Sometimes as analysts we’re so focused on finding the next “big thing” that we overlook a great opportunity that’s sitting right in front of us. #-ad_banner-#This happened to me recently when I was researching some of my most interesting investment ideas. I’ve researched and invested in this company plenty of times throughout my career, so I figured I’d focus on some newer companies first. But at the end of the day, I came back to it once again. You see, in my premium advisory, Income Trader, I only use my income-generating… Read More

Sometimes as analysts we’re so focused on finding the next “big thing” that we overlook a great opportunity that’s sitting right in front of us. #-ad_banner-#This happened to me recently when I was researching some of my most interesting investment ideas. I’ve researched and invested in this company plenty of times throughout my career, so I figured I’d focus on some newer companies first. But at the end of the day, I came back to it once again. You see, in my premium advisory, Income Trader, I only use my income-generating strategy on stocks that I want to own. I look for companies that I’d have no problem buying if they fell 10% or even 20% in price. Think Microsoft and Coca-Cola, for example. This approach has worked extremely well. Since I started publishing Income Trader in February 2013, I haven’t closed one trade for a loss. It may sound impossible, but over the past two years I’ve closed 81 straight winners.   So after spending the weekend researching some pretty interesting ideas, I finally got to the company I’d saved for last — The Walt Disney… Read More

An old trader once told me, “Trading is the hardest easy money you’ll ever make.”  #-ad_banner-#In theory, trading is easy enough — all you have to do is buy low and sell high, right? After all, there are thousands of books claiming to tell us everything we need to know.  In practice, however, trading is among the most difficult activities in the financial world. Despite the availability of a wealth of information, few do it well. To understand why it is so easy for investors to fail, I always remember the advice of another old trader who told me: “To… Read More

An old trader once told me, “Trading is the hardest easy money you’ll ever make.”  #-ad_banner-#In theory, trading is easy enough — all you have to do is buy low and sell high, right? After all, there are thousands of books claiming to tell us everything we need to know.  In practice, however, trading is among the most difficult activities in the financial world. Despite the availability of a wealth of information, few do it well. To understand why it is so easy for investors to fail, I always remember the advice of another old trader who told me: “To know what everyone knows is to know nothing.” In other words, investors who are using the tools everyone knows about shouldn’t expect to be successful.   Think about that for a moment.  If you could really win in the markets by simply buying stocks with low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios, then we would all be successful. The secret to beating the market — and your fellow investors — is to use little-known indicators. Personally, I’ve been successful using tools you likely have not heard of, like the Income Trader Volatility (ITV) indicator.  ITV is similar to the Volatility S&P… Read More

Some traders argue that once an indicator or strategy is well known it loses its effectiveness. But that doesn’t seem to ring true for the Dogs of the Dow, which was popularized in the early ’90s. The Dogs are the 10 highest yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is comprised of 30 of the largest — and arguable safest — companies in the world.  The idea is that the higher yields indicate better value, and the chance for above-average returns. And indeed, the strategy does appear to deliver on that. Between 1973 and 1996, the Dogs returned 20.3%… Read More

Some traders argue that once an indicator or strategy is well known it loses its effectiveness. But that doesn’t seem to ring true for the Dogs of the Dow, which was popularized in the early ’90s. The Dogs are the 10 highest yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is comprised of 30 of the largest — and arguable safest — companies in the world.  The idea is that the higher yields indicate better value, and the chance for above-average returns. And indeed, the strategy does appear to deliver on that. Between 1973 and 1996, the Dogs returned 20.3% annually versus 15.8%for the Dow. In 2013, the Dogs beat the Dow 30 by 8.4 percentage points, returning 35%. #-ad_banner-#Following the basic strategy involves investing an equal amount of money in each of these 10 stocks on Dec. 31, and holding them for one year. But for the past two years, I’ve shared a variation of this strategy with Profitable Trader readers that has delivered triple-digit profits.  While the Dogs had a great year in 2013, when I reviewed my strategy in mid-December of last year, a $1,089 investment had already grown to over… Read More

I used to hate filling up my car with gas. Every time I spent over $60, I thought of the new pair of shoes or a quality meal I could’ve treated myself to instead. But now, I’m almost excited to see how much lower my receipt is every week. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. For the 90% of Americans who drive a car to work, gasoline is a necessity. Even when prices rise, many drivers have a limited ability to cut back on the amount of… Read More

