongside Frank Marshall . Universal Pictures released the film to theatres in the United States on June 14 , 2002 , and it received a positive critical and public reaction .

negative: Jason Bourne Jason Bourne is a fictional character created by novelist Robert Ludlum . Bourne is the antihero in a series of fourteen novels ( to 2016 ) and subsequent film adaptations . He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity ( 1980 ) , which was adapted for television in 1988 . The novel was very loosely adapted in 2002 into a feature film under the same name and starred Matt Damon in the lead role .   The character originally featured in three novels by Ludlum , released between 1980 and 1990 , followed by nine novels written by Eric Van Lustbader since 2004 . Along with the first feature film , The Bourne Identity ( 2002 ) , Jason Bourne also appears in two sequel movies The Bourne Supremacy ( 2004 ) and The Bourne Ultimatum ( 2007 ) , both with Damon again in the lead role . Jeremy Renner stars in the fourth film of the franchise , The Bourne Legacy , released in August 2012 . Damon stated in interviews that he would not do another Bourne film without Paul Greengrass , who had directed the second and third installments . Greengrass agreed to direct Damon in the fifth installment in the franchise , Jason Bourne . Greengrass jointly wrote the screenplay with editor Christopher Rouse .

negative: The Bourne Legacy (film) The Bourne Legacy is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Tony Gilroy , and is the fourth installment in the series of films adapted from the Jason Bourne novels originated by Robert Ludlum and continued by Eric Van Lustbader , being preceded by The Bourne Identity ( 2002 ) , The Bourne Supremacy ( 2004 ) , and The Bourne Ultimatum ( 2007 ) . Although this film has the same title as Van Lustbader 's first Bourne novel , The Bourne Legacy , the actual screenplay bears little resemblance to the novel . Unlike the novel , which features Jason Bourne as the principal character , the film centers on black ops agent Aaron Cross ( played by Jeremy Renner ) , an original character . In addition to Renner , the film stars Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton .   The titular character Jason Bourne does not appear in The Bourne Legacy , because actor Matt Damon chose not to return for the fourth film . Bourne is shown in pictures and mentioned by name several times throughout the film . Tony Gilroy , co-screenwriter of the first three films , sought to continue the story of the film series without changing its key events , and parts of The Bourne Legacy take place at the same time as the previous film , The Bourne Ultimatum ( 2007 ) .   In The Bourne Legacy , Aaron Cross is a member of a black ops program called Operation Outcome whose subjects are genetically enhanced . He must run for his life once former CIA Treadstone agent Jason Bourne 's actions lead to the public exposure of Operation Treadstone and its successor Operation Blackbriar .   Filming was primarily in New York City , with some scenes shot in the Philippines , South Korea , Pakistan , and Canada . Released on , 2012 , the film received mixed reviews , with critics praising the story , James Newton Howard 's score , and Renner 's performance , but expressed disappointment in Matt Damon 's absence , as well as the lack of shaky camera work ( a key element of Greengrass ' directorial style ) that the second and third films had used . The film was followed in 2016 by Jason Bourne , in which Damon and Greengrass reprised their earlier roles .

negative: Julia Stiles Julia O'Hara Stiles ( born March 28 , 1981 ) is an American actress . Born and raised in New York City , Stiles began acting at age 11 and made her screen debut as Erica Dansby in six episodes of the television series Ghostwriter ( 1993-1994 ) . Her first film role was in I Love You , I Love You Not ( 1996 ) , followed by a leading role in the thriller Wicked ( 1998 ) , for which she was awarded the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Award for Best Actress . She went on to gain prominence for her lead roles in teen films such as 10 Things I Hate About You ( 1999 ) for which she won MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards , Down to You ( 2000 ) , for which she was nominated for another two Teen Choice Awards , and Save the Last Dance ( 2001 ) , winning the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress and was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance .   Stiles later went on to transition to more adult roles , garnering a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress -- Motion Picture for her performance in The Business of Strangers ( 2001 ) , Mona Lisa Smile ( 2003 ) , and The Omen ( 2006 ) . She became known to a wider audience for her supporting role alongside Matt Damon as Nicky Parsons in the Bourne film series ( 2002-2016 ) . She had a recurring role as Lumen Pierce in the fifth season of the Showtime series Dexter ( 2010 ) , a role that earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress -- Series , Miniseries or Television Film and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series . As a member of the cast of Silver Linings Playbook ( 2012 ) , Stiles was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture .   Stiles appears in the Blue web series also broadcast on television ( 2012 -- present ) . Other film roles include romantic comedy The Prince and Me ( 2004 ) , noir-inspired drama-thriller A Little Trip to Heaven ( 2005 ) , British-Canadian co-production The Cry of the Owl ( 2009 ) , Between Us ( 2012 ) , Out of the Dark ( 2014 ) , and with Anthony Hopkins in Blackway ( 2016 ) ( also known as Go With Me ) .

negative: The Bourne Betrayal The Bourne Betrayal is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the fifth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum . It was published in June 2007 . It is Lustbader 's second Bourne novel , following The Bourne Legacy that was published in 2004 . Lustbader has written a sequel to The Bourne Betrayal titled The Bourne Sanction .

negative: The Bourne Legacy (novel) The Bourne Legacy is a 2004 spy fiction thriller written by Eric Van Lustbader . It is the fourth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum and the first to be written by Lustbader . He has also written eight more novels in the series , The Bourne Betrayal , The Bourne Sanction , The Bourne Deception , The Bourne Objective , The Bourne Dominion , The Bourne Imperative , The Bourne Retribution and The Bourne Ascendancy .

negative: Bourne 5 Bourne 5 may refer to :   Jason Bourne ( film ) , ( 2016 film ) , the fifth film in the film franchise  The Bourne Betrayal , ( 2005 novel ) , by Eric Van Lustbader ; fifth novel in the novel series

negative: Michael Bourne Michael Bourne is a fictional character from the American soap opera Sunset Beach portrayed by American actor Jason Winston George during the show 's entire run .

negative: Jason Stiles Jason Stiles may refer to :  Jason Stiles ( Belco Legend )  Jason Stiles ( Gilmore Girls )  Jason Stiles ( American football )

negative: The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Supremacy is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum , first published in 1986 . It is the sequel to Ludlum 's bestseller The Bourne Identity ( 1980 ) and precedes Ludlum 's final Bourne novel , The Bourne Ultimatum ( 1990 ) .   The Bourne Supremacy gave its name to the second Bourne film starring Matt Damon The Bourne Supremacy in 2004 , which , however , has a completely different plot from the novel .

