Stock Trading

New research shows that investment savings and financial security, rather than age, now determine when near-retirees feel ready to retire. Despite improving economic conditions, Maritz Research‘s recent Retirement Study marks $500,000 as the tipping point at which people feel comfortable to retire, and many American workers are worried they won’t be able to afford retirement.. Maritz Research collected responses from 1,000 participants in December 2012, 500 recent retirees, and 500 near-retirees, all with at least $100,000 in savings. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Not only did the study yield interesting results about the financial point at which workers feel prepared to retire, but its report also demonstrates the difference near-retirees have in attitude compared to that of recent retirees. The near-retirees indicated more anxiety over their immediate future — whether they’d have enough money to last them through retirement and cover their increased healthcare expenses — compared to the 79 percent of recent retirees who claimed to feel optimistic about their future financial security. The results of the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, the nation’s longest-running annual retirement survey put on by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, illustrated different numbers, but similar trends in attitudes when it released its report in March. The RCS is a random, nationally representative survey of 1,000 individuals age 25 and over, and it, too, reported “a sharp decline in Americans’ confidence about their ability to secure a financially comfortable retirement.”  Thirteen percent of workers reported feeling confident in their ability to have enough money to live comfortably through their retirement years, compared to that of the 18 percent of retirees that share that confidence. Thus, similar to Maritz Research’s study, retirees tended to foster more confidence in their prospective futures than workers did. The RCS also illuminated the different determining factors that now go into one’s retirement age, a number that has risen for many, according to the 22 percent of workers in the 2013 RCS who claimed that their expected ages of retirement had increased in the past year. Workers most frequently cited the poor economy and their distrust in Social Security as the main reasons for postponing retirement. Maritz Research and the RCS therefore both demonstrated that financial security, rather than age, is now commonly the establishing factor for one’s retirement timeline. Once that timeline is created, the Maritz Research study yielded interesting results about its planning stages. While the research illuminated that 40 percent of retirees wait until within 10 years of retirement to begin planning, it also indicated that 61 percent of recent retirees establish a relationship with a financial advisor before retiring, up from 52 percent in 2005. One can only speculate why workers tend to wait as long as they do before planning. A close analysis of the reported decrease in economic confidence and workers’ ability to comfortably retire may highlight the main reasons workers are reluctant to plan. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Perhaps most significant part of both studies’ results is the fact that most of those surveyed claimed to believe that “retirement is an outdated concept,” an assumption shared by the 69 percent of workers in the RCS who say they plan to work after they retire, and the 37 percent of the near-retirees in the Maritz Research study who share the same belief. Workers are clearly adusting their expectations about retirement, and they illustrate the reality that, for many Americans, the idea of a true, old-fashioned retirement seems like an impossibility. Don’t Miss: Mom’s Top Gift? Money-Smart Kids. Read the original article f

Once you become an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) user, you stay an Apple user. That seems to be the main conclusion drawn from a recent survey done by market research company Forrester Research. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! Forrester Research surveyed 9,766 “global information workers” to figure out which mobile ecosystem attracts the most faithful users. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of computer users have little to no brand loyalty at all. In fact, 85 percent of worldwide computer users were labeled by Forrester Research as “Free Radicals.” This group of users is not loyal to any particular mobile ecosystem and consists of users who either own a single device or own multiple devices from various ecosystems. The remaining 15 percent of the world’s mobile computer users fall into two different categories of ecosystem dedication — “Loyalists” or “Devotees.” The “Loyalists” consist of users who own multiple devices that are primarily from one ecosystem. However, users in this group also own mobile devices from competing ecosystems. According to Forrester’s survey, 58 percent of Apple’s worldwide users fall into this category. According to IDC statistics, Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android dominates the worldwide smartphone operating system market with a 75 percent share. However, the Mountain View-based company apparently only inspires 17 percent of global computer users to be “Loyalists.” Finally, the “Devotees” are users who exhibit the greatest bond to a particular ecosystem to the exclusion of any other. These users have many kinds of mobile devices but every device is meshed to their favorite mobile ecosystem. Apple dominated in this category as well, with 56 percent of its worldwide users falling into this extremely faithful category. Surprisingly, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inspired similarly high levels of dedication in its users. The Redmond-based software company grabbed 44 percent of the “Devotee” worldwide user population in this survey. Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that this is likely due to the widespread use of the Windows operating system in the workplace. However, there was little middle ground in Microsoft users’ ecosystem loyalty. Only 17 percent of worldwide users were categorized as “Loyalists.” NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week. Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Don’t Miss: Hey, Hedge Fund Managers Still Love Apple! Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

The gloom and doom theorists swarmed out of the woodwork during the 2008 financial meltdown in reaction to government actions taken to prevent the "great recession" from morphing into the next great depression.The blame fell on both political parties. The Bush administration began the bailout efforts in March 2008 and by the time its term ended, it had provided $29 billion in loan guarantees to allow JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to take over collapsing Bear Stearns, the $178 billion "Average American Bailout" stimulus plan, the $300 billion Homeowners Bailout, the $200 billion bailout of Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB), the $25 billion Automakers Bailout, the $150 billion bailout of AIG (AIG), and the $700 billion Banks Bailout (TARP).The actions continued when the Obama administration took over, with a $787 billion stimulus package, an additional $275 billion homeowners stimulus plan, an additional $30 billion in assistance to AIG,

