A barrage of telephone calls, from everyone from my credit card company to the local auto dealer, annoyed me over the last week. Remembering back when telemarketing was ubiquitous, I decided to look closer at this resurrected form of marketing — customer contact. We Have All Experienced It You’ve just finished a long day a work and are relaxing around the dinner table with your family. Suddenly, your phone rings and the caller ID shows a number that looks oddly familiar. Reluctant but inquisitive, you take the call. The voice on the other end is pleasant and sounds curiously… Read More

A barrage of telephone calls, from everyone from my credit card company to the local auto dealer, annoyed me over the last week. Remembering back when telemarketing was ubiquitous, I decided to look closer at this resurrected form of marketing — customer contact. We Have All Experienced It You’ve just finished a long day a work and are relaxing around the dinner table with your family. Suddenly, your phone rings and the caller ID shows a number that looks oddly familiar. Reluctant but inquisitive, you take the call. The voice on the other end is pleasant and sounds curiously friendly, asking you non-intrusive questions about your credit card account. However, your intuition tells you that something is not right about this caller. #-ad_banner-#In this case, your intuition is correct. The “person” you were just speaking to isn’t a person at all. It is the latest iteration of artificial intelligence-powered voice recognition and response software. You answered the phone since the number looked familiar, this is not random chance — the number was spoofed to look one you would recognize to increase the likelihood that you would answer the phone. We are in the midst of a revolution in the… 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 only buying and holding investments altogether. #-ad_banner-#That’s how powerful this strategy is: It can drastically improve the way you make money in the markets. That goes for conservative income investors and aggressive traders alike. The technique involves selling options. If you’ve never tried your hand at options before, don’t worry — the kind of options strategy I’m talking about is perhaps the safest, easiest way to execute a trade… 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 only buying and holding investments altogether. #-ad_banner-#That’s how powerful this strategy is: It can drastically improve the way you make money in the markets. That goes for conservative income investors and aggressive traders alike. The technique involves selling options. If you’ve never tried your hand at options before, don’t worry — the kind of options strategy I’m talking about is perhaps the safest, easiest way to execute a trade for income that you’ll ever come across. Specifically, I’m referring to selling call options. A call option gives the buyer the right — but not the obligation — to buy a stock from the call seller if it’s trading above a specified price before a specified date. When you sell a call option, you accept the potential obligation to sell a particular stock at a specified price at a set time in the future. When you sell a call, you generate what I call “Instant Income,” also known as a premium, upfront. I only recommend selling covered calls. A covered… Read More

As the U.S. wireless telecom backbone has evolved since its infancy of the late 1990s, the game, save for a few minor players, has been dominated by two companies: AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Combined, the two own about 65% of the U.S. market. With 142.7 million subscribers, Verizon holds the top spot over AT&T’s 131.8 million customers. It’s also common knowledge that the stocks of both companies are perennial favorites among dividend investors. Many hold both in their portfolios. After all, it makes sense to own both number one and two. But does it make more sense… Read More

As the U.S. wireless telecom backbone has evolved since its infancy of the late 1990s, the game, save for a few minor players, has been dominated by two companies: AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Combined, the two own about 65% of the U.S. market. With 142.7 million subscribers, Verizon holds the top spot over AT&T’s 131.8 million customers. It’s also common knowledge that the stocks of both companies are perennial favorites among dividend investors. Many hold both in their portfolios. After all, it makes sense to own both number one and two. But does it make more sense to hold just one of them? At first glance, the two stocks look almost identical. As of this writing, T shares trade around $41.50 with a 4.7% dividend yield, while VZ shares seem a little pricier at about $49.20 per share with a 4.7% yield. But a look underneath the hood on both stocks tells a much different story. Here’s what I found. Stronger Signal?   AT&T Verizon Two-Year ROE 11.66% 95.90% Two-Year Div. Payout Ratio 97.13% 47.70% Two-Year EPS Growth 43.50% 27.02% Two-Year Avg. Total Return 18.60% 12.00%   While AT&T’s earnings per share (EPS) growth blew past… Read More

If you’re not familiar, OPEC is group of 13 oil-producing countries that collude (in the most legal of ways) to help control oil prices (i.e. keep prices at levels where they can make the most money by selling the most product the market will bear). Love them or hate them, they do control more than 80% of the world’s oil reserves. But their influence is becoming less powerful, as they only account for less than half of global oil production. #-ad_banner-#There’s been a lot of whoop-dee-doo about OPEC’s recent decision to cut oil output, and even non-OPEC members are supposedly… Read More

If you’re not familiar, OPEC is group of 13 oil-producing countries that collude (in the most legal of ways) to help control oil prices (i.e. keep prices at levels where they can make the most money by selling the most product the market will bear). Love them or hate them, they do control more than 80% of the world’s oil reserves. But their influence is becoming less powerful, as they only account for less than half of global oil production. #-ad_banner-#There’s been a lot of whoop-dee-doo about OPEC’s recent decision to cut oil output, and even non-OPEC members are supposedly getting in on the action to scare oil prices higher. Fortunately for us, these scare tactics are mostly baseless. The deceptive headlines seem ominous, but the data reveal the truth. These “massive cuts” really only bring production down slightly from record levels and are only temporary. Even excluding U.S. production, oil is still being pumped at near record amounts. OPEC’s “cuts” still leave production higher than it has been in all of history. OPEC sneakily boosted production leading up to the cut to make it look like they were really doing something drastic — but it was all a shell… Read More