negative: The Bourne Ultimatum (film) The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American-German action spy thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum . The screenplay was written by Tony Gilroy , Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi and based on a screen story of the novel by Gilroy . The Bourne Ultimatum is the third in the Jason Bourne film series , being preceded by The Bourne Identity ( 2002 ) and The Bourne Supremacy ( 2004 ) . The fourth film , The Bourne Legacy , was released in August 2012 , without the involvement of Damon , and the fifth film ( a direct sequel to Ultimatum ) , Jason Bourne , was released in July 2016 .   Matt Damon reprises his role as Ludlum 's signature character , former CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac Jason Bourne . In the film , he continues his search for information about his past before he was part of Operation Treadstone and becomes a target of a similar assassin program .   The Bourne Ultimatum was produced by Universal Pictures and was released on August 3 , 2007 , in North America , where it grossed $ 69.3 million in its first weekend of release and was , at the time , Damon 's highest-grossing film with him as the lead . It went on to win all three of its nominations at the 80th Academy Awards : Best Film Editing , Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing .

negative: The Bourne Deception The Bourne Deception is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the seventh novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum . It was released on June 9 , 2009 . It is Lustbader 's fourth Bourne novel , following The Bourne Sanction , which was published in 2008 .

negative: The Bourne Sanction The Bourne Sanction is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the sixth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum . It was released on July 29 , 2008 . It is Lustbader 's third Bourne novel , following The Bourne Betrayal that was published in 2007 .

negative: The Bourne Identity (1988 film) The Bourne Identity is a 1988 American mystery thriller television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum 's novel The Bourne Identity . The film adaptation was written by Carol Sobieski , directed by Roger Young for Warner Bros. . Television with Richard Chamberlain in the title role , along with Jaclyn Smith . It follows the storyline of the original novel , with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min . With commercials added , the running time was extended to four hours . The film was first shown on ABC in two two-hour installments over two nights . The film was the last TV film for both Anthony Quayle and Denholm Elliott .   The book was adapted again in 2002 by Doug Liman starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne , launching the Bourne series of theatrical films , with considerable deviations from the original Cold War novel . It was followed later by a new series of Bourne best sellers written by Eric Lustbader with the permission of the Ludlum estate .

negative: Jason Winston George Jason Winston George ( born February 9 , 1972 ) is an American actor and model . He is best known for his roles as Michael Bourne on the NBC daytime soap opera Sunset Beach , as J.T. Hunter on the UPN television sitcom Eve , as Dr. Otis Cole on ABC 's Off the Map , and as Dr. Ben Warren on Grey 's Anatomy .

negative: The Bourne Identity (novel) The Bourne Identity is a 1980 spy fiction thriller by Robert Ludlum that tells the story of Jason Bourne , a man with remarkable survival abilities who suffers from retrograde amnesia , and must seek to discover his true identity . In the process , he must also reason out why several shadowy groups , a professional assassin , and the CIA want him dead . The story takes readers on an action-packed journey into a world of deceptions and conspiracies , offering a psychological portrait of Bourne , and giving them the chance to experience from his point of view the life-or-death decisions he makes as he seeks to piece together the dangerous puzzle of his missing past . It is the first novel of the original Bourne Trilogy , which also includes The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum .   Peter Cannon of Publishers Weekly named The Bourne Identity among the best spy novels of all time , after John le Carré 's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold .   The novel was the basis for the scripts of the 1988 television movie of the same name starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith , and the 2002 film of the same name , starring Matt Damon , Franka Potente and Chris Cooper .

negative: Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy Robert Ludlum 's The Bourne Conspiracy ( known as simply The Bourne Conspiracy ) is a third-person action stealth video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Sierra Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . The game expands upon Robert Ludlum 's character Jason Bourne , and immerses the player in a cat and mouse style espionage action adventure . The game was released in North America on June 3 , June 5 in Australia and June 27 , 2008 in Europe .

negative: J. R. Bourne David J.R. Bourne ( born April 8 , 1970 ) is a Canadian actor , best known for his roles as Martouf from Stargate SG-1 and Chris Argent from Teen Wolf . He had a recurring role in the second season of the ABC Soap opera Revenge , and portrayed a C.I.A. agent on FOX 's Science fiction TV series Fringe . In February 2017 , he was cast opposite Paula Patton in the new ABC drama Somewhere Between .   Bourne has won two Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards in the category Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film . The first in 2004 for the movie On The Corner , and the second in 2007 for Everything 's Gone Green . His performance in both movies also earned him two nominations in the category Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama at the Leo Awards .

negative: Tri Bourne Tri Bourne ( born June 20 , 1989 in Oahu , Hawaii ) is a professional Beach Volleyball player , former professional indoor player and NCAA Division 1 Men 's Volleyball player for the USC Trojans . He has been a part of the United State indoor and beach national teams since 2005 . He was born on the Hawaiian island of Oahu , where he grew up . His father Peter Bourne and mother Katy Bourne are both triathletes .

negative: Wicked (1998 film) Wicked is a 1998 American thriller film starring Julia Stiles as a disturbed teenage girl .

negative: Jason Piper Jason Piper is a British actor who voiced the part of the centaur Bane in the fifth film adaptation of the Harry Potter books : Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .   Piper has danced the role of the Swan ( principal role ) in Matthew Bourne 's Swan Lake for two seasons in London and in the production 's world tour . He used to play in bands called CREON and GUS . In November 2006 Jason joined Kylie Minogue on her Showgirl Homecoming Tour .   He is a tutor and Head of Dance at Kingston University . He has choreographed for many shows . He joined Matthew Bourne 's Dorian Gray as Basil in summer 2009 and completed the international tour .

negative: Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum ( May 25 , 1927 -- March 12 , 2001 ) was an American author of 27 thriller novels , best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original The Bourne Trilogy series . The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 290 million and 500 million . They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries . Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd .

negative: A Guy Thing A Guy Thing is a 2003 American comedy film directed by Chris Koch and starring Jason Lee , Julia Stiles and Selma Blair .

negative: Bourne (novel series) Bourne are a series of three novels by Robert Ludlum based on the fictional spy Jason Bourne . The series has since been further extended by Eric Van Lustbader after the death of Robert Ludlum .