EV Energy's (EVEP) yield is excellent, offering just under a 8% annual payout at recent price levels. We prefer yields above 3% and don't include firms with yields below 2% in our dividend growth portfolio. EV Energy fits our criteria thus far, but what about the future growth and safety of its distribution? Let's take a look in this article. Structure of the Oil And Gas Pipeline Industry Firms in the oil and gas pipeline industry own or operate thousands of miles of pipelines and terminals -- assets that are nearly impossible/uneconomical to replicate. Most companies act as a toll road and receive a fee for transporting natural gas, crude oil and other refined products (and generally avoid commodity price risk). Though there is much to like, most constituents operate as master limited partnerships and pay out hefty distributions that can stretch their balance sheets. Additional unit issuance (dilution) has

Had a ton of setups in my scans this weekend - too many really. This happens from time to time, and it always is a bit worrisome. Many times, when I have too many setups to choose from, I either inevitably choose the wrong one (or two or three) or the market throws a curveball and takes... For the full article, please visit my website by clicking on the article title above.

I decided to look at David Fish's Dividend Champions and focus on annualized shareholder return numbers. I am young. I think that dividend growth is great, but right now, I am more interested in overall capital growth than I am in increased income alone. Because of this, I used the perceived safety and consistency of the Champions list as a jumping off point for my annualized rate of return search. While I am not wholly concerned with my investment portfolio's income, I do especially like investing in companies that have displayed consistent dividend growth as this exudes management confidence with regard to future performance and often serves as an ever rising platform for the stock's bottom price range. I sleep well at night owning stock in companies like these and have decided to put my financial fate in the powerful hands of compounding returns.To be considered a "Dividend Champion"

The most critical component of any investment framework rests on determining what a company is worth. There are many ways to do so, but there is only one way that is most appropriate, and that's discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. Think of it this way: do you want your pay check paid in cash? Or do you want it paid in accounting earnings? We think you know the correct answer -- cash, please. And while the DCF process is not perfect, it's the best approach out there and doesn't suffer from the many pitfalls of using multiple analysis, residual income models, and the dividend-discount analysis. Don't get us wrong, investors should use a variety of triangulation tools, but let's dig into what Southern Copper (SCCO) is worth on the basis of its future free cash flow stream.But first, one quick note to help with the understanding of this article:

BlackBerry (BBRY) is on a bit of roll. Market share in Canada has doubled since the Z10 was launched and is likely to continue to grow with the enormous popularity of its new Q10, which hit the market last week. I bought one and it is a delight. I got mine from Bell Canada, and was immediately impressed by the speed of the Bell LTE network. Downloads are incredibly fast. The momentum is not just in Canada. ZD Net reports that two-thirds of people who left BlackBerry for Android are being tempted to come back by the Q10 launch. (click to enlarge) Adding to the buzz, Jefferies just released a bullish report on BlackBerry and commented on a decision by Verizon to switch its 10,000 employees to BlackBerry from Android. An even more interesting comment was the indication that a private company had developed a solution that let

I'm not certain that I understand the chorus of those claiming that our current market reminds them of 1999.Mind you, I'm as cautious, maybe much more so than the next guy and have been awaiting some kind of a correction for more than 2 months now, but I just don't see the resemblance.Much has also been made of the fact that the S&P 500 is now some 12% above its 200 Day Moving Average, which in the past has been an untenable position, other than back when sock puppets were ruling the markets. Back then that metric was breached for years.Back in 1999 and the years preceding it, the catalyst was known as the "dot com boom" or "dot com bubble" or the "dot com bust," depending on what point you entered. The catalyst was clear, perhaps best exemplified by the ubiquitous sock puppet and the short

Camtek (NASDAQ:CAMT) will report earnings before markets open on Monday, May 20th. Camtek Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets technologically advanced and cost-effective automated optical inspection systems and related products. The Company’s products are used to detect defects in printed circuit boards during the manufacturing process. Here is your Cheat Sheet to Camtek Earnings: Earnings Expectations: Analysts expect earnings of $-0.03 per share on revenues of $17.00 million. Analyst Trends: Analysts have a more negative outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings has fallen from a profit of $0.02 to a profit $0.01. For the current year, the average estimate is a profit of $0.15, which is the same as the estimate ninety days ago. Earnings Trends: Here’s how Camtek has been performing on an annual basis: Fiscal Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Revenue ($) in millions 75.46 53.52 87.78 107.03 84.55 Diluted EPS ($) -0.32 -0.40 0.09 0.18 0.00 Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data: Quarter Dec. 31, 2011 Mar. 31, 2012 Jun. 30, 2012 Sep. 30, 2012 Dec. 31, 2012 Revenue ($) in millions 21.10 18.18 25.03 23.72 17.62 Diluted EPS ($) -0.0637 -0.05 0.08 0.08 -0.1097 Past Performance: Camtek has beat analyst estimates 3 times in the past four quarters. Shareholders could expect a boost if the company beats estimates. “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our successful CHEAT SHEET investing framework. Don’t waste another minute – click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now! (Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Email any earnings discrepancies to earnings [at] wallstcheatsheet.com) Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet