Across a wide range of industries, a combination of dividend increases and shareholder buyback programs has led this to be the “era of shareholder perks.” #-ad_banner-#As I recently noted in my kick-off to a multi-part look at dividends, I suggested that the recent pullback in bond yields sets the stage for a renewed appreciation for dividend payers. In part two, I focused on stocks with 4%-to-5% yields and ample safety, and in part three of the series, I looked at individual stocks poised for robust dividend growth. In that look at companies with fast-growing dividends, I noted solid prospects… Read More

  Across a wide range of industries, a combination of dividend increases and shareholder buyback programs has led this to be the “era of shareholder perks.” #-ad_banner-#As I recently noted in my kick-off to a multi-part look at dividends, I suggested that the recent pullback in bond yields sets the stage for a renewed appreciation for dividend payers. In part two, I focused on stocks with 4%-to-5% yields and ample safety, and in part three of the series, I looked at individual stocks poised for robust dividend growth. In that look at companies with fast-growing dividends, I noted solid prospects for such stocks in various industries, such as insurers. Yet, the most fertile area for such companies can be found in the banking sector. Better Late Than Never The financial crisis of 2008 was so devastating to the balance sheets of major banks and so scary to banking regulators that the thought of cash-sapping dividends were out of the question. Some banks have been slow to regain their footing when it comes to dividends. The dividend for Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) for example, peaked at $1.08 a share in 2007 and currently stands at just $0.40 a share —… Read More

It was an interesting year in the financial world in 2014, and nothing short of a spectacular year for readers of my premium newsletter, Game-Changing Stocks. #-ad_banner-#Between the Fed ending its quantitative easing program, continued troubles in Europe, and a collapse in commodities, there was plenty of risk in the markets. Many of the brightest minds in finance were wondering if 2014 was the year that this epic run in the markets would come to an end. But amidst all this turmoil, my readers and I were still able to find plenty of triple-digit… Read More

It was an interesting year in the financial world in 2014, and nothing short of a spectacular year for readers of my premium newsletter, Game-Changing Stocks. #-ad_banner-#Between the Fed ending its quantitative easing program, continued troubles in Europe, and a collapse in commodities, there was plenty of risk in the markets. Many of the brightest minds in finance were wondering if 2014 was the year that this epic run in the markets would come to an end. But amidst all this turmoil, my readers and I were still able to find plenty of triple-digit winners. It’s easy to get sucked into the worry and excitement of the markets, but those factors are all out of your control. What is in your control is how you invest. As I preach to my Game-Changing Stocks subscribers, investing is a mental game, and state of mind is everything. So with that in mind I’m going to share with you some of the rules I follow when looking for winning investment picks, and how they led me to some of my best performing picks last year. Read More

In last week’s Market Outlook, I warned that stocks could be in for a tough January as long as the market-leading technology sector was weak and the small-cap Russell 2000 remained below its 1,213 March high. All major U.S. indices closed lower last week, led by the Russell, which lost 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was down 0.4%. Moreover, the only sectors of the S&P 500 to post a gain were defensive health care and consumer staples. #-ad_banner-#Since December, the U.S. stock market has been fraught with what I call “directionless volatility,” indicative of temporary investor indecision that typically becomes… Read More

In last week’s Market Outlook, I warned that stocks could be in for a tough January as long as the market-leading technology sector was weak and the small-cap Russell 2000 remained below its 1,213 March high. All major U.S. indices closed lower last week, led by the Russell, which lost 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was down 0.4%. Moreover, the only sectors of the S&P 500 to post a gain were defensive health care and consumer staples. #-ad_banner-#Since December, the U.S. stock market has been fraught with what I call “directionless volatility,” indicative of temporary investor indecision that typically becomes the springboard for the next price trend. Last week alone, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had five consecutive triple-digit daily price moves — two positive and three negative. The last time this kind of near-term choppiness occurred was in late September, which marked the beginning of what turned out to be an 8.6% decline by the Dow into the mid-October lows. This week’s first two charts directly pertain to this recent sideways activity and will help us determine the market’s next move. Look for Tech to Lead the Next Market Trend The first chart shows the Nasdaq 100’s recent transition… Read More

This one investing rule could drastically improve the performance of your portfolio… #-ad_banner-#I’m not talking about asset allocation, position sizing or stop losses. Sure, those are great rules… but they won’t immediately improve your overall performance. After all, it doesn’t matter how diversified your portfolio is, or how small of a position you take, or even if you have a stop-loss set in place — the fact remains, if you buy the wrong stock at the wrong time you will lose money. It’s that simple. Now, I’m not saying that by… Read More