negative: Jason Stiles (American football) Jason Stiles ( born June 28 , 1973 ) is a former American football quarterback who played two seasons with the Portland Forest Dragons of the Arena Football League . He played college football at Western Washington University . Stiles first enrolled at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita , California before transferring to Decatur High School in Federal Way , Washington . Stiles was also a member of the Wolfsburg Blue Wings .

negative: Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon ( -LSB- ˈdeɪmən -RSB- born October 8 , 1970 ) is an American actor , film producer , and screenwriter . He is ranked among Forbes magazine 's most bankable stars and is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time . Damon has received various accolades , including an Academy Award from five nominations , two Golden Globe Awards from eight nominations , and has been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards and six Emmy Awards .   Born and raised in Cambridge , Massachusetts , Damon began his acting career by appearing in high school theater productions and he made his professional acting debut in the film Mystic Pizza ( 1988 ) . He came to prominence in 1997 when he wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck , which won them the Academy and Golden Globe awards for Best Screenplay , and earned Damon a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor . He continued to garner praise from critics for his roles as the eponymous character in Saving Private Ryan ( 1998 ) , the antihero in The Talented Mr. Ripley ( 1999 ) , a fallen angel in Dogma ( 1999 ) , an energy analyst in Syriana ( 2005 ) , and a corrupt Irish-American police officer in The Departed ( 2006 ) .   Damon is also known for his starring roles as Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise ( 2002 -- 16 ) and as a con man in the Ocean 's Trilogy ( 2001 -- 07 ) . For his supporting role as the rugby player Francois Pienaar in Invictus ( 2009 ) and his leading role as an astronaut stranded on Mars in The Martian ( 2015 ) , Damon received Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor , respectively . The latter also won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor . Damon has received Emmy Award nominations for his portrayal of Scott Thorson in the biopic Behind the Candelabra ( 2013 ) and for producing the reality series Project Greenlight . He also received an Oscar nomination for producing Manchester by the Sea ( 2016 ) .   In addition to acting in films , Damon has performed voice-over work in both animated and documentary films and has established two production companies with Affleck . He has been involved in charitable work , including the ONE Campaign , H2O Africa Foundation , Feeding America , and Water.org . Damon is married to Luciana Bozán Barroso , and they have three daughters together .

negative: The Bourne Legacy The Bourne Legacy may refer to :   The Bourne Legacy ( novel ) , a 2004 novel by Eric Van Lustbader  The Bourne Legacy ( film ) , a 2012 film starring Jeremy Renner   Legacy , Bourne , The

negative: The Bourne Identity The Bourne Identity may refer to :   The Bourne Identity ( novel ) , a 1980 novel by Robert Ludlum  The Bourne Identity ( 1988 film ) , a television movie adaptation of the novel , starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith  The Bourne Identity ( 2002 film ) , a movie adaptation of the novel , starring Matt Damon  Bourne Identity : The True Story ( First Broadcast : 27 December 2009 ) . In-depth , behind-the-scenes look at the CIA .

negative: Vinzenz Kiefer Vinzenz Kiefer ( born January 29 , 1979 ) is a German actor . He is known for playing the role of police detective Alexander Brandt in the crime series Alarm für Cobra 11 , as well as that of Christian Dassault in Jason Bourne . His older sister Dorkas Kiefer is an actress .

negative: The Bourne Ultimatum The Bourne Ultimatum is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to The Bourne Supremacy ( 1986 ) . First published in 1990 , it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself . Eric Van Lustbader wrote a sequel titled The Bourne Legacy fourteen years later .   A film of the same name starring Matt Damon was released in 2007 . As in the 2004 film , The Bourne Supremacy , the film version of The Bourne Ultimatum has a completely different plot from the novel .

negative: Raving (film) Raving is a 2007 American short film written and directed by Julia Stiles , produced by Plum Pictures , and starring Bill Irwin and Zooey Deschanel .

negative: Bette Bourne Bette Bourne ( born Peter Bourne , 22 September 1939 ) is a British actor , drag queen and activist .


query: Why diversify stocks/investments?

positive: Basically, diversifying narrows the spread of possible results, raising  the center of the returns bell-curve by reducing the likelihood of extreme results at either the high or low end.  It's largely a matter of basic statistics. Bet double-or-nothing on a single coin flip, and those are the only possible results, and your odds of a disaster (losing most or all of the money) are 50%. Bet half of it on each of two coin flips, and your odds of losing are reduced to 25% at the cost of reducing your odds of winning to 25%, with 50% odds that you retain your money and can try the game again. Three coins divides the space further; the extremes are reduced to 12.5% each, with the middle being most likely. If that was all there was, this would be a zero-sum game and pure gambling. But the stock market is actually positive-sum, since companies are delivering part of their profits to their stockholder owners. This moves the center of the bell curve up a bit from break-even, historically to about +8%. This is why index funds produce a profit with very little active decision; they treat the variation as mostly random (which seems to work statistically) and just try to capture average results of a (hopefully) slightly above-average bucket of stocks and/or bonds. This approach is boring. It will never double your money overnight. On the other hand, it will never wipe you out overnight. If you have patience and are willing to let compound interest work for you, and trust that most market swings regress to the mean in the long run, it quietly builds your savings while not driving you crazy worrying about it. If all you are looking for is better return than the banks, and you have a reasonable amount of time before you need to pull the funds out, it's one of the more reliably predictable risk/reward trade-off points. You may want to refine this by biasing the mix of what you're holding. The simplest adjustment is how much you keep in each of several major investment categories. Large cap stocks, small cap stocks, bonds, and real estate (in the form of REITs) each have different baseline risk/return curves, and move in different ways in response to news, so maintaining a selected ratio between these buckets and adding the resulting curves together is one simple way to make fairly predictable adjustments to the width (and centerline) of the total bell curve. If you think you can do better than this, go for it. But index funds have been outperforming professionally managed funds (after the management fees are accounted for), and unless you are interested in spending a lot of time researching and playing with your money the odds of your doing much better aren't great unless you're willing to risk doing much worse. For me, boring is good. I want my savings to work for me rather than the other way around, and I don't consider the market at all interesting as a game. Others will feel differently.

