With all of the information out there on stocks, how are you supposed to surf through the hundreds of magazines, newspapers, TV shows and websites to find out exactly what it is you need to pay attention to? The trick is that you don't actually have to read all of the news reports to keep the upper hand. If you're a long-term investor (and you should be!), 95% of the news won't affect the company 5, 10, or 20 years from now. Make sure, however, that you keep an eye out for a few major headliners such as:

Stock buybacks

Once in awhile, a company will decide to buy back some of their shares of stock. This is typically done when they feel that their stock is undervalued or that they can get a better return from investing in their own stock than using their money elsewhere. This is a good sign for the investors. After all, who could possibly know a company better than the management? If they're buying, maybe you should too!

Mergers and zcquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions are always making the news; there was AOL and Time Warner, Hewlett Packard and Compaq, and Citicorp and Travelers Group. When a company acquires another company, they sometimes pay a "premium" (a price higher than the stock is currently worth) to acquire the smaller company. This might send the stock soaring; or, if analysts and investors don't approve of a merger, the stock will fall.

Every quarter, a company releases a statement of how well it did during that time period. This is like a company report card. The company that does really well and earns more than the analysts expect gets an A+. The company that earns less than expected and is struggling to get by receives a C-. Earning reports are a great way for you to judge the performance of the companies you invest in.

No investor wants to hear stories of scandals or about lawsuits being filed against a company they have invested in. Every once in awhile, however, a company is rocked by a corporate scandal. It may be about overstated earnings, money being embezzled or a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. Stories like these might be a sign that the company isn't as healthy as you thought it was.

There's certainly a lot of business news out there but nobody really expects you to read every single story. The key is staying in touch with major company events.