This one investing rule could drastically improve the performance of your portfolio… #-ad_banner-#I’m not talking about asset allocation, position sizing or stop losses. Sure, those are great rules… but they won’t immediately improve your overall performance. After all, it doesn’t matter how diversified your portfolio is, or how small of a position you take, or even if you have a stop-loss set in place — the fact remains, if you buy the wrong stock at the wrong time you will lose money. It’s that simple. Now, I’m not saying that by following this one rule you will never lose money. But what I can guarantee is that this simple strategy will help you know which stocks to buy and exactly when to sell them. Take Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for example. Apple is one of the most fundamentally sound companies on the planet. For years, the popularity of iPods, iPhones and its computers caused earnings and cash flow to soar. Since 2003 alone, the company’s annual revenue rose from $6.2 billion to $182.8 billion. And if you were an investor focused only on Apple’s fundamentals — a strong… Read More

  Over the holidays, I decided to drive to Orlando and give the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) a few of my hard earned dollars. My 12 year-old son talked me into riding the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.   #-ad_banner-#As a thrill ride, the Tower of Terror plays on three of humankind’s most basic fears: falling, the unknown and the dark. I wasn’t that concerned.  In the investment biz, that’s just another day at the office.   But when it comes to the investing, I’ll be honest. I am a concerned about the stock market in 2015. Read More

  Over the holidays, I decided to drive to Orlando and give the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) a few of my hard earned dollars. My 12 year-old son talked me into riding the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.   #-ad_banner-#As a thrill ride, the Tower of Terror plays on three of humankind’s most basic fears: falling, the unknown and the dark. I wasn’t that concerned.  In the investment biz, that’s just another day at the office.   But when it comes to the investing, I’ll be honest. I am a concerned about the stock market in 2015.   Here’s why: It’s all about earnings.   At the end of the day, an investor should buy a stock based on the underlying company’s ability to deliver quality, consistent earnings. Those earnings should also be purchased at a fair-to-discounted price as measured by a stock’s price-to-earnings ratio (PE).   In more bullish times, investors are sometimes a bit too optimistic about the future and will push stock prices and their attached PE’s higher. In bearish times, they often become too pessimistic and drive prices and PE’s down.   I took notice after working on this chart of peak PE… Read More

While the S&P 500 was racking up a 30% gain in 2013, short selling was a very unwise strategy. Even in the first six months of 2014, the rising market made a mockery of bearish investing. Yet over the past six months, as the market slowly began to move sideways, short sellers finally started to gain traction. And if the market makes only modest gains in 2015, short selling is likely to become an increasingly important arrow in the investing quiver, even for those investors that typically shun this seemingly risky strategy. That price chart explains the simple… Read More

While the S&P 500 was racking up a 30% gain in 2013, short selling was a very unwise strategy. Even in the first six months of 2014, the rising market made a mockery of bearish investing. Yet over the past six months, as the market slowly began to move sideways, short sellers finally started to gain traction. And if the market makes only modest gains in 2015, short selling is likely to become an increasingly important arrow in the investing quiver, even for those investors that typically shun this seemingly risky strategy. That price chart explains the simple and powerful appeal for short sellers: the market falls a lot faster than it rises. Said another way, when the market dropped roughly 7% (peak-to-trough) in October and around 5% in mid-December, stocks with a high beta — especially those with high short positions — fell to an even greater extent. #-ad_banner-#Short sellers can smell blood in the water when a high-flying (and overvalued) stock starts to appear vulnerable. Once those stocks start to lose value, then the shorts really pile on. For short sellers, success breeds confidence, and they appear to have had a successful year… Read More

Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. #-ad_banner-#What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small caps or… Read More

Today I want to tell you about an investing strategy that defies logic. It shouldn’t work based on everything we’ve learned about the stock market. Yet it does. In fact, for over half a century, investors and traders have used this strategy to produce unparalleled results. And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this strategy doesn’t involve options, derivatives or any other obscure financial product. #-ad_banner-#What’s more, what I’m about to show you can be used as part of any general investing strategy — regardless of whether you’re focusing on income, growth, blue chips, small caps or commodities. Specifically, I’m talking about relative-strength investing. Longtime readers might already be familiar with relative-strength investing. We’ve talked about it before in previous StreetAuthority Daily issues. But for those who need a refresher, allow me to provide a brief recap. Relative-strength investing is simply a type of momentum investing. It involves buying the best-performing stocks (relative to the market) and holding them until their momentum changes course. To most investors, especially those considered value investors, this strategy probably sounds ridiculous. After all, most people have heard the phrase “buy low, sell high.” Since relative-strength investors buy stocks that are already… Read More