positive: Diversifying is the first advice given to beginner in order to avoid big loss. For example in 2014 the company Theranos was really appealing before it fail in 2016. So a beginner could have invest ALL his money and lose it. But if he has deverified he wouldn't lost everything. As an investor goes from beginner to experience some still Diversify and other concentrate. Mostly it depends how much confident you are about an investement. If you have 20 years of experience, now everything about the company and you are sure there will be profit you can concentrate. If you are not 100% sure there will be a profit, it is better to Diversify. Diversifying can also be profitating when you loose money: because you will pay tax when you earn money, if you diversify you can choose to loose money in some stock (usually in december) and in this way cut your taxes.

positive: Any investor can make a bad bet, even Buffett. Even if you have done every bit of research on an investment possible you are exposed to random external events.. acts of god, and outright fraud.

positive: Diversification is used by many to hopefully reduce the risk when bad investments are made. Diversification does not help you make more profits but instead averages down your profits. There is no way one can tell whether a stock or portfolio of stocks will go up or down once they are purchased. In order to try to provide some protection against total loss of the portfolio, a lazy so called long term investor will use diversification as a way of risk management. But the best outcome for them will be an averaging down of their profits. A better method is to let the market tell you when your purchased investment is a bad one and get out of that investment early and thus limiting your losses, whilst letting your good investments (as determined by the market) run and make larger profits.

negative: Well, the potential problem is that the FTSE 100 could go down, or just not up. Really, it's as simple as that. After all, why diversify if the FTSE 100 will only go up? So, the question is, why wait to diversify? Why not add in the Gilt ETF for a little government bond exposure? Why not a Corp. bond ETF? Maybe a little of that Global ex-UK for a little foreign stock exposure?  That said, saving is better than not saving, so if starting it off with just the FTSE 100 gets you saving, go for it.

negative: Let's say that you want to invest in the stock market.  Choosing and investing in only one stock is risky.  You can lower your risk by diversifying, or investing in lots of different stocks.  However, you have some problems with this:  When you buy stocks directly, you have to buy whole shares, and you don't have enough money to buy even one whole share of all the stocks you want to invest in. You aren't even sure which stocks you should buy. A mutual fund solves both of these problems.  You get together with other investors and pool your money together to buy a group of stocks.  That way, your investment is diversified in lots of different stocks without having to have enough money to buy whole shares of each one.  And the mutual fund has a manager that chooses which stocks the fund will invest in, so you don't have to pick. There are lots of mutual funds to choose from, with as many different objectives as you can imagine.  Some invest in large companies, others small; some invest in a certain sector of companies (utilities or health care, for example), some invest in stocks that pay a dividend, others are focused on growth.  Some funds don't invest in stocks at all; they might invest in bonds, real estate, or precious metals.  Some funds are actively managed, where the manager actively buys and sells different stocks in the fund continuously (and takes a fee for his services), and others simply invest in a list of stocks and rarely buy or sell (these are called index funds). To answer your question, yes, the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Equity Fund is a mutual fund.  It is an actively-managed stock mutual fund that attempts to invest in growing companies that do business in countries with rapidly developing economies.

negative: diversifying; but isn't that what mutual funds already do? They diversify and reduce stock-specific risk by moving from individual stocks to many stocks, but you can diversify even further by selecting different fund types (e.g. large-cal, small-cap, fixed- income (bond) funds, international, etc.).  Your target-date fund probably includes a few different types already, and will automatically reallocate to less risky investments as you get close to the target date. I would look at the fees of different types of funds, and compare them to the historical returns of those funds.  You can also use things like morningstar and other ratings as guides, but they are generally very large buckets and may not be much help distinguishing between individual funds. So to answer the question, yes you can diversify further - and probably get better returns (and lower fees) that a target-date fund.  The question is - is it worth your time and effort to do so?  You're obviously comfortable investing for the long-term, so you might get some benefit by spending a little time looking for different funds to increase your diversification. Note that ETFs don't really diversify any differently than mutual funds, they are just a different mechanism to invest in funds, and allow different trading strategies (trading during the day, derivatives, selling short, etc.).

negative: "Index funds are well-known to give the best long-term investment. Not exactly. Indexes give the best long term performance when compared to actively managing investments directly in the underlying stocks. That is, if you compare an S&P500 index to trying to pick stocks that are part of it, you're more likely to succeed with blindly following the index than trying to actively beat it. That said, no-one promises that investing in S&P500 is better than investing in DJIA, for example. These are two different indexes tracking different stocks and areas. So when advisers say ""diversify"" they don't mean it that you should diversify between different stocks that build up the S&P500 index. They mean that you should diversify your investments in different areas. Some in S&P500, some in DJIA, some in international indexes, some in bond indexes, etc. Still, investing in various indexes will likely yield better results than actively managing the investments trying to beat those indexes, but you should not invest in only one, and that is the meaning of diversification. In the comments you asked ""why diversify at all?"", and that is entirely a different question from your original ""what diversification is?"". You diversify to reduce the risk of loss from one side, and widen the net for gains from another. The thing is that any single investment can eventually fail, regardless of how it performed before. You can see that the S&P500 index lost 50% of its value twice within ten years, whereas before it was doubling itself every several years. Many people who were only invested in that index (or what's underlying to it) lost a lot of money. But consider you've diversified, and in the last 20 years you've invested in a blend of indexes that include the S&P500, but also other investments like S&P BSE SENSEX mentioned by Victor below. You would reduce your risk of loss on the American market by increasing your gains on the Indian market. Add to the mix soaring Chinese Real Estate market during the time of the collapse of the US real-estate, gains on the dollar losing its value by investing in other currencies (Canadian dollar, for example), etc. There are many risks, and by diversifying you mitigate them, and also have a chance to create other potential gains. Now, another question is why invest in indexes. That has been answered before on this site. It is my opinion that some methods of investing are just gambling by trying to catch the wave and they will almost always fail, and rarely will individual stock picking beat the market. Of course, after the fact its easy to be smart and pick the winning stocks. But the problem is to be able to predict those charts ahead of time."

negative: Stock portfolios have diversifiable risk and undiversifiable risk.  The market rewards investors for taking undiversifiable risk (e.g. owning an index of oil producing companies) and does not reward investors for assuming diversifiable risk (e.g. owning a single oil producing company).  The market will not provide investors with any extra return for owning a single oil company when they can buy an oil index fund at no additional cost. Similarly, the market will not reward you for owning a small-cap index fund when you can purchase a globally diversified / capitalization diversified index fund at no additional cost.  This article provides a more detailed description. The Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund is a much better staring point for an equity portfolio. You will need to make sure that the asset allocation of your overall portfolio (e.g. stocks, bonds, P2P lending, cash) is consistent with your time horizon (5-10 years).

