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| Introduction | |
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| Getting Started | |
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| Why Invest? | |
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| Investing Versus Saving | |
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| Investing Myths | |
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| Investing is Risky | |
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| Investing is Hard | |
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| You Must Be an Economics Major | |
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| You Need to Be a Computer Nerd | |
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| Investment Goals | |
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| Retirement Investing | |
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| The Early Bird Gets the Compounding | |
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| Better Late Than Never | |
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| Traditional Investing | |
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| Debt Instruments | |
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| Equity Instruments | |
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| Nontraditional Investing | |
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| Hard Assets | |
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| Lifestyle Investing | |
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| Getting Ready | |
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| Cleaning Up Debt | |
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| Is 90 Days Really "Same as Cash"? | |
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| Cash Advances | |
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| Getting Rid of the Debt | |
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| Do the Math | |
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| Pay It Off | |
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| Finding $200 a Month Extra | |
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| Extreme Measures | |
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| Emergency Reserves | |
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| Life Insurance | |
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| Investing Basics | |
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| The Miracle of Compounding | |
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| How to Make Compounding Work for You | |
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| The Miracle of Time | |
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| Investing Terms | |
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| Common Stock | |
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| Preferred Stock | |
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| Bonds | |
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| Cash Equivalents | |
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| Mutual Funds | |
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| Warrants | |
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| Options | |
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| Futures | |
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| Market Activity Terms | |
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| Trade | |
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| Trading Volume | |
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| Buy and Sell | |
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| Long and Short | |
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| Short Selling | |
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| Margin | |
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| Position | |
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| The Markets | |
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| The New York Stock Exchange | |
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| The NASDAQ | |
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| The Electronic Market | |
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| Market Indicators | |
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| Dow Jones Industrial Average | |
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| SandP 500 | |
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| The NASDAQ Composite Index | |
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| Russell 2000 Index | |
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| The New York Stock Exchange Composite Index | |
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| Following the Stocks | |
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| Investing Instruments | |
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| Common Stock | |
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| Why Invest in Common Stock? | |
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| How Stocks Are Priced | |
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| What Are Preferred Stocks? | |
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| Mutual Funds | |
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| Investment Goals and Objectives | |
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| Performance History | |
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| Management | |
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| Investment Strategies | |
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| Sales Fees | |
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| Pricing a Mutual Fund | |
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| Bonds and Cash Equivalents | |
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| U.S. Treasury Bonds | |
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| Other Governmental Bonds | |
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| Corporate Bonds | |
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| Cash Equivalents | |
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| Money Market Accounts | |
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| Cash Management Accounts | |
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| Bank Certificates of Deposit (CDs) | |
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| Regular Savings Accounts | |
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| Other Investment Instruments | |
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| Annuities | |
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| Real Estate Limited Partnerships | |
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| Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) | |
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| Precious Metals | |
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| Bulls and Bears | |
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| Doing the Research | |
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| Existing Benefits Review | |
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| Stock Options | |
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| Direct Investment Plans (DIPs) | |
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| Retirement Plans | |
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| Qualified Retirement Plans | |
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| Employees | |
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| Employers | |
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| Nonqualified Retirement Plans | |
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| Types of Qualified Retirement Plans | |
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| Defined Contribution Plans | |
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| Plans Offered by Employers | |
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| Plans for Individuals | |
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| Defined Benefit Plan | |
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| The Importance of Starting Early | |
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| The Early Bird Does Get the Worm | |
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| Understanding the Numbers | |
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| The Numbers | |
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| Ratio | |
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| Index | |
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| Yield | |
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| Where to Look for Numbers | |
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| Newspaper Stock Tables | |
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| Newspaper Mutual Fund Tables | |
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| Online Information | |
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| Free Information | |
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| Moderately Priced | |
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| Expensive | |
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| Annual Reports and Prospectus | |
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| Market News/Research | |
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| Sorting It All Out | |
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| Where Did All This Information Come From? | |
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| How to Sort Through the Mess | |
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| Your First Cut--The Obviously Outrageous | |
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| Ask Yourself "Why?" | |
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| Critical Thinking | |
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| Prognosticators | |
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| Is There Any Place to Get Good Information? | |
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| Regulators | |
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| Picking a Broker | |
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| Why Do I Need a Broker? | |
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| SIPC Insurance | |