The run in the S&P 500 since the election, accounting for more than 13% of the market’s 14.7% increase over the last year, has pushed stocks to rare valuations. Stocks in the broad-market index are now trading at an average of 17.5 times analysts’ expectations for earnings over the next year, a premium of 25% on the 10-year average price-to-expected earnings. The optimism is in contrast to the fact that earnings forecasts are starting to come down, with analysts now expecting growth of just 9% when first-quarter numbers start coming out. This is considerably lower than the 12% earnings growth… Read More

The run in the S&P 500 since the election, accounting for more than 13% of the market’s 14.7% increase over the last year, has pushed stocks to rare valuations. Stocks in the broad-market index are now trading at an average of 17.5 times analysts’ expectations for earnings over the next year, a premium of 25% on the 10-year average price-to-expected earnings. The optimism is in contrast to the fact that earnings forecasts are starting to come down, with analysts now expecting growth of just 9% when first-quarter numbers start coming out. This is considerably lower than the 12% earnings growth expected when the quarter started in January. One sector in particular has boomed with last year’s stimulus in China and hopes for stimulus this year in the world’s largest economy. Bull markets don’t die of old age, and this one could be ready to move higher if Washington comes through with tax reform and fiscal stimulus. I’ve found three value plays in a sector that stands to benefit directly from this upside. These three names will allow investors to participate in potential growth and should provide protection from downside risks. Can Materials Build Off Recent Gains? Morningstar calls recent… Read More

One broker I know was fond of saying, “If you hold on to a good stock long enough, you’ll end up making money.” Coming from a stock broker, this was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it actually makes sense: In the long term, strong stocks with good fundamentals win. So the key word here is “good.” For the stock to move higher, investors must have reasons to like it. They look at the business’ future promise and determine whether or not today’s price fully reflects those expectations. #-ad_banner-#Investing isn’t a game of chance. Days, weeks and sometimes months… Read More

One broker I know was fond of saying, “If you hold on to a good stock long enough, you’ll end up making money.” Coming from a stock broker, this was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it actually makes sense: In the long term, strong stocks with good fundamentals win. So the key word here is “good.” For the stock to move higher, investors must have reasons to like it. They look at the business’ future promise and determine whether or not today’s price fully reflects those expectations. #-ad_banner-#Investing isn’t a game of chance. Days, weeks and sometimes months of painstaking research go into figuring out what’s good and what’s not, and millions of active investors do this work constantly. What makes it more complicated is that we all invest based on the outlook for the future, and the future is good at delivering surprises. But because so many analysts and investors do their homework, they are rarely collectively wrong. Without having a special knowledge of the future, the market processes all available information and makes a determination about the company’s future — and a stock’s ultimate direction is a reflection of that collective opinion. Of course, the markets… Read More

When I first started investing, outside of a few books, there was very limited information on how to pick winning stocks. Today, things are radically different. There is a tremendous number of stock screeners, advice gurus, and stock rating services. But the trick is to find one that works… #-ad_banner-#Investors are always looking for an edge. This is an advantage or unique tactic for locating winning stocks. Some stock market investors choose to find an edge on their own. While this can be a lucrative method, it is often very costly, and may lead down a never-ending rabbit hole of… Read More

When I first started investing, outside of a few books, there was very limited information on how to pick winning stocks. Today, things are radically different. There is a tremendous number of stock screeners, advice gurus, and stock rating services. But the trick is to find one that works… #-ad_banner-#Investors are always looking for an edge. This is an advantage or unique tactic for locating winning stocks. Some stock market investors choose to find an edge on their own. While this can be a lucrative method, it is often very costly, and may lead down a never-ending rabbit hole of misinformation and dead ends. Other investors prefer to take the easy way out by following proven stock rating services to help locate potential winning stocks in a sea of mediocrity. Personally, I utilize nearly every credible resource available, including self-developed screening criteria to pick winning stocks. When I do use a stock rating service, I like to know how it works. In other words, I want to understand the secret sauce behind the stock picks. One of the most popular stock rating services is TheStreet.com’s TheStreet Ratings, which specializes in providing winning stock picks for investors. If you’re already familiar… Read More

2016 was a record year at the box office, with sales hitting $11.2 billion. This success is expected to continue this year, with sales projected to eclipse $12 billion. Hollywood is pretty much booming. Today, I want to reveal the best way to profit. This global media giant owns the industry’s best portfolio of media companies and brands. I expect it to achieve record revenue in 2017. Even better, shares are trading at one of the biggest discount to sales in the last five years. The Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE: DIS) should be a familiar name. Disney is the second-largest… Read More

2016 was a record year at the box office, with sales hitting $11.2 billion. This success is expected to continue this year, with sales projected to eclipse $12 billion. Hollywood is pretty much booming. Today, I want to reveal the best way to profit. This global media giant owns the industry’s best portfolio of media companies and brands. I expect it to achieve record revenue in 2017. Even better, shares are trading at one of the biggest discount to sales in the last five years. The Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE: DIS) should be a familiar name. Disney is the second-largest media company in the world by revenue, behind only Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA). Disney owns one of the most valuable portfolios of companies in the entire global media industry. Its valuable properties include Walt Disney Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, ESPN, ABC, the Disney Channel, Lucasfilms, and the Star Wars franchise. #-ad_banner-#Beyond its media properties, Disney operates Disney Theme Parks, a collection of 14 theme parks with locations around the world. The company also owns the merchandising rights for its collection of brands under its consumer brands division, another huge source of revenue. Despite its industry-leading portfolio of media companies, Disney shares… Read More