negative: Rephrasing your question: Am I diversified if I have more than 50% US stocks?    I would say that you can certainly be diversified and have more than 50% of your portfolio invested in US Stocks.  I view the amount of international stocks (non-US) as a risk choice.  My observations have been that my international stocks have higher risk which comes with a higher reward.   I'm not comfortable with putting too much of my portfolio into a very high risk category. I personally invest 25% directly in mutual funds that invest in foreign stocks.   When you couple that with the money I invest in US stocks via mutual funds that have foreign interests (Coke, GE, etc.), I'm somewhat over 25% international in my portfolio.

negative: The assumption that house value appreciates 5% per year is unrealistic. Over the very long term, real house prices has stayed approximately constant. A house that is 10 years old today is 11 years old a year after, so this phenomenon of real house prices staying constant applies only to the market as a whole and not to an individual house, unless the individual house is maintained well. One house is an extremely poorly diversified investment. What if the house you buy turns out to have a mold problem? You can lose your investment almost overnight. In contrast to this, it is extremely unlikely that the same could happen on a well-diversified stock portfolio (although it can happen on an individual stock). Thus, if non-leveraged stock portfolio has a nominal return of 8% over the long term, I would demand higher return, say 10%, from a non-leveraged investment to an individual house because of the greater risks. If you have the ability to diversify your real estate investments, a portfolio of diversified real estate investments is safer than a diversified stock portfolio, so I would demand a nominal return of 6% over the long term from such a diversified portfolio. To decide if it's better to buy a house or to live in rental property, you need to gather all of the costs of both options (including the opportunity cost of the capital which you could otherwise invest elsewhere). The real return of buying a house instead of renting it comes from the fact that you do not need to pay rent, not from the fact that house prices tend to appreciate (which they won't do more than inflation over a very long term). For my case, I live in Finland in a special case of near-rental property where you pay 15% of the building cost when moving in (and get the 15% payment back when moving out) and then pay a monthly rent that is lower than the market rent. The property is subsidized by government-provided loans. I have calculated that for my case, living in this property makes more sense than purchasing a market-priced house, but your situation may be different.

negative: "In financial markets, the gains you can expect to make (whether in the form of dividends or capital gains) correspond to the risks you are bearing.  There are a variety of REITs but you can expect to make only as much money in them as you bear risk (meaning you can also lose a lot of money in the ones that earn a lot).  In that sense they are just like other financial assets like stocks. If you are generically trying to increase your wealth by bearing risk, you can get a better risk/reward ratio in a fully diversified portfolio including stocks and bonds as well and REITs.  ""Passive income"" means making money by bearing risk.  REITs alone, without diversifying into other financial assets, do a poor job of generating income for the amount of risk you bear. So why are REITs not very comparable to buying a house and renting it out?  Because in the latter case you are being paid not only for bearing the risk of the house depreciating but also you are being compensated for the work you do as a landlord.  Moreover, because the house doesn't trade in a liquid market like REITs do, it is possible to actually get a good deal, as opposed to the fair deal you will get on a REIT. TL;DR: The ""passive income"" generated by REIT investment is more similar to generic equity/bond investment than it is to an investment in a physical home that you rent out.  If what you want is to make money without doing anything besides bear risk, you should invest in a fully diversified portfolio of financial assets (equity and bonds being the primary constituents but REITs potentially being a part as well)."

negative: First, what Daniel Carson said. Second, if you're getting started, just make sure you are well diversified.  Lots of growth stocks turn into dividend stocks over time-- Microsoft and Apple are the classic examples in this era.  Someday, Google will pay a dividend too. If you're investing for the long haul, diversify and watch your taxes, and you'll make out better than nearly everyone else.

negative: For what it's worth -- and I realize this isn't directly an answer to the question -- one of the advantages of sticking with mutual funds, beyond their being inherently diversified, is that it removes a lot of the temptation to try to time the market. When you need money, you sell shares in such a way that it maintains your preferred investment ratio, and simply don't worry about which stocks are  actually involved. (I've gotten 15% APR this year across all my investments, for absolutely minimal effort. That's quite good enough for me.)

negative: If you are looking for an index index fund, I know vanguard offers their Star fund which invests in 11 other funds of theirs and is diversified across stocks, bonds, and short term investments.

negative: When you are starting out using a balanced fund can be quite advantageous. A balanced fund is represents a diversified portfolio in single fund. The primary advantage of using a balanced fund is that with it being a single fund it is easier to meet the initial investment minimum.  Later once you have enough to transition to a portfolio of diversified funds you would sell the fund and buy the portfolio. With a custom portfolio, you will be better able to target your risk level and you might also be able to use lower cost funds.  The other item to check is do any of the funds that you might be interested in for the diversified portfolio have lower initial investment option if you can commit to adding money on a specified basis (assuming that you are able to). Also there might be an ETF version of a mutual fund and for those the initial investment amount is just the share price. The one thing to be aware of is make sure that you can buy enough shares that you can rebalance (holding a single share makes it hard to sell some gain when rebalancing). I would stay away from individual stocks until you have a much larger portfolio, assuming that you want to invest with a diversified portfolio. The reason being that it takes a lot more money to create a diversified portfolio out of individual stocks since you have to buy whole shares. With a mutual fund or ETF, your underlying ownership of can be fractional with no issue as each fund share is going to map into a fraction of the various companies held and with mutual funds you can buy fractional shares of the fund itself.

negative: "You will invest 1000£ each month and the transaction fee is 10£ per trade, so buying a bunch of stocks each month would not be wise.  If you buy 5 stocks, then transaction costs will eat up 5% of your investment.  So if you insist on taking this approach, you should probably only buy one or two stocks a month. It sounds like you're interested in active investing & would like a diversified portfolio, so maybe the best approach for you is Core & Satellite Portfolio Management.  Start by creating a well diversified portfolio ""core"" with index funds.  Once you have a solid core, make some active investment decisions with the ""satellite"" portion of the portfolio.  You can dollar cost average into the core and make active bets when the opportunity arises, so you're not killed by transaction fees."

