Stock Trading

In my life, I have been a mortgage bond manager, and a corporate bond manager. I have enough overall experience that I have played in most bond and loan categories, including municipal bonds.Municipal bonds are one place where the competition level is low, and additional knowledge can pay off. This is particularly true in an era where municipal bond insurance is less prevalent, and as such credit analysis has more value.This book gives you the basics on municipal bonds. The most basic idea is economic necessity. Who will be harmed if the municipality in question can't perform? If the the answer is "few," that might not be a good municipal bond to buy, unless there are significant covenants requiring a municipality to raise taxes to pay for the debt service.Municipal bonds are an unusual market because there are many issuers, purposes, and bond styles. The dominant non-taxable

In 2013, Mondays have been noticeably superb for U.S. stock investors. Tuesdays have been even more spectacular; in fact, until a few weeks ago, the Dow closed higher on 20 consecutive occasions. However, what began as a siren song of riskless gains back in November could be shifting in pitch and tempo. The Dow has risen or fallen by 100 points or more for 5 straight sessions. What's more, over the last month, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrials (DIA) has oscillated an average of 1.25% between its highs and its lows; DIA wavered in an average range of just 0.75% from January to mid-May.Consider what transpired on Monday, 6/17. When a Financial Times article suggested that the Federal Reserve would confirm an intention to slow its bond-purchasing program, the Dow rapidly shed 150 points. Shortly thereafter, the author of the piece explained via Twitter that he had merely

What do 1929, 2000 and 2007 all have in common? Those were all years in which we saw a dramatic spike in margin debt. In all three instances, investors became highly leveraged in order to 'take advantage' of a soaring stock market. But of course we all know what happened each time. The spike in margin debt was rapidly followed by a horrifying stock market crash. Well guess what? It is happening again. In April (the last month we have a number for), margin debt rose to an all-time high of more than $384 billion. The previous high was $381 billion which occurred back in July 2007. Margin debt is about 29% higher than it was a year ago, and the S&P 500 has risen by more than 20% since last fall. The stock market just continues to rise even though the underlying economic fundamentals continue to get worse

(click to enlarge)One of my recent purchases for my Covestor Healthcare Model is Medtronic, Inc. (MDT). I purchased shares May 1, 2013, at an effective cost of $47.00. Medtronic closed at $53.51, up $.59 or 1.11% on the day (June 17, 2013). This is already a strong performer in my portfolio.Being located in the midwest, I am always proud of America's most innovative companies originating in the 'heartland'. Medtronic is headquartered just north of Minneapolis in the city of Fridley. Medtronic has a classic history of American innovation. As the Medtornic website relates: "Today, we are the world's largest medical technology company, but we come from humble beginnings. Medtronic was founded in 1949 as a medical equipment repair shop by Earl Bakken and his brother-in-law, Palmer Hermundslie. Did these two men set out to change medical technology and the lives of millions of people? No. But

The utilities sector is usually one of dividend investors' favorite because these companies have stable businesses, with good profitability and cash flow generation capacity. Therefore, they regularly pay part of their profits as dividends, and usually are safe. In the U.S., the utilities sector (IDU) offers a yield of about 4% on average, which is quite good. However, there are higher-yielding stocks in foreign utilities, like Energias de Portugal (EDPFY.PK) that currently offers an yield above 7%. This yield is also above some major American utilities such as Duke Energy (DUK) which yields 4.5%, or American Electric Power Company (AEP) at 4.3%.Energias de Portugal is a Portuguese-based company that generates, supplies, and distributes electricity and gas in Portugal and Spain. Moreover, through its subsidiaries the company is involved with electricity distribution, generation and supply in Brazil, and wind power promotion, construction and operation in 11 countries. Its wind-power

Europe is far from out of the woods. Bond yields in Italy and Spain are creeping higher. The region also still faces record high unemployment, a lack of growth, a fragile banking system and political dysfunction. But while I generally remain cautious on Europe, I am starting to see some modest improvement in some of the peripheral countries — particularly in Spain. In fact, as I write in my latest Investment Directions and weekly commentary pieces, I’ve recently upgraded my view of Spanish stocks to neutral from underweight. While Spain continues to face severe growth headwinds, there are three main reasons why I’m less concerned about the market now: Improving Profitability. Following the completion of the Spanish government’s mandated cleanup of the country’s real estate sector and banks, Spanish corporate profits are expected to recover, albeit from a low base. Attractive Valuations. While the Spanish economy

Many consumer staples companies pay dividends. Among the 117 consumer staples companies that are included in the Russell 3000 index, 78 companies pay dividends. The average annual dividend yield of these companies is 2.32% while the median is 2.03%. Vector Group Ltd (VGR) has the highest yield at 10.08%, and Seaboard Corp (SEB) has the lowest yield at 0.11%.In this article, I tried to determine which of the Russell 3000 consumer staples companies is the most attractive for dividend-seeking investors.I consider that besides healthy dividend yield, low payout ratio and consistent dividend growth are the most crucial factors for dividend-seeking investors. In addition, since dividend investors try to avoid too much risk, The Sharpe ratio, which measures the ratio of reward to risk, is also extremely important.I have screened the Russell 3000 consumer staples companies that pay dividends according the above-mentioned principles.The screen's method requires all

The Treasury International Capital report each month is not normally looked at with much scrutiny because, truth be told, it's usually a non-event. Foreign sovereigns buy enough U.S. government securities to increase their total holdings between 0.5% and 1.0% month over month. The U.S. Treasury almost always has a surplus of buyers for its debt which allows it to continue to run up trillion-plus dollar budget deficits and export the inflation to the rest of the world. But, what happens when that doesn't happen? And what does that mean for Gold (GLD)?In April, the T.I.C. report was the most negative one I've seen since China dumped $100 billion in U.S. Treasuries in August 2011. That caused gold to spike to $1926 per ounce, the Swiss to peg the Franc to the euro (FXE) and eventually the five major central banks to open up a $500 billion coordinated swap

In what promises to be an extremely busy and volatile week for EUR/USD, the pair has started out on a strong note, climbing 21 pips to close at $1.3365. Analysts are already looking towards the upcoming FOMC meeting that concludes on June 19th as a major catalyst, which may very well play an important factor in dictating price action as we approach the release.Analysts at Rabobank went on to discuss a few reasons why they believe the market is so on edge about what the Fed will have to say regarding tapering asset purchases. The market uncertainty about the pace of QE3 is caused not only by the wide divergence of views within the FOMC, but also by the mixed signals that the economic data are giving. In fact, several FOMC members have admitted that they will need to see more data to get a clear picture

While searching for investment opportunities I tend to follow a "prudent man" approach: I try to invest in value investment in bottleneck situations in connection with a certain growth aspect (GARP). In other words: Investments you would like your daughter or son to be involved in, considering the safety of capital as well as income.To do this I try to understand the assets or the products of the companies at the lowest level possible and to understand management's plan and strategy. Thereafter I identify gaps in market perceptions versus "my" reality and look for inflection points and step changes. Although I am using external information to filter, validate and compare financials and NAVs within peer groups, in general I am not a great believer of detailed models, as the assumptions too often are inadequate.Energy names, especially globally diversified exploration and production companies, often