Interest rates are at record lows across the globe. In the United States, the S&P 500 offers a dividend yield of around 2%, barely enough to keep up with record low levels of inflation. Fixed-income securities are even worse. The iShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond (NYSE: TLH) is yielding 2%, close to an all-time low. CDs and savings accounts offer virtually no return. In this environment, investors are desperate for strategies that will help them generate consistent and reliable income. #-ad_banner-#Most investors are content to stick with dividend-paying blue-chip stocks in defensive industries. Read More

Interest rates are at record lows across the globe. In the United States, the S&P 500 offers a dividend yield of around 2%, barely enough to keep up with record low levels of inflation. Fixed-income securities are even worse. The iShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond (NYSE: TLH) is yielding 2%, close to an all-time low. CDs and savings accounts offer virtually no return. In this environment, investors are desperate for strategies that will help them generate consistent and reliable income. #-ad_banner-#Most investors are content to stick with dividend-paying blue-chip stocks in defensive industries. This makes sense. Stocks like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) are not particularly sensitive to economic cycles. Even if the economy falls into a recession, very few people will cancel or change their mobile service. That’s why Verizon was just one of a few S&P 500 companies able to grow its dividend through the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Its current 4.4% yield ranks as one of the best dividends in the S&P 500 — well above the index’s average yield of 2%. I also consider Verizon to be one of the safest dividends in the… Read More

Normally this kind of information is kept secret. But due to regulatory requirements for its initial public offering (IPO), this company was forced to reveal its shocking record. From 2009 to 2013, a secretive high-frequency trading firm named Virtu managed to only have one losing day. #-ad_banner-#In 2014 it notched a perfect record. On its worst day, the firm was making between $800,000 and $1 million a day. It may sound too good to be true. But there it is, laid out in Virtu Financial’s IPO prospectus for any and everyone to see. But Virtu isn’t alone. J.P. Morgan didn’t… Read More

Normally this kind of information is kept secret. But due to regulatory requirements for its initial public offering (IPO), this company was forced to reveal its shocking record. From 2009 to 2013, a secretive high-frequency trading firm named Virtu managed to only have one losing day. #-ad_banner-#In 2014 it notched a perfect record. On its worst day, the firm was making between $800,000 and $1 million a day. It may sound too good to be true. But there it is, laid out in Virtu Financial’s IPO prospectus for any and everyone to see. But Virtu isn’t alone. J.P. Morgan didn’t have a single losing day in 2013. Bank of America notched a perfect performance of its own in the first quarter of 2013. Clearly, Wall Street trades and invests its own money differently than the traditional buy-and-hold strategy its clients typically use. I’ll let you in on one of Wall Street’s best-kept secrets: selling put options. Does that sound scary? Intimidating? If it does, there’s a very good reason for that: That’s exactly how Wall Street wants it. As a former derivatives trader for a billion-dollar firm at the Chicago Board of Trade, I saw firsthand how secretive the best… Read More

Investing is always about fear and greed.  And as we’ve all been witnessing over the last few weeks, fear has the upper hand right now, as U.S. stocks got off to their worst start in seven years.  #-ad_banner-#Despite a strong rally during the last few days January, the S&P 500 finished the month with a 5.1% decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.5%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.9% — its worst performance since May 2010.  That kind of short-term volatility has lots of investors reaching for the Maalox. If you’re anxious about what lies ahead, you’re not alone. But… Read More

Investing is always about fear and greed.  And as we’ve all been witnessing over the last few weeks, fear has the upper hand right now, as U.S. stocks got off to their worst start in seven years.  #-ad_banner-#Despite a strong rally during the last few days January, the S&P 500 finished the month with a 5.1% decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.5%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.9% — its worst performance since May 2010.  That kind of short-term volatility has lots of investors reaching for the Maalox. If you’re anxious about what lies ahead, you’re not alone. But keep reading, because I can help. I’m about to show you three ways you can actually profit during this current market pullback — and well beyond.  In fact, I’m going to show you how you could have collected $7,690 in profits from the last official market correction back in August, and how you could already have locked in $1,550 during January’s market dive — all with minimal risk.  Pullback Profit Strategy #1: Make Your Investments ‘Plunge Proof’ Imagine there’s a stock you really want to own, but market volatility is making you nervous about what price you’d be paying. Read More

The year 2004 was one of the most exciting times of my life. The future looked bright. That was the year I beat out hundreds of candidates to enter an exclusive bond-trading program for a multi-billion-dollar brokerage firm. #-ad_banner-#I was going to dig deeper than ever into the market. I was going to be around market junkies all day. And most importantly, I was going to become a trading hotshot and make a few million bucks before I turned 30. Three years later, two of those things had come true, and one had not… After spending years fully entrenched in… Read More

The year 2004 was one of the most exciting times of my life. The future looked bright. That was the year I beat out hundreds of candidates to enter an exclusive bond-trading program for a multi-billion-dollar brokerage firm. #-ad_banner-#I was going to dig deeper than ever into the market. I was going to be around market junkies all day. And most importantly, I was going to become a trading hotshot and make a few million bucks before I turned 30. Three years later, two of those things had come true, and one had not… After spending years fully entrenched in the markets and learning from the sharpest minds in the business, I learned a valuable lesson: trading is no quick path to riches. The cumulative effect of making a few hundred trades a day for years left me emotionally and financially spent. I found myself at a crossroads. I had loved the market ever since joining the stock market club in sixth grade. I wasn’t ready to walk away from it completely, but it was clear that my relationship with the market needed to evolve. Transitioning out of trading was one of the hardest… Read More