negative: Your question reminds me of a Will Rogers quote: buy some good stock, and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it. There's no way to prevent yourself from buying a stock that goes down.  In fact all stocks go down at some times.  The way to protect your long term investment is to diversify, which increases the chances that you have more stocks that go up than go down.  So many advisors will encourage index funds, which have a low cost (which eats away at returns) and low rick (because of diversification).  If you want to experiment with your criteria that's great, and I wish you luck, but  Note that historically, very few managed funds (meaning funds that actively buy and sell stocks based on some set of criteria) outperform the market over long periods.  So don't be afraid of some of your stocks losing - if you diversify enough, then statistically you should have more winners than losers. It's like playing blackjack.  The goal is not to win every hand. The goal is to have more winning hands than losing hands.

negative: The S&P 500 is a stock market index, which is a list of 500 stocks from the largest companies in America. You could open a brokerage account with a broker and buy shares in each of these companies, but the easiest, least expensive way to invest in all these stocks is to invest in an S&P 500 index mutual fund. Inside an index mutual fund, your money will be pooled together with everyone else in the fund to purchase all the stocks in the index.  These types of funds are very low expense compared to managed mutual funds.  Most mutual fund companies have an S&P 500 index fund; two examples are Vanguard and Fidelity.  The minimum investment in most of these mutual funds is low enough that you will be able to open an account with your $4000. Something you need to keep in mind, however: investing in any stock mutual fund is not non-risk.  It's not even low-risk, really.  It is very possible to lose money by investing in the stock market.  An S&P 500 index fund is diversified in the sense that you have money in lots of different stocks, but it is also not diversified, in a sense, because it is all in large cap American stocks.  Before investing in the stock market, you should have a goal for the money you are investing.  If you are investing for something several years away, an index fund can be a good place to invest, but if you will need this money within the next few years, the stock market might be too risky for you.

negative: "Yes, a diversified portfolio can generate greater returns than the S&P 500 by going OUTSIDE it. For instance, small stocks (on average) generate higher returns than the ""large caps"" found in the S&P 500. So if you own a diversified portfolio of stocks, some of which are smaller (in market cap) than the typical S&P 500 stock, you have a chance to outperform. You might also outperform by owning other asset classes than stocks such as gold, real estate, and timber (among others) at appropriate times. (You may also be able to get the relevant exposure by owning gold and timber stocks and REITS.) This was a lesson that David Swensen of the Yale endowment taught us."

negative: What explains the most of the future returns of a portfolio is the allocation between asset classes. In the long term, stock investments are almost certain to return more than any other kinds of investments. For 40+ years, I would choose a portfolio of 100% stocks. How to construct the portfolio, then? Diversification is the key. You should diversify in time (don't put a large sum of money into your stock portfolio immediately; if you have a large sum to invest, spread it around several years). You should diversify based on company size (invest in both large and small companies). You should also diversify internationally (don't invest in just US companies). If you prefer to pick individual stocks, 20 very carefully selected stocks may provide enough diversification if you keep diversification in mind during stock picking. However, careful stock picking cannot be expected to yield excess returns, and if you pick stocks manually, you need to rebalance your portfolio occasionally. Thus, if you're lazy, I would recommend a mutual fund, or many mutual funds if you have difficulty finding a low-cost one that is internationally diversified. The most important consideration is the cost. You cannot expect careful fund selection to yield excess returns before expenses. However, the expenses are certain costs, so prefer low-cost funds. Almost always this means picking index funds. Avoid funds that have a small number of stocks, because they typically invest only in the largest companies, which means you fail to get diversification in company size. So, instead of Euro STOXX 50, select STOXX 600 when investing to the European market. ETFs may have lower costs than traditional mutual funds, so keep ETFs in mind when selecting the mutual funds in which to invest. For international diversification, do not forget emerging markets. It is not excessive to invest e.g. 20% to emerging markets. Emerging markets have a higher risk but they also have a higher return. A portfolio that does not include emerging markets is not in my opinion well diversified. When getting close to retirement age, I would consider increasing the percentage of bonds in the portfolio. This should be done primarily by putting additional money to bonds instead of selling existing investments to avoid additional taxes (not sure if this applies to other taxation systems than the Finnish one). Bond investments are best made though low-cost mutual funds as well. Keep bond investments in your local currency and risk-free assets (i.e. select US government bonds). Whatever you do, remember that historical return is no guarantee of future return. Actually, the opposite may be true: there is a mean reversion law. If a particular investment has returned well in the past, it often means its price has gone up, making it more likely that the price goes down in the future. So don't select a fund based on its historical return; instead, select a fund based on low costs. However, I'm 99% certain that over a period of 40 years, stocks will return better than other investments. In addition to fund costs, taxes are the other certain thing that will be deducted from your returns. Research what options you have to reduce the taxes you need to pay. 401-K was explained in another answer; this may be a good option. Some things recommended in other answers that I would avoid:

negative: "There's nothing to rebalance, the index fund rebalances itself to continue matching the index. However, you need to understand that such an investment is not diversified and you only invest in a very specific market, and very specific stocks on that market. S&P 500 is large (500 different companies, most of the time), but still not as broadly diversified as your retirement investment portfolio should be. You should talk to a financial adviser (CFP for example), many companies provide access to these for 401k plan participants. But in any case, I'd suggest considering ""target date"" funds - funds that are investing based on your expected retirement year, and become more conservative as you get closer to that year."

