Last week, I wrote about the incredible opportunity for investors in the world of cannabis stocks. And while it seems like everyone wants a piece of the action, most investors are unsure of how to go about it. That’s where my colleague Amber Hestla comes in… Many of you are already familiar with Amber’s work. For example, back in January, I called her our “No. 1 risk expert.” I’ve also shared a few of her “bonus” trades with readers over the years. So when I heard that she had come up with a new “turbo” system for trading pot stocks… Read More

Last week, I wrote about the incredible opportunity for investors in the world of cannabis stocks. And while it seems like everyone wants a piece of the action, most investors are unsure of how to go about it. That’s where my colleague Amber Hestla comes in… Many of you are already familiar with Amber’s work. For example, back in January, I called her our “No. 1 risk expert.” I’ve also shared a few of her “bonus” trades with readers over the years. So when I heard that she had come up with a new “turbo” system for trading pot stocks — that was designed to quickly get in and out of trades while making monster-sized gains — I just had to know more. I know we’ve talked about your background before in previous issues. But we’ve picked up some new readers since then… Tell us a little about your former life in the military for starters, and the kind of influence it has had on your job today. Amber: Well, I was in the Army for nine years — two of which I spent in Iraq as a Military Intelligence Analyst during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In military jargon,… Read More

Before the arrival of the “cloud,” cybersecurity used to be relatively simple.  A simple firewall to secure the network… some antivirus software to keep PCs in the office safe from various forms of malware… and that was about it. #-ad_banner-#Today, partly thanks to the cloud, the “company network” as it were, is amorphous. Throw in the proliferation of various types of mobile devices, as well as an increasingly mobile workforce, and it becomes clear that basic firewalls aren’t up to the task. Securing these endpoints has become a much more challenging endeavor. The benefits of the cloud are clear (efficiency,… Read More

Before the arrival of the “cloud,” cybersecurity used to be relatively simple.  A simple firewall to secure the network… some antivirus software to keep PCs in the office safe from various forms of malware… and that was about it. #-ad_banner-#Today, partly thanks to the cloud, the “company network” as it were, is amorphous. Throw in the proliferation of various types of mobile devices, as well as an increasingly mobile workforce, and it becomes clear that basic firewalls aren’t up to the task. Securing these endpoints has become a much more challenging endeavor. The benefits of the cloud are clear (efficiency, mobility, and cost savings, just to name a few). Still, no company wants to be in the headlines for a costly security breach.  This means any critical applications and business-critical data stored on the cloud will require security controls not covered by security measures designed purely for on-premises deployments.  That means big-time opportunity for companies offering innovative solutions in the cybersecurity space.  One Of Our Top Cyber Picks One particular area that’s ripe for cyber companies is with what are known as “privileged accounts.” These special accounts are what the IT folks at any business use to log in… Read More

Have you ever stopped to consider all of the potential risks you could run into during your day? I don’t recommend it; it’s not a pretty picture. Every day, we face an almost infinite number of risks — yet we rarely think about them. It makes sense — if we constantly ran through a list of all the risks we face during our day-to-day activities, many of us would never do anything. For instance, think about letting your kids sign up for a soccer league. There are potential risks associated with driving to and from the field, unknown risks from… Read More

Have you ever stopped to consider all of the potential risks you could run into during your day? I don’t recommend it; it’s not a pretty picture. Every day, we face an almost infinite number of risks — yet we rarely think about them. It makes sense — if we constantly ran through a list of all the risks we face during our day-to-day activities, many of us would never do anything. For instance, think about letting your kids sign up for a soccer league. There are potential risks associated with driving to and from the field, unknown risks from other parents whom you know nothing about, general risks associated with being in public, risks of being exposed to someone who is sick… and we haven’t even gotten to the risks associated with actually playing soccer! Instead of being crippled by fear of risk, we buy auto, home, health and life insurance to protect ourselves from significant risks that are difficult to quantify. But when it comes to investing, few take a similar approach. Rather than thinking about specific risks and setting up safeguards accordingly, many investors are content to just sit on their hands and tell themselves, “I’m focused… Read More

