Understanding everything that is involved in investing or trading small cap stocks takes study over a period of time. Many favor large cap stocks over small cap stocks because the brands are known. But which is better for you and your situation? Investing in small cap stocks is a great way to diversify your portfolio with some shares of lower capitalized companies. These stocks often offer better returns as they have higher beta values and move quicker than other stocks. Just be careful of the risks.

If you are looking to purchase and hold small cap stocks within mutual funds, understand that different funds define what is a small-cap stock in different ways.The traditional definition of a small-cap stock is one with the market capitalization between $300 million and $2 billion.

Not even health oriented online media is immune to consolidation. A company called Internet Brands, controlled by KKR, has recently announced intentions to acquire WebMD. KKR owns several other business to business websites in the areas of travel, law and automotive. It is a deal that has apparently been long in the making taking several bids for the acquisition to be accomplished.

WebMD is a well know health information website. It was founded in 1996 and became a public nearly a decade later. The Internet Brands business model involves helping health related businesses find customers. It also exists to help the public find appropriate health care. WebMD will note be a part of that process.

What are the top five Stocks that all investors should own in 2017? If you ask an investor this question, they will likely tell you to choose Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks. The Dow Jones is made up of 30 of the largest companies in America.

These companies have a solid history of strong performances and they tend to pay excellent dividends. This is why anybody should add it to their retirement portfolio.

If you cannot invest in the 30 components of the Dow, there are different ways to approach the situation. You can lean towards a tech, healthcare or financial based portfolio because the companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average operate in those sectors. ETFs have also become a popular way to invest in the sectors for the Dow.

Zenuity, a new partnership between Volvo and Autoliv, has exciting plans to develop software geared toward a self- driving automobile. Utilizing the Drive PX Al technology by Nvidia, Zenuity hopes to enter these vehicles into the sales arena by 2021.

This may seem like a lofty ambition, but self-driving cars powered by Nvidia's Drive PX are already being tested on the road today. Volvo and Autoliv's new joint venture will base their software advances on the technological foundation created by Nvidia AI tech. They hope this will speed up realization of a self-driving car that is available commercially.

While Volvo's efforts can be uniquely theirs, Autoliv can legally offer the software involved to others in the industry. Nvidia's Senior Director of Automotive on call believes the future holds beneficial collaborative efforts in the industry, and recognizes and acknowledges the technological rewards of utilizing the advances of Nvidia Al tech.

The Verizon acquisition of Yahoo has now officially closed and Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, has resigned her position. The acquisition, estimated to be worth more than $4 billion, received shareholder approval last week, with Mayer being granted a 'golden parachute' of approximately $23 million in her exit from the company.

Verizon has stated that it is planning to combine Yahoo with its AOL assets to create a subsidiary called Oath, which will cover more than 50 media brands and over 1 billion customers globally. Tim Armstrong, the former CEO of AOL, has been chosen to lead the new conglomerate.

It is expected that nearly 15 percent of all Yahoo staff will be cut as a result of the acquisition, with roles in areas such as operations, sales and marketing being affected. In addition, several Board members have left Yahoo in the wake of Mayer's departure, including Jane Shaw, Maynard Webb Jr., David Filo, Richard Hill and Eddy Hartenstein. Verizon has no shortage of staff, as it currently employs more than 160,000 people and earned approximately $126 billion in sales revenues in 2016.

The stock market is a brutal beast that is constantly moving and changing. Jim Cramer's guide uses charts to analyze the market price of a share of stock over it's history before jumping in to purchase it.

An investor does not buy a stock with the thought that the value will down after they buy shares. Cramer's idea is that by analyzing the ebbs and flows of a stock's price history over time a prospective buyer will have a better chance of finding a stock that will not fail. He is quoted as saying that looking at the history before buying is "like part of the homework" of buying stock.

Cramer often cites his own experience with the 2009 decline. Knowing when to buy and sell is the critical key in winning at the stock market battle. Cramer knew when to buy in 2009, and he looked around then to find the best stock for the time.

The value of Bitcoin recently surpassed $2000.

The most famous cryptocurrency on the planet now has a per coin value of more than $2000. That is what several bitcoin exchanges are reporting, such as Kraken and Coinbase. This valuation indicates that the total bitcoin market cap (i.e. the total value of coins in use) is $32.92 billion.

This year, bitcoin has thrived - as this Coindesk chart reflects.

In 2013, bitcoin initially surpassed the $1000 valuation, however a range of variables - such as the problems experienced by Mount Gox (which was the leading exchange at the time) - meant that the currency dropped in value. Financial organizations tested blockchain and bitcoin based services during this period, and new Chinese regulations increased overall stability. This led to bitcoin returning to the $1000 mark by the end of 2016. Ever since, its' value has constantly grown throughout 2017.

Professor Aswath Damodaran, based at New York University's Stern School of Business, recently participated in a Google discussion session which focused on the value of using stories in business. The discussion centered on how businesses value their stocks by having a compelling story that justifies its financial assumptions.

Professor Damodaran explained how stocks can become runaway stories, which is basically a story that investors firmly believe in. This may lead to them avoiding asking important questions about the company.

He used Tesla Inc (TSLA) as an example of a runaway story, explaining how he had written an analysis of the company in September 2013, in which he estimated Tesla's stock value to be only $67.12 per share even though it was trading at over $168 per share at that time.

Trending today is the announcement from Rob Sanderson, an MKM analyst, that the cloud business operated by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) could be worth $20 billion in five years, with an additional two or three billion dollars in other Asian countries. If this is the case, Alibaba's cloud business has immense growth potential and analysts are currently suggesting that it is worth one billion dollars annually with 115% growth rate annually.

The service segment of the Apple corporation could be a great stock to keep an eye on in the future. Some experts are saying that this part of the company is now worth over $240 billion. This is drawing many investors to buy it.

Apple Services is now the second largest segment of the company. The biggest is their consumer products division. The services segment has some promising other factors that make it attractive, though.

One promising feature of the services segment is that the number of iOS users is constantly increasing. As there are more users, they are going to need more services. This will increase even more as Apple develops and implements more hardware on the consumer level. There will a lot of service expansions in the future as the amount of different hardware is increased at the consumer level.