negative: "Some of the other answers recommended peer-to-peer lending and property markets. I would not invest in either of these. Firstly, peer-to-peer lending is not a traditional investment and we may not have enough historical data for the risk-to-return ratio. Secondly, property investments have a great risk unless you diversify, which requires a huge portfolio. Crowd-funding for one property is not a traditional investment, and may have drawbacks. For example, what if you disagree with other crowd-funders about the required repairs for the property? If you invest in the property market, I recommend a well-diversified fund that owns many properties. Beware of high debt leverage used to enhance returns (and, at the same time, risk) and high fees when selecting a fund. However, traditionally it has been a better choice to invest in stocks than to invest in property market. Beware of anyone who says that the property market is ""too good to not get into"" without specifying which part of the world is meant. Note also that many companies invest in properties, so if you invest only in a well-diversified stock index fund, you may already have property investments in your portfolio! However, in your case I would keep the money in risk-free assets, i.e. bank savings or a genuine low-cost money market fund (i.e. one that doesn't invest in corporate debt or in variable-rate loans which have short duration but long maturity). The reason is that you're going to be unemployed soon, and thus, you may need the money soon. If you have an investment horizon of, say, 10 years, then I would throw stocks into the mix, and if you're saving for retirement, then I would go all in to stocks. In the part of the world where I live in, money market funds generally have better return than bank savings, and better diversification too. However, your 2.8% interest sounds rather high (the money market fund I have in the past invested in currently yields at 0.02%, but then again I live in the eurozone), so be sure to get estimates for the yields of different risk-free assets. So, my advice for investing is simple: risk-free assets for short time horizon, a mixture of stocks and risk-free assets for medium time horizon, and only stocks for long time horizon. In any case, you need a small emergency fund, too, which you should consider a thing separate from your investments. My emergency fund is 20 000 EUR. Your 50 000 AUD is bit more than 30 000 EUR, so you don't really have that much money to invest, only a bit more than a reasonably sized emergency fund. But then again, I live in rental property, so my expenses are probably higher than yours. If you can foresee a very long time horizon for part of your investment, you could perhaps invest 50% of your money to stocks (preference being a geographically diversified index fund or a number of index funds), but I wouldn't invest more because of the need for an emergency fund."

negative: The default of the country will affect the country obligations and what's tied to it. If you have treasury bonds, for example - they'll get hit. If you have cash currency - it will get hit. If you're invested in the stock market, however, it may plunge, but will recover, and in the long run you won't get hit. If you're invested in foreign countries (through foreign currency or foreign stocks that you hold), then the default of your local government may have less affect there, if at all. What you should not, in my humble opinion, be doing is digging holes in the ground or probably not exchange all your cash for gold (although it is considered  a safe anchor in case of monetary crisis, so may be worth considering some diversifying your portfolio with some gold). Splitting between banks might not make any difference at all because the value won't change, unless you think that one of the banks will fail (then just close the account there). The bottom line is that the key is diversifying, and you don't have to be a seasoned investor for that. I'm sure there are mutual funds in Greece, just pick several different funds (from several different companies) that provide diversified investment, and put your money there.

negative: This depends completely on your investing goals. Typically when saving for retirement younger investors aim for a more volatile and aggressive portfolio but diversify their portfolio with more cautious stocks/bonds as they near retirement. In other words, the volatility that owning a single stock brings may be in line with your goals if you can shoulder the risk.

negative: Diversification is an important aspect of precious metals investing.  Therefore I would suggest diversifying in a number of different ways:

negative: You apparently assume that pouring money into a landlord's pocket is a bad thing. Not necessarily. Whether it makes sense to purchase your own home or to live in a rental property varies based on the market prices and rents of properties. In the long term, real estate prices closely follow inflation. However, in some areas it may be possible that real estate prices have increased by more than inflation in the past, say, 10 years. This may mean that some (stupid) people assume that real estate prices continue to appreciate at this rate in the future. The price of real estates when compared to rents may become unrealistically high so that the rental yield becomes low, and the only reasonable way of obtaining money from real estate investments is price appreciation continuing. No, it will not continue forever. Furthermore, an individual real estate is a very poorly diversified investment. And a very risky investment, too: a mold problem can destroy the entire value of your investment, if you invest in only one property. Real estates are commonly said to be less risky than stocks, but this applies only to large real estate portfolios when compared with large stock portfolios. It is easier to build a large stock portfolio with a small amount of money to invest when compared to building a large real estate portfolio. Thus, I would consider this: how much return are you going to get (by not needing to pay rent, but needing to pay some minor maintenance costs) when purchasing your own home? How much does the home cost? What is the annual return on the investment? Is it larger than smaller when compared to investing the same amount of money in the stock market? As I said, an individual house is a more risky investment than a well-diversified stock portfolio. Thus, if a well-diversified stock portfolio yields 8% annually, I would demand 10% return from an individual house before considering to move my money from stocks to a house.

negative: Yes, it is unreasonable and unsustainable. We all want returns in excess of 15% but even the best and richest investors do not sustain those kinds of returns. You should not invest more than a fraction of your net worth in individual stocks in any case. You should diversify using index funds or ETFs.

negative: The main advantage of commodities to a largely stock and bond portfolio is diversification and the main disadvantages are investment complexity and low long-term returns. Let's start with the advantage.  Major commodities indices and the single commodities tend to be uncorrelated to stocks and bonds and will in general be diversifying especially over short periods.  This relationship can be complex though as Supply can be even more complicated (think weather) so diversification may or may not work in your favor over long periods. However, trading in commodities can be very complex and expensive.  Futures need to be rolled forward to keep an investment going.  You really, really don't want to accidentally take delivery of 40000 pounds of cattle.  Also, you need to properly take into account roll premiums (carry) when choosing the closing date for a future.  This can be made easier by using commodities index ETFs but they can also have issues with rolling and generally have higher fees than stock index ETFs. Most importantly, it is worth understanding that the long-term return from commodities should be by definition (roughly) the inflation rate.  With stocks and bonds you expect to make more than inflation over the long term.  This is why many large institutions talk about commodities in their portfolio they often actually mean either short term tactical/algorithmic trading or long term investments in stocks closely tied to commodities production or processing. The two disadvantages above are why commodities are not recommended for most individual investors.

negative: "Without knowing anything else about you, I'd say I need more information. If all of your investments are in stocks, then that's not really diversified, regardless of how many stocks you own.  There are other things to invest in besides stocks (and bonds, for that matter). What countries?  ""International"" is pretty broad, and some countries are better bets than others at the moment. If you're old, I'd say very little of your money should be in stocks anyway. I'd also seek financial advice that is tailored to your goals, sophistication, etc."

negative: "First, let me say that $1000 is not that much of amount to invest in stocks. You need to remember that each transaction (buy/sell) has fees, which vary between $4-$40 (depending on the broker, you mentioned Scottrade - they charge $7 per transaction for stocks and about twice as much for some mutual funds). Consider this: you invest $1000, you gain $100. You'll pay $15 in fees just to buy/sell, that's 1.5% expense ratio. If you invest in more than 1 stock - multiply your fees. To avoid that you can look into mutual funds. Different brokers offer different funds for free, and almost all of them carry many of the rest for a fee. When looking into funds, you can find their expense ratio and compare. Remember that a fund with 1% expense ratio diversifies and invests in many stocks, while for you 1.5% expense ratio is for investing in a single stock. Is it a good idea to invest only in US or diversify worldwide? You can invest in the US, but in funds that diversify worldwide or across industries. Generally it is a good idea to diversify. I am 28. Should I be a conservative investor or take some risks? Depends on how bad of a shape will you be if you lose all your principle. What online brokerage service is the best? I have heard a lot about   Scotttrade but want to be sure before I start. It seems to be the   least expensive and most user-friendly to me. ""Best"" is a problematic term. Scottrade is OK, E*Trade is OK, you can try Sharebuilder, Ameritrade, there are several ""discount"" online brokers and plenty of on-line reviews and comparisons amongst them. What is a margin account and how would it affect my investing? From   what I understand it comes into play when an investor borrows money   from the broker. Do I need to use it at all as I won't be investing on a big scale yet. You understand right. There are rules to use margin accounts, and with the amount you have I'd advise against them even if you get approved. Read through the brokers' FAQ's on their requirement. Should I keep adding money on a monthly basis to my brokerage account   to give me more money to invest or keep it at a certain amount for an   extended period of time? Sharebuilder has a mechanism to purchase monthly at discounted prices. But be careful, they give you discounted prices to buy, but not to sell. You may end up with a lot of positions, and the discounts you've gotten to buy will cause you spend much more on selling. Generally, averaging (investing monthly) is a good way to save and mitigate some risks, but the risks are still there. This is good only for long term savings. How should my breakdown my investments in terms of bonds vs stocks? Depends on your vulnerability and risk thresholds."

negative: "It depends on what you're talking about. If this is for your retirement accounts, like IRAs, then ABSOLUTELY NOT! In your retirement accounts you should be broadly diversified - not just between stocks, but also other markets like bonds. Target retirement funds and solid conservative or moderate allocation funds are the best 'quick-and-dirty' recommendation for those accounts. Since it's for the long haul, you want to be managing risk, not chasing returns. Returns will happen over the 40 or so years they have to grow.  Now, if you're talking about a taxable stock account, and you've gotten past PF questions like ""am I saving enough for retirement"", and ""have I paid off my debt"", then the question becomes a little more murky.  First, yes, you should be diversified. The bulk of how a stock's movement will be in keeping with how its sector moves; so even a really great stock can get creamed if its sector is going down. Diversification between several sectors will help balance that.  However, you will have some advantage in this sector. Knowing which products are good, which products everybody in the industry is excited about, is a huge advantage over other investors. It'll help you pick the ones that go up more when the sector goes up, and down less when the sector goes down. That, over time and investments, really adds up. Just remember that a good company and a good stock investment are not the same thing. A great company can have a sky-high valuation -- and if you buy it at that price, you can sit there and watch your investment sink even as the company is growing and doing great things. Have patience, know which companies are good and which are bad, and wait for the price to come to you.  One final note: it also depends on what spot you are in. If you're a young guy looking looking to invest his first few thousand in the market, then go for it. On the other hand, if you're older, and we're talking about a couple hundred grand you've got saved up, then it's a whole different ball of wax. It that spot, you're back to managing risk, and need to build a solid portfolio, at a measured pace."

negative: Probably the easiest way to invest in hotel rooms in the U.S. is to invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT.  REITs are securities that invest in real estate and trade like a stock.  There are different REITs that invest in different things: some own office buildings, some residential rentals, some hold mortgages, and some are diversified in lots of different types of real estate.  There are also REITs that are exclusively invested in hotels. REITs are required to pay out at least 90% of their profits as dividends, and there are tax advantages to investing in REITs.   You can search for a REIT on REIT.com's Searchable Directory.  You can select a type (Lodging/Resorts), a stock exchange (NYSE), investment sector (equity), and a listing status (public), and you'll see lots of investments for you to consider.

negative: I'd recommend investing in a mutual fund that diversifies your purchase across a number of stocks (and bonds, depending on the fund). Vanguard has some of the lowest fees around, and have a large number of funds to choose from. Take a look at their offerings for a data point if nothing else.

negative: "I would like to first point out that there is nothing special about a self-managed investment portfolio as compared to one managed by someone else. With some exceptions, you can put together exactly the same investment portfolio yourself as a professional investor could put together for you. Not uncommonly, too, at a lower cost (and remember that cost is among the, if not the, best indicator(s) of how your investment portfolio will perform over time). Diversification is the concept of not ""putting all your eggs in one basket"". The idea here is that there are things that happen together because they have a common cause, and by spreading your investments in ways such that not all of your investments have the same underlying risks, you reduce your overall risk. The technical term for risk is generally volatility, meaning how much (in this case the price of) something fluctuates over a given period of time. A stock that falls 30% one month and then climbs 40% the next month is more volatile than one that falls 3% the first month and climbs 4% the second month. The former is riskier because if for some reason you need to sell when it is down, you lose a larger portion of your original investment with the former stock than with the latter. Diversification, thus, is reducing commonality between your investments, generally but not necessarily in an attempt to reduce the risk of all investments moving in the same direction by the same amount at the same time. You can diversify in various ways: Do you see where I am going with this? A well-diversed portfolio will tend to have a mix of equity in your own country and a variety of other countries, spread out over different types of equity (company stock, corporate bonds, government bonds, ...), in different sectors of the economy, in countries with differing growth patterns. It may contain uncommon classes of investments such as precious metals. A poorly diversified portfolio will likely be restricted to either some particular geographical area, type of equity or investment, focus on some particular sector of the economy (such as medicine or vehicle manufacturers), or so on. The poorly diversified portfolio can do better in the short term, if you time it just right and happen to pick exactly the right thing to buy or sell. This is incredibly hard to do, as you are basically working against everyone who gets paid to do that kind of work full time, plus computer-algorithm-based trading which is programmed to look for any exploitable patterns. It is virtually impossible to do for any real length of time. Thus, the well-diversified portfolio tends to do better over time."

negative: "For US stocks it's a bit of a gamble. Many actively managed funds underperform the market indexes, but some of them outperform in many years. With an index you will get average results. With an active manager you ""might"" do better than average. So you can view active management as a higher risk, potentially higher reward investment approach. On the other hand, if you want to diversify some of your investments into international stocks, bonds, junk bonds, and real estate (REITs) active management is highly likely to be better than indexing. For these specialized areas specialized knowledge and research is needed."