I used to hate filling up my car with gas. Every time I spent over $60, I thought of the new pair of shoes or a quality meal I could’ve treated myself to instead. But now, I’m almost excited to see how much lower my receipt is every week. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. For the 90% of Americans who drive a car to work, gasoline is a necessity. Even when prices rise, many drivers have a limited ability to cut back on the amount of gas they use. So when prices fall, as they have recently, many consumers will end the month with more money left over for discretionary purchases. Just think. If I can fill up my tank now for $40, how much do I save every year? $20 per tank…four times per month… twelve months in a year. I’ll save $960, and that’s just the gas to get me to and from work. Now, who knows if most people will use this extra cash to go on a shopping spree or just add it… Read More

One book that comes up over and over again when I talk to technical analysts is Edwin Lefevre’s “Reminisces of a Stock Operator,” written back in 1923. This book tells the story of Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest traders of the early 1900s, and certainly one of the most colorful characters in Wall Street history. The stock market back then was much different than today. Livermore actually learned to trade in “bucket shops” — backroom establishments where people would come together to “buy” and “sell” stocks and commodities. The problem with bucket shops, and the reason why they’re now… Read More

One book that comes up over and over again when I talk to technical analysts is Edwin Lefevre’s “Reminisces of a Stock Operator,” written back in 1923. This book tells the story of Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest traders of the early 1900s, and certainly one of the most colorful characters in Wall Street history. The stock market back then was much different than today. Livermore actually learned to trade in “bucket shops” — backroom establishments where people would come together to “buy” and “sell” stocks and commodities. The problem with bucket shops, and the reason why they’re now illegal, is that these transactions were never actually executed on an exchange, and amounted to no more than gambling on whether their pick would go up or down. #-ad_banner-#In bucket shops, traders followed the price action on ticker tape controlled by the bucket shop operator, who would usually use this power to delay and manipulate the numbers to create losing trades for the customers in the shop — and winning trades for himself. While many traders lost to the bucket shop operators, Livermore was able to beat them, and quickly made enough money to move his operations to Wall Street. Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a market some investors completely ignore. It allows individual investors to generate income from the best companies in the world without buying stocks most of the time. I’ve been recommending trades in this market for over a year. And so far, the results have been astounding — each of the 52 trades I’ve closed has been a winner. I don’t want to beat around the bush or make this sound like some super-secret investing strategy only I can tell you about. I am talking about selling options. #-ad_banner-#Now, before you… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a market some investors completely ignore. It allows individual investors to generate income from the best companies in the world without buying stocks most of the time. I’ve been recommending trades in this market for over a year. And so far, the results have been astounding — each of the 52 trades I’ve closed has been a winner. I don’t want to beat around the bush or make this sound like some super-secret investing strategy only I can tell you about. I am talking about selling options. #-ad_banner-#Now, before you decide that you never want to try options trading, let me show you what a recent subscriber to my Income Trader newsletter, which focuses on selling options, had to say about my strategy: “When I first started using [Amber’s] picks, my goal was to earn $500. Then I quickly realized I can earn at least $1,000 per month. I use the profits to buy more… Not only are your picks excellent with low risk, it teaches you to look for other options on your own, which I have done.” — Nathan S., West Long Branch… Read More

It’s a simple way to look at trading. But to me, a successful trade is one that makes money. For most investors, this means you see a stock you like, do some research, and then decide to pull the trigger. At this point, of course, the hope is that the stock moves up and you book a reasonable return on your investment. #-ad_banner-#But if the stock moves lower or sideways, you’ll break even at best. What if I told you that there is a strategy that makes it possible to profit from owning stocks that aren’t moving at all? This… Read More

It’s a simple way to look at trading. But to me, a successful trade is one that makes money. For most investors, this means you see a stock you like, do some research, and then decide to pull the trigger. At this point, of course, the hope is that the stock moves up and you book a reasonable return on your investment. #-ad_banner-#But if the stock moves lower or sideways, you’ll break even at best. What if I told you that there is a strategy that makes it possible to profit from owning stocks that aren’t moving at all? This isn’t just theory. In my premium newsletter we’ve been able to earn market-beating returns time and again using what we call the Maximum Income strategy. For example, MasterCard (NYSE: MA) was one of the first positions we opened back in February. The trade recently closed in July. Over that five month period, the S&P 500 gained about 6%, while MasterCard only gained 1.3%. But by using my Maximum Income strategy my subscribers and I pocketed a 10% gain. How is this possible? While traditional stock investors sit back and hope to see… Read More

My years in the military have allowed me to see the world in a totally different way. While deployed overseas I tracked IED locations, went on convoy missions and gathered intelligence from local villages. I learned the importance of analyzing data to forecast what was likely to happen in the future, and I used this data and information to determine the level of risk our soldiers were dealing with. The typical mission was scheduled to take seven days, but always ended up taking longer due to roadside bombs and the occasional unruly hostile who decided to shoot at us. This… Read More

My years in the military have allowed me to see the world in a totally different way. While deployed overseas I tracked IED locations, went on convoy missions and gathered intelligence from local villages. I learned the importance of analyzing data to forecast what was likely to happen in the future, and I used this data and information to determine the level of risk our soldiers were dealing with. The typical mission was scheduled to take seven days, but always ended up taking longer due to roadside bombs and the occasional unruly hostile who decided to shoot at us. This has opened my eyes to see the bigger picture. Not just in the military, but in everyday life. I believe my experience assessing risk in the military allows me to think outside the box and take a different angle on a problem or situation.  In this case, it’s the financial markets. #-ad_banner-#Today, there is an onslaught of different investing techniques and strategies. And when I was first introduced to them, I found myself, like most, overwhelmed. That’s when my training came in handy, and I immediately looked at the market from a different angle. I was instantly drawn to a… Read More

Imagine yourself teeing up at the 18th hole of TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verde Beach, Florida. A slight breeze rustles the trees off in the distance, the clear blue skies reflect off the pond. It’s a slight dog-leg left, and the sound of your driver connecting with the golf ball breaks the silence. The stroke felt great… the ball bounces down the fairway missing the water hazard and lining yourself up for a great approach to the green. Life is good… retirement is great. After your morning round of golf, you’ll catch a quick nap before you lose yourself in… Read More

Imagine yourself teeing up at the 18th hole of TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verde Beach, Florida. A slight breeze rustles the trees off in the distance, the clear blue skies reflect off the pond. It’s a slight dog-leg left, and the sound of your driver connecting with the golf ball breaks the silence. The stroke felt great… the ball bounces down the fairway missing the water hazard and lining yourself up for a great approach to the green. Life is good… retirement is great. After your morning round of golf, you’ll catch a quick nap before you lose yourself in a classic Tom Clancy novel by the pool. #-ad_banner-#It’s the “true” retirement dream — you sleep well at night, travel and have money left over to help out your kids and grandkids. Put simply, you’re doing what you want, when you want, without the stress of outliving your money. You’ve worked hard your entire adult life stashing away money for this moment… dreaming of the day you could retire and simply live off your investments. Unfortunately, for the majority of retirees that’s exactly what it is… a “dream.” Most “regular investors” won’t be able to generate enough income for that… Read More

It’s one of the easiest and safest ways to generate 20%-plus returns on a regular basis. Once you’ve mastered the technique, I wouldn’t be surprised if you stopped trading stocks or buying and holding investments for years at a time. That’s how powerful this strategy is — it can drastically improve the way you make money in the markets, forever. That goes for conservative income investors and aggressive traders alike. #-ad_banner-#The technique is actually pretty simple, but it requires some investors to leave their comfort zone. You see, it involves options, one of the most misunderstood corners of the financial… Read More

It’s one of the easiest and safest ways to generate 20%-plus returns on a regular basis. Once you’ve mastered the technique, I wouldn’t be surprised if you stopped trading stocks or buying and holding investments for years at a time. That’s how powerful this strategy is — it can drastically improve the way you make money in the markets, forever. That goes for conservative income investors and aggressive traders alike. #-ad_banner-#The technique is actually pretty simple, but it requires some investors to leave their comfort zone. You see, it involves options, one of the most misunderstood corners of the financial world. Many investors steer clear of options because they have a reputation for being risky, but that’s not always the case. Covered calls, one my favorite ways to generate large income streams and capital gains, can be more conservative than buy-and-hold investing. In fact, The Wall Street Journal calls it “one of the most conservative… strategies available to professional and individual investors alike.” Simply put, covered calls allow you to get paid upfront to potentially sell a stock you own at a higher price sometime in the future. Whether the stock goes up or down, you can come out ahead. Read More