If you look at the prime rate and the Standard & Poor's 500 since January of 1992, you will notice a trend of increasing prime rates and increasing stock prices. During 1992 and 1993, the prime rate was flat at 6% with the market not doing much, trading between 415 to 450. Then in April of 1994, the prime rate started moving up, eventually hitting 9% a year later. The S&P 500 began to make its move during that same time frame.

The prime did take a dip in the late 1990s, dropping below 8%, but in June of 1999 it turned right around and shot up to 9.5%. A lot of investors remember what happened near the end of the year 2000; the market began its long severe decline, the famous dot com crash. During that same time frame, the prime dropped from 9.5% to 4% before bottoming out in July of 2003.

It's time to give thanks for dividends. Next week is Thanksgiving week, and surprisingly there are a lot of stocks going ex dividend during those days. There is a stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends', which is becoming more and more popular. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the market capitalization, and the yield.

It's a great feeling to receive a lot of dividends throughout the year, then on the following April 15, realizing that you don't have to pay tax on any of that income. There are many stocks, which are primarily closed end funds or CEFs, which pay dividends that are tax free. This tax free income is generated from municipal bonds in the portfolio. Although many of the Canadian oil income trusts pay income that may be partially or completely tax deferred due to depletion and depreciation deductions, the tax free stocks that invest in munis usually generate dividends that are completely exempt from Federal taxes.

Municipal bonds are issued by states, counties, cities, and other governmental agencies. Income from these bonds is exempt from Federal income taxes, and if the bonds are issued in your state of residence, the income is exempt from state income taxes also. Municipal bonds issued by Puerto Rico and other U.S. dependencies are exempt from state income taxes also for residents of most states. There are over 200 different tax free income stocks according to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, with 42 of them yielding 7% or more. Just be cautious about investing in extremely high yield muni CEFs which may use leverage to attain their high yields.

There are a couple ways of buying stocks at a discount to their present value. One way is by investing in closed end funds, also known as CEFs, that are trading at a discount from Net Asset Value, also known as NAV. The NAV is similar to the book value of stocks. In other words, the NAV is calculated by adding up all the stocks in the portfolio, and dividing that amount by the number of shares.

A closed end fund is similar to a regular mutual fund except that the trading price of the CEFs can fluctuate way above or way below the NAV. In addition, the number of shares is fixed. There are over 20 closed end funds that are trading at a discount of over 20% of their net asset value. Many investors invest in these discounted CEFs in the hopes that the gap between NAV and price per share will close.

There is a stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' that is becoming more and more popular. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many companies, all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Investors love low priced stocks. Investors love dividends. What happens if you combine the two criteria? WallStreetNewsNetwork.com just came out with a list of over 25 stocks selling for less than $10 per share, with market caps over $250 million, and yields over 10%. Many of them were closed end funds, but several are businesses, such as Cedar Fair LP (FUN), the amusement park and water park company, which just went ex-dividend. Based on its latest quarterly payment of 25 cents, it yields 14.6%.

How about a biotech that has a 12.2% yield? PDL BioPharma, Inc. (PDLI) is an interesting company selling for less than ten dollars a share. They manage antibody humanization patents and royalty assets, consisting of patents and license agreements with biotech companies. They also pay 25 cents per quarter and last went ex dividend on September 15, and paid their dividend October 1. They just priced a $300 million securitization transaction which will monetize 60% of the royalties from sales of current Genentech products. They intend to pay a significant portion of the proceeds from the securitization to stockholders in the form of a special dividend, most likely in December of this year. The total amount of this special cash dividend, along with the record and payment dates will be finalized at the upcoming board of director's meeting on November 11th and announced the following day.

The price of natural gas is relatively very low, so consumers don't mind cranking up the heat. Now were are entering the winter season when consumption will increase. How about looking at natural gas utilities as possible investments, especially because of the great dividends. Seventeen of these stocks pay 4% or more.

Here are a few examples of high yielding natural gas and propane utilities and limited partnerships:

Two years ago, when I first started tracking the monthly dividend stocks, there were over 350 different securities that paid monthly. Since that time, the number has dropped to 290 due to mergers and liquidations, but that is still plenty to choose from. Technically, these stocks are REITS, oil income trusts, and closed end funds, which pay dividends every month. The advantages to having monthly dividends versus quarterly or annual dividend stocks are:

1. Your invested capital is returned faster.
2. Compounding happens quicker.
3. There is generally less volatility.
4. Many of these pay tax free income.

Pepsi Cola, the original drink of Pepsico Inc. (PEP) is an anagram (a word that can be made out of the letters of another word) of Episcopal. According to one name derivation theory, the name Pepsi-Cola came about because Caleb Bradham, the pharmacist who created Pepsi on August 28, 1898, had his drugstore across the street from an Episcopal Church.