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| Consumer Protection | |
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| Stock Certificates | |
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| What Kind of Broker Do I Need? | |
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| Full-Service Brokers | |
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| Discount Brokers | |
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| Service with a Modem | |
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| Technological Problems | |
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| Security Problems | |
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| Evaluating a Broker | |
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| Cost | |
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| Execution | |
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| Service | |
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| Extras | |
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| Mutual Funds, Stocks, and Bonds | |
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| Mutual Funds--Part I Classifications | |
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| Sales Fee or Not | |
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| Load | |
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| Back-end Load | |
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| Level Load | |
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| No-Load Mutual Funds | |
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| Expense Ratio | |
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| Components of the Expense Ratio | |
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| Typical Expense Ratio | |
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| Fund Management | |
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| Actively Managed Funds | |
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| Index Funds | |
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| Total Return | |
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| Odd Duck Mutual Funds | |
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| Mutual Funds--Part II Types of Funds | |
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| Stock Funds | |
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| Growth Funds | |
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| Income Funds | |
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| Value Funds | |
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| Cyclical and Sector Funds | |
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| Bond Funds | |
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| Short-Term Bond Funds | |
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| Mid-Term Bond Funds | |
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| Long-Term Bond Funds | |
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| Tax-free Bond Funds | |
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| Corporate Bond Funds | |
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| Money Market Funds | |
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| Taxable Money Market Funds | |
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| Tax-free Money Market Funds | |
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| Specialized Funds | |
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| Real Estate Investment Trusts | |
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| International Funds | |
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| Mutual Funds--Part III Investment Objectives | |
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| Index Funds | |
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| Growth Funds | |
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| Income Funds | |
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| Balanced Funds | |
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| Sector Funds | |
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| Value Fund | |
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| Tax-Free Funds | |
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| International Funds | |
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| Precious Metals Funds | |
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| Socially Responsible Funds | |
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| Stocks--Part I Classifications | |
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| Growth Stocks | |
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| Income Stocks | |
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| Value Stocks | |
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| Stocks on the Internet | |
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| Stocks--Part II Size | |
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| Market Cap and Investment Decisions | |
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| Large-Cap Stocks | |
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| Yearly Trading Volume | |
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| Followed Closely by Media and Analysts | |
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| Tendency to Be Less Volatile | |
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| DJIA and SandP 500 Members | |
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| Small Growth Potential | |
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| Mid-Cap Stocks | |
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| Yearly Trading Volume | |
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| Media Coverage | |
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| High-Tech and Other Hot Groups Closely Watched by Analysts | |
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| High Volatility | |
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| Lesser-Known Indexes | |
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| High Growth Potential | |
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| Small-Cap Companies | |
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| Light Trading Volume | |
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| Almost No Media Coverage | |
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| Almost No Attention from Analysts | |
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| Highly Volatile | |
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| Lesser-Known Index (SandP Small-Cap 600) | |
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| High Growth Potential, But Very High Risk | |
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| Special Situations | |
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| Penny Stocks | |
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| IPOs | |
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| Bonds | |
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| Types of Bonds | |
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| U.S. Treasury Bonds | |
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| U.S. Government Agency | |
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| Municipal Bonds | |
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| Corporate Bonds | |
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| What's a Bond Worth? | |
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| Original Issue | |
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| Secondary Market | |
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| Exceptions | |
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| Zero Coupons | |
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| Treasury Strips | |
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| The Bad News | |
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| Bond Risk and Reward | |
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| Default | |
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| Inflation | |
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| Prepayment | |
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| Odd Duck Bonds | |
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| Subordinated Bonds | |
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| Convertible Bonds | |
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| How Bonds Are Sold | |
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| Bond Tables | |
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| Rating the Bonds | |
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| Making Choices | |
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| Investment Strategies | |
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| Your Role | |
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| The Passive Role | |
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| The Dog Plan | |
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| The Active Role | |
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| Short- and Medium-Range Goals | |
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| Investing for Short-Range Goals | |
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| Investing for Medium-Range Goals | |
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| Types of Strategies | |
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| Growth Strategy | |
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| Income Strategy | |
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| Balanced Strategy | |
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| Capital-Preservation Strategy | |
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| Fight Investment Fear with Information | |
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| Risk and Return | |
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| Your Personal Investment Formula | |
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| Risk/Reward Relationship | |
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| Economic Risk | |
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| Inflation | |
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| Market-Value Risk | |
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| Too Careful | |
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| Risk and Investments | |
