NormK

11 Dividend Stocks that Show You the Money

And for those willing to be more speculative, look at HRP, JPS, CHI and NAT for higher yields. I've been long on these for years and with dividend reinvestment, my positions grew so much over the past 14 months that it was akin to dollar-cost-averaging all the way back up from the abyss. My positions are 20% unrealized gain even though my original investments years ago are 25% underwater. It's my way of hedging my portfolio and it has proven a very good strategy for the bumps.

Brazil Gets a Little Nutty: Investment Survival in Emerging Markets

re: Angel, What is tempting about Brazil compared to other emerging markets is that it is so rich in natural resources, and I'm not just talking about oil. As long as they have a means to sell to the rest of the world, they will continue to grow. But I get your point.

Brazil Gets a Little Nutty: Investment Survival in Emerging Markets

I've done very well with two Brazil staples: CZZ (largest sugar cane producer) and BTM (Brazil Telecom) over the past year, which I attribute to both recovery from overall market crash and of course the currency play as you mentioned. I was actually hoping for a larger dip before buying in to BZF since, as you mentioned it has gone up so much as well. Do you think there's a little more fallout to help it go down even more or has the whole inflow tax already played itself out in the market?

Gone Nowhere in 8 Years

Footnote about two stocks in this scenario:
AT&T: It's different from the others in the group because although it's in the same market, it was acquired by SBC in 2005 which adopted AT&T's Ticker symbol. So it's not really fair to say it's the same company. www.att.com/gen/press-...

Alcoa: Relatively low volatility, although not much gain either since 2000. Most of the drop was in 2008 due to the housing and commercial market crash, i.e., low demand for building materials including aluminum. See chart: www.google.com/finance...

Options Trader: Monday Outlook

I need some advice and I think you and your readers would be an appropriate audience. My question is, what is a better choice for a bearish purchase? UYG Puts or SKF Calls?
A. UYG Puts
B. SKF Calls
C. Absolutely no difference

Peter Schiff vs. the Fed

re: Robert Martorana:
So when do my foreign currencies start to go up "significantly?" I mean big time, not just minor fluctuations. Is there a way to take your prediction of a "catastrophic collapse in the dollar" (I know it's not just yours) and actually put a numerical analysis on it so you are pretty confident that given the current course of events, if nothing changes in the current Fed/Treasury policies and trends that by 20xx the dollar will surely be worth less than half of its current value compared to certain other countries?

And if this scenario is so likely, why do the Chinese continue to fix the Yuan to the dollar? I'm guessing the answer is that their ability to buy goods to import is not worth nearly as much as their ability to export cheap goods and if the dollar is cheap then they'll come out ahead.

Why Leveraged and Derivatives-Based ETFs Are Dangerous

Hoping UYG has gone up too much, too fast (meaning its underlying holdings/derivatives and the sector in general), I just picked up some Sept 5 puts. Now, can everyone pray for me? That might just work better than my technical analysis. :)

China's Growth: Far Less than Meets the Eye

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that there are dissenting opinions on both sides of the copper issue here. From my observation, some copper mining stocks have more than tripled since the Oct/Nov lows but are still much lower than their 2 year highs (or even averages). Although I'd love to see them double again, as WD216 predicts, I'm happy to have taken my 200% profit already and either move on to other sectors and buy back either with extreme caution or only on a significant dip. Copper for me is one of just a few examples that have helped my 401K 40% drop recover to 20%.

Why Leveraged ETFs Are Bound to Deteriorate

Great analysis. Helps reinforce my understanding of past mistakes. I have seen this exact scenario happen for UYG in the past few weeks. When it blew out 4.5 on May 8, that would (in hindsight of course) been the time to sell. It came down sharply since then and erased gains way before the underlying stocks settled back down.
Norm

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

You have a typo in the top of your article. The symbol for Enterprise Products Partners is EPD, not EPE.

10 Upcoming Catalysts for ATP Oil and Gas

I guess a 20% move in a week is the new "day to day" movement reality. I bought ATPG on recommendations in seekingalpha after doing some of my own research and the past 5 trading days have punished me hard. Fortunately, I didn't buy much so considering more at this level (6.5). Anyone want to chime in that ATPG is a freaking bargain at this price or is it still just as much a crap shoot as it was at $8?


On Jun 03 11:30 AM Devon Shire wrote:

>
> No idea. I have a long term opinion on oil going up over the next
> few years, natural gas is always volatile.
>
> Day to day movements are just noise.

Commodities Today - Last Thoughts

Matt, I'm interested in why you think sugar will correct. I've done extremely well with Cosan (CZZ) (Brazil) since the crash but it's still below last summer's levels (not that those were realistic). Are you basing it mainly on technicals like the huge rapid run up or on industry fundamentals? I'd appreciate your insight!

Government Data: Pattern of Negative Revisions Trending Higher Lately?

I think another issue that separates this recession from others is that the US work force is much more of a service industry (fewer manufacturing jobs) than in the past and also, many more small businesses than in the past. While large swaths of manufacturing such as the auto industry, including the parts and shipping sectors) are indeed being affected, in other areas there may be less reported unemployment but still a major slowdown in small business income, especially independent contractors in the construction and home improvement sector, all of whom report that their business is way down. Sometimes it's tough to quantify these factors but taken as a whole, they are probably a major indicator of how bad things are in addition to looking at absolutes like unemployment figures.

Should You Own Junk Bonds?

At the bottom in Nov and March, I went long on JPS preferred ETF and NXG, speculative mining and am up 70% on both with hopefully a nice long ride to go. Like Cetin, I liked oil & gas so I picked up one of the biggest outside the US, Gazprom, symbol OGZPY which is up about 50%, at 21 but still a long way from their $60 high a year ago. I tried to convince my friends and family to buy these but nobody listened but I still think there is good upside to all three.

ETF Update: Time for REITs?

Do any readers of this column follow HRPT (Symbol HRP) ? They always seem on the verge of recovery but then get beaten down a week later. This has happened several times in the past few months. I'm curious if the author has seen the same behavior in the funds mentioned in the article.