I am not a stock trader; I am a dividend and value based long-term buy-and-hold investor. When I add a stock to my dividend portfolio, it is my intention to hold the stock forever. However, I have one hard and fast rule about selling stocks:

Dividend investors have a lot to be thankful for. The 60 companies making up the Dividend Aristocrats have outperformed the S&P 500 index year-to-date by almost 12 percentage points. SmartMoney recently published a dividend growth stock screen with the following criteria:

SYSCO Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of a range of food and related products primarily for food-service industry in the United States and Canada. Linked here is detailed analysis and commentary.

Once you know your investment risk profile, how do you gauge the risk of individual securities in your portfolio or your portfolio as a whole? I tend to weigh the risk on my portfolio as a whole and make adjustments through the selection of more or less risky investments. For my dividend stocks I look at these measures:

Entertainment Properties Trust, a real estate investment trust (REIT), develops and acquires entertainment and related properties. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network (DIV-Net) over the past week:

Most people would agree that an asset allocation should include a defined percentage dedicated to international investments. As a dividend investor, this has been one of the more difficult allocations within my portfolio. I have identified several difficulties in locating, acquiring and owning international stocks:

IBM, the world's largest technology company, offers a diversified line of computer hardware equipment, application and system software, and related services. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Over the last year the financial industry has taken a beating. Many banks have failed while others have taken drastic measures to preserve their future. The markets have recognized the turmoil this and punished bank stocks. Year-to-date through October 31st, I had earned positive returns on two bank stocks:

Canadian National Railway Company (CNI) operates Canada's largest railroad, linking customers in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico through approximately 20,400 miles of track. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network (DIV-Net) over the past week:

Sometimes a cash rich company will declare a special one-time dividend to eliminate surplus cash. These special dividends are generally ignored when evaluating a company's dividend growth performance. Special dividends are nice, but the most special dividend is one that increases each year. Here are several companies that recently raised their cash dividends:

The election is over and no matter how you feel about Obama, he will be the next U.S. president. A sharp increase in new debt could push up interest rates and continue the downward pressure on the stock market. Let's look at some possible winners:

Emerson Electric Co. primarily makes backup power equipment for telecom and Internet providers and users, climate control components, and electric motors. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

With all the talk about the financial crisis, market melt-downs, Dow/S&P crashing, et. al., the one metric that really matters to each of us individually is the performance of our personal portfolio. So, how is your portfolio doing this year? Mine has performed above expectations.