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| High-Risk Investments | |
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| Medium-Risk Investments | |
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| Low-Risk Investments | |
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| No-Risk Investments | |
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| Picking a Mutual Fund | |
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| First Things First | |
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| Investment Objectives | |
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| Morningstar.com | |
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| Not for Everyone | |
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| Long-Term Investment Objectives | |
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| Ages 20-45 | |
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| Ages 45-55 | |
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| Ages 55-65 | |
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| How Do You Chose? | |
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| Performance Indicators | |
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| Take a Trial Walk | |
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| Taxes | |
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| Understanding the Mutual Fund Prospectus | |
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| Picking a Stock | |
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| Matching Your Investment Goals | |
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| Picking Stocks to Evaluate | |
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| Invest in What You Know | |
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| Invest in What You Buy | |
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| Invest in What a Lot of People Buy | |
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| Research Without the Internet | |
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| Tons of Information | |
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| The Annual Report | |
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| Reviewing Financial Statements | |
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| Income Statement | |
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| Balance Sheet | |
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| Statement of Cash Flow | |
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| Other Sources of Information | |
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| The 10-K | |
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| The 10-Q | |
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| How Important Are These Company Documents? | |
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| How to Evaluate a Business | |
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| Valuation Models | |
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| Yield-Based Evaluations | |
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| Earnings-Based Evaluations | |
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| Equity-Based Evaluations | |
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| Sales-Based Evaluation | |
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| Familiarize, not Memorize | |
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| Working Toward a Goal | |
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| Asset Allocation | |
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| What is Asset Allocation, Really? | |
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| Asset Allocation Models | |
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| Age | |
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| Risk Tolerance | |
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| Portfolio Components | |
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| Age 20-30 | |
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| Age 30-40 | |
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| Age 40-50 | |
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| Age 50-60 | |
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| Age 60--?? | |
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| What It All Means | |
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| Other Considerations | |
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| Rebalance Your Allocation | |
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| Don't Forget Taxes | |
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| Conservative/Low Cost Investing | |
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| Dollar Cost Averaging | |
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| Initial Deposit | |
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| Automatic Deduction | |
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| DRIPs and DIPs | |
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| How a DRIP Works | |
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| How a DIP Works | |
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| Buy-and-Hold Strategy | |
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| Market Timing | |
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| Stay in the Market | |
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| Market Cycles | |
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| Good Investments Become Better | |
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| Holding Period | |
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| Investment Clubs | |
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| Active Investing | |
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| Disadvantages of Active Investing | |
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| Time and Energy | |
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| Slightly More Risky | |
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| Addictive Investing | |
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| Big Commissions and Fees | |
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| Tax Problems | |
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| Advantages of Active Investing | |
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| Market-Beating Returns | |
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| Involved in Your Investments | |
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| It Is Fun | |
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| Online Trading | |
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| Disadvantages of Online Trading | |
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| Unable to Connect | |
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| Security Breaches | |
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| Overtrading | |
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| Advantages of Online Trading | |
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| Inexpensive | |
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| Connected to the Process | |
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| Wealth of Information | |
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| Quick Execution and Confirmation | |
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| Learn for Free | |
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| Tools of the Active Trader | |
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| Margin | |
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| Selling Short | |
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| After-Hours Trading | |
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| Aggressive Investing | |
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| Day Trading | |
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| Options Trading | |
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| What Is to Like About Options? | |
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| What Is a Legitimate Use of Options? | |
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| Should You Invest in Options? | |
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| Futures Trading | |
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| Exotic Deals | |
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| Retirement Planning | |
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| The 401(k) Plan | |
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| How Much to Defer? | |
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| Which Fund? | |
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| Fees | |
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| IRAs--Traditional and Roth | |
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| Retirement Planning--Long Term | |
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| Retirement Planning--Short Term | |
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| Retirement Management | |
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| Putting It All Together | |
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| Preparation | |
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| Setting Goals | |
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| Debt | |
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| Existing Benefits | |
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| Appropriate Tools | |
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| Buying Quality | |
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| Risk | |
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| Pick an Investment Style | |
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| Tracking Your Progress | |
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| Constant Review | |
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| Have Fun | |
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| Giving Back | |
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| 20-Minute Recap | |
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| Resources | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Answers to Quiz Questions | |
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| Index | |