What Our Ratings Mean

TheStreet.com issues safety ratings on more than 13,000 financial institutions, including banks, brokerage firms, HMOs, life and health insurers, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, and property and casualty insurers. TheStreet.com also rates the risk-adjusted performance of more than 20,000 mutual funds and more than 6,000 stocks.

While the TheStreet.com Ratings use the same rating scale as TheStreet.com Safety Ratings of financial institutions, the two ratings have totally independent meanings. TheStreet.com Safety Ratings assess the future financial stability of an insurer or bank as a way of helping investors place their money with a financially sound company and minimize the risk of loss due to bankruptcy. These ratings are derived without regard to the performance of the individual investments offered by the insurance companies, banks or thrifts.

On the other hand, the TheStreet.com Investment Ratings Investment Ratings evaluate the risk/reward trade-off of an investment in the specific stock or mutual fund. In stock ratings, the company's stability is an important component in this evaluation, but the focus is on the investment -- not the company itself.

Also Important: TheStreet.com Investment Ratings indicate our opinion regarding an investment's valuation level and prospective risk-adjusted performance relative to other similar-type investments. Any decision to buy or sell a stock, however, must also consider external factors such as the direction of the overall stock market and your personal financial situation.

Please make a selection from the menu on the left for more industry-specific information on our ratings.