A few weeks ago, I told you about a simple strategy that’s never lost money. Put simply, the longer you hold an investment, the better your chances of making a profit. The S&P 500 has never had a losing 20-year span, going all the way back to the 1950s. #-ad_banner-#The key is finding a handful of companies that enjoy huge (and lasting) advantages over the competition, pay fat dividends to their investors each year and buy back massive amounts of their own stock. Once you find them, the strategy is simple — just buy their shares and hold forever. But… Read More

A few weeks ago, I told you about a simple strategy that’s never lost money. Put simply, the longer you hold an investment, the better your chances of making a profit. The S&P 500 has never had a losing 20-year span, going all the way back to the 1950s. #-ad_banner-#The key is finding a handful of companies that enjoy huge (and lasting) advantages over the competition, pay fat dividends to their investors each year and buy back massive amounts of their own stock. Once you find them, the strategy is simple — just buy their shares and hold forever. But if you want to see the best reason why investing forever is the smartest way to let the market make you wealthy, pay attention to the table below. Earlier this year I ran a simple stock screen to find all the stocks in the United States that have returned more than 300% in the past year. To make sure we were dealing with solid companies, I only included firms with positive earnings. And to weed out the fly-by-night penny stocks, I kicked out anything with a market cap under $100 million. You can see the results for yourself.  … Read More

If you’re looking to capture yields, but often fall flat on your face when it comes to researching and picking stocks, then there’s a simple technique you should learn. #-ad_banner-#Among the many investing strategies is a perennial one that offers investors solid dividend yields and a history of proven returns — often beating the overall market. It is called “Dogs of the Dow.” This is the process of investing in the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and holding them for one year. Since price drops create higher yields, these are often the worst performing companies… Read More

If you’re looking to capture yields, but often fall flat on your face when it comes to researching and picking stocks, then there’s a simple technique you should learn. #-ad_banner-#Among the many investing strategies is a perennial one that offers investors solid dividend yields and a history of proven returns — often beating the overall market. It is called “Dogs of the Dow.” This is the process of investing in the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and holding them for one year. Since price drops create higher yields, these are often the worst performing companies in the index — hence the nomenclature “Dogs.” The idea is that these market laggards will turn around in the following year, resulting in modest, reliable gains. Investors who followed this strategy in 2014 have seen 12.6% returns year to date. To put this in context, the Dogs outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s overall 11.1% total return, but were shy of the S&P 500’s 15%. Investing doesn’t get much more simplistic than this strategy. In fact, the Dogs of the Dow have held up over time. Over the past 15 years, the Dogs returned 146%, handily outperforming DJIA’s 124%… Read More

All major U.S. indices posted gains last week, led by the small-cap Russell 2000, which advanced 1.6% and is now up 4.4% for the year. A sustained move above the 1,213 March high would confirm a bullish breakout from a year of sideways indecision and portend more strength into the early to middle part of 2015. #-ad_banner-#​The bad news is that, while small caps appear to be recovering, technology stocks have lagged lately with the Nasdaq 100 gaining just 0.8% last week. Since technology to a large degree has driven the 2014 broad… Read More

All major U.S. indices posted gains last week, led by the small-cap Russell 2000, which advanced 1.6% and is now up 4.4% for the year. A sustained move above the 1,213 March high would confirm a bullish breakout from a year of sideways indecision and portend more strength into the early to middle part of 2015. #-ad_banner-#​The bad news is that, while small caps appear to be recovering, technology stocks have lagged lately with the Nasdaq 100 gaining just 0.8% last week. Since technology to a large degree has driven the 2014 broad market advance, continued weakness by this index could become problematic, especially in January and February when seasonal factors begin to weigh on stocks. GE Lights The Way In last week’s Market Outlook, I said that one way to determine whether the previous week’s sharp market rebound, ignited by comments from the Federal Reserve, was sustainable was to keep a close eye on market bellwether General Electric (NYSE: GE). At the time, it was testing its 2009 major uptrend line as underlying support. GE aggressively reversed higher from this support on Dec. 17, the… Read More