Pepsi remains one of the major national sponsors for Major League Baseball's World Series. Did you know that there are three ways to invest in Pepsi? Pepsico, Inc. is considered the primary Pepsi company. In addition to manufacturing and marketing beverage concentrates and syrups, they also have the Frito-Lay division which makes and markets snacks, the Quaker Foods North America division which distributes cereals and pasta, and the PepsiCo International division, which sells snacks and beverages. The stock has a P/E of 18, and a yield of 3%.

Now that the market has had a selloff, now might be the time to start looking for dividend buys. The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' is becoming more and more popular. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WSNN.com came up with many companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Who says you can't make money in the stock market over long periods of time? You could have made substantial amounts of money by just owning only one share of stock, assuming you have the right stock. For example, you could have paid $35 for one share of Hewlett Packard (HPQ) back in 1962. Including splits and dividends, that one share would be worth $11,965. Another example is IBM (IBM), albeit a high priced stock back then at $572 per share. But if you had held on, that investment would be $25,635.

These enormous gains could have been achieved even over shorter periods of time, You could have paid $175.50 for a share of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) at the beginning of January of 1970 and now have $18,161. Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) could have been had for $110 per share at that time, growing to $11.035. Then you could have bought Chevron Corp. (CVX) for $52.25 for one share and now have $14,079.

Now that the market has had a selloff, now might be the time to start looking for dividend buys. The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' is becoming more and more popular. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week. WSNN.com came up with many companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

The stock market has had a huge run since March. You would have thought the rising tide would have made all ships rise. But there are still a half a dozen stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange for less than a dollar a share. Some of these companies may be totally worthless, but a couple may be worth speculating on. I will let you decide. All of these low cap stocks trade for less than a dollar.

Anthracite Capital (AHR) has a very high forward PE of 86. But since earnings don't mean much these days, especially for these types of stocks, let's look at the cash and debt position. This New York based commercial REIT has $816 million in cash, giving the stock $9.97 in cash per share, and a $4.59 book value. However the company has $1.86 billion in debt.

Think the Dow Jones Industrial Average is overpriced? There are actually ten Dow stocks selling close to book value. As a matter of fact, several of these stocks are trading close to their cash per share. Here they are along with their Book Value, the Price Book Ratio, and the Cash Per Share.

Company Name, Symbol, Book Value, Price Book Ratio, Cash Per Share
BANK OF AMERICA (BAC) 22.71 0.72 63.59
THE TRAVELERS (TRV) 47.29 1.01 11.92
JP MORGAN CHASE (JPM) 39.12 1.14 171.66
GEN ELECTRIC (GE) 11.04 1.40 10.72
WALT DISNEY (DIS) 18.84 1.551 1.68
AT&T (T) 16.71 1.55 1.24
KRAFT FOODS (KFT) 16.47 1.66 1.17
CHEVRON (CVX) 43.85 1.75 3.66
PFIZER (PFE) 9.33 1.86 7.35
VERIZON COMMUN. (VZ) 15.02 1.93 0.41

Duke University is studying the use of cord blood transplants in babies while still in the womb, in order to treat various metabolic disorders. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given approval for clinical trials.

Cord blood is blood that comes from umbilical cords, and contains a large amount of hematopoietic stem cells. Specialized cord blood banks are available to store this blood. Cord blood stem cells are considered far superior to stem cells from bone marrow. Many parents have their newborn's cord blood preserved in the event it may be needed at some point in the future for treatment of their child's or the child's sibling's cancer or genetic disease. Close to a hundred diseases have been treated with cord blood. For a lot more detail on cord blood and how it is collected, stored, and used, go to CordBloodStocks.com.

The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' is becoming more and more popular, especially with the recent increase in the stock market. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week. WSNN.com came up with many companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Since the Dow broke 10,000, maybe you've decided to take some profits, and want to move your funds into something that pays a fairly decent yield. Electric utility stocks may be what you are looking for. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has come up with a list of 31 electric utility stocks that pay a dividend over 4%.

Utilities have always been known as 'widows and orphans' stocks throughout history, meaning that they have been considered very conservative investments. Recently, that has shown to be not so true in recent history with respect to certain companies although overall, during long periods of time, utilities have paid favorable dividends with low volatility.

The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' is becoming more and more popular, especially with the recent increase in the stock market. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week. They came up with many companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

What Do the Following Have In Common?
* Arnold Schwarzenegger
* Al Gore
* The band Coldplay
* Leonardo DiCaprio
* Jake Gyllenhal
* 2008 Oscars

What They Have in Common: They all claimed to have offset their fossil fuel usage by purchasing carbon credits.