Last week, like many analysts, I was closely watching events in Saudi Arabia. An important oil facility had been attacked, and initial reports indicated that 5% of the world’s supply of oil was knocked offline in the attack. Oil was set to spike when markets opened, and it did. By the end of the week, prices were back into the trading range that contained prices for most of July and August. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You… Read More

Last week, like many analysts, I was closely watching events in Saudi Arabia. An important oil facility had been attacked, and initial reports indicated that 5% of the world’s supply of oil was knocked offline in the attack. Oil was set to spike when markets opened, and it did. By the end of the week, prices were back into the trading range that contained prices for most of July and August. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy today. Here’s all you need to know to retire as early as this year. For now, oil is on the back burner for traders. In part, that’s because the Federal Reserve pushed its way into the headlines. We knew the Fed would make the news as it held a regularly scheduled meeting. As expected, the Fed cut the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25%, for a new range of 1.75% to 2%. What was unexpected was the dissent associated with the decision. Three of… Read More

It’s that time again — where I make an informed prediction on what companies could announce a dividend hike in the coming month.  As a refresher, I scan the market for noteworthy special distributions on the horizon, as well as for potential dividend hikes over the next four to six weeks. I give special attention to outsized double-digit increases and reliable dividend-payers that have been steadily growing payouts for a decade or more. I flag these stocks first for my premium High-Yield Investing readers, and then share them with the public.  Here’s what I’m looking at right now… 1. Starbucks… Read More

It’s that time again — where I make an informed prediction on what companies could announce a dividend hike in the coming month.  As a refresher, I scan the market for noteworthy special distributions on the horizon, as well as for potential dividend hikes over the next four to six weeks. I give special attention to outsized double-digit increases and reliable dividend-payers that have been steadily growing payouts for a decade or more. I flag these stocks first for my premium High-Yield Investing readers, and then share them with the public.  Here’s what I’m looking at right now… 1. Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) – You gotta love the fall. The air is suddenly crisp and the leaves begin to turn. The World Series gets underway. And cash generators like Starbucks reward their faithful shareholders with dividend hikes. The upscale coffee vendor raised its distributions to $0.25 from $0.20 per share in November 2016 and then to $0.30 in November 2017. Last year’s increase came a bit early (in August), lifting the payout to $0.36 per share. Perhaps management just couldn’t wait to surprise investors. At the time, it upped its capital return program by $10 billion, pledging to return $25 billion… Read More

Pot stocks are all the rage these days. And it’s not hard to see why… Now that the laws have changed in many states,  it seems that everybody wants to get in on the action. After all, it’s not often you get a chance to get in on the ground floor of an industry that’s becoming a reality right before our eyes – and one that’s benefiting from advances in legislation and popular demand to boot. Longtime readers may remember that we’ve been covering this trend off and on since 2014 — the year Colorado’s recreational cannabis legislation went into… Read More

Pot stocks are all the rage these days. And it’s not hard to see why… Now that the laws have changed in many states,  it seems that everybody wants to get in on the action. After all, it’s not often you get a chance to get in on the ground floor of an industry that’s becoming a reality right before our eyes – and one that’s benefiting from advances in legislation and popular demand to boot. Longtime readers may remember that we’ve been covering this trend off and on since 2014 — the year Colorado’s recreational cannabis legislation went into effect. In fact, the earliest piece I could find where we covered the burgeoning legal marijuana industry was a piece called “The Most Controversial Essay We’ve Ever Published.” In re-reading that piece, I was amused by how much we were stumbling over ourselves trying to reassure readers that we weren’t taking a stand on the issue — but merely making a prediction and offering thoughts on how you could invest, if you were so inclined. My, how things have changed since then… —Recommended Link— 1400% Gains in 48 hours… on pot stocks? In just a… Read More