I’ve said it at least a hundred times, and I’ll say it at least a hundred more… the vast majority of the world’s best high-yield stocks are NOT based in the United States… Don’t believe me? #-ad_banner-#My staff and I recently ran the numbers… When we looked only at the companies that turned a profit over the past year, we found just 119 U.S. common stocks paying yields of more than 12%. But 204 additional stocks are out there yielding 12% or more… all coming from international-based companies. That means many… Read More

I’ve said it at least a hundred times, and I’ll say it at least a hundred more… the vast majority of the world’s best high-yield stocks are NOT based in the United States… Don’t believe me? #-ad_banner-#My staff and I recently ran the numbers… When we looked only at the companies that turned a profit over the past year, we found just 119 U.S. common stocks paying yields of more than 12%. But 204 additional stocks are out there yielding 12% or more… all coming from international-based companies. That means many income investors who focus exclusively on the U.S. are essentially missing out on twice as many high-yielders before they even get started. Today, I want to tell you about one of my absolute favorite countries for finding high yielders. And I bet most investors haven’t even considered looking here… It’s a country that rarely gets any mention by the mainstream financial media. Sure, you hear about India, China, Russia, and Brazil. And for good reason — those countries have grown at incredible rates over the years, which have made many investors… Read More

I remember buying my first car back in 1999. I had just graduated from the University of Kansas. At the time, I was thrilled about getting what I thought was an excellent interest rate of 9.99%.  Flash forward 16 years and American consumers are buying cars with interest rates hovering around 0%.  #-ad_banner-#That’s because the Federal Reserve has held interest rates at record lows since the financial crisis in 2008. But that’s all about to change. After years of speculation from economists and market analysts, the Fed finally announced the long-awaited news we’ve all be expecting:  Interest rates are back… Read More

I remember buying my first car back in 1999. I had just graduated from the University of Kansas. At the time, I was thrilled about getting what I thought was an excellent interest rate of 9.99%.  Flash forward 16 years and American consumers are buying cars with interest rates hovering around 0%.  #-ad_banner-#That’s because the Federal Reserve has held interest rates at record lows since the financial crisis in 2008. But that’s all about to change. After years of speculation from economists and market analysts, the Fed finally announced the long-awaited news we’ve all be expecting:  Interest rates are back on the rise.  Recently, Chair Janet Yellen announced the Federal Reserve would raise the federal funds rate to a range of 0.25% to 0.5%. That’s the first such increase since 2006.  Not surprisingly, this news made some investors nervous. Historically speaking, U.S. equity returns have fallen below their long-term averages in periods after a rate hike.  In fact, according to a study from Nuveen Asset Management, in the past 35 years, U.S. stocks gained an average of just 2.6% in the 250 days following a rate increase.  This year, U.S. GDP is on pace to grow by just 2.6%. And… Read More

There are about a thousand of them listed on the U.S. exchanges. They track everything from the S&P 500… to gold… to Treasury bonds… and much more. #-ad_banner-#They are basically nothing more than portfolios of stocks, bonds or commodities that trade on the major exchanges as a single security. But underneath a placid exterior, one of America’s fastest-growing asset classes reached a key milestone just a few short years ago: Total assets invested in U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surpassed $1 trillion for the first time. That represents the culmination of a remarkable episode of growth. The first U.S.-traded ETF was… Read More

There are about a thousand of them listed on the U.S. exchanges. They track everything from the S&P 500… to gold… to Treasury bonds… and much more. #-ad_banner-#They are basically nothing more than portfolios of stocks, bonds or commodities that trade on the major exchanges as a single security. But underneath a placid exterior, one of America’s fastest-growing asset classes reached a key milestone just a few short years ago: Total assets invested in U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surpassed $1 trillion for the first time. That represents the culmination of a remarkable episode of growth. The first U.S.-traded ETF was launched on January 29, 1993 — so it took fewer than 19 years for the ETF industry to crack the $1 trillion barrier. To put that in perspective, it took the mutual fund industry (first launched in 1924) 66 years to surpass $1 trillion in assets. Assets invested in ETFs grew at a 31% annualized pace from 2000 to 2011 compared to just 6% annual growth for mutual funds. And alongside the growth of ETFs is the growth in closed-end funds (CEFs). The differences between CEFs and ETFs are small — both allow you to buy into a basket of… Read More

Let’s be honest. When you hear about a stock that yields 12% or more, your first thought should be that the company is probably a basket case. If it’s offering a yield that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And you’d be right most of the time. Usually, yields are this high because a company’s share price is falling — signaling underlying problems in its business. A lower share price leads to a higher dividend yield. That means profitable companies paying yields this high should be rare. #-ad_banner-#My staff and I… Read More

Let’s be honest. When you hear about a stock that yields 12% or more, your first thought should be that the company is probably a basket case. If it’s offering a yield that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And you’d be right most of the time. Usually, yields are this high because a company’s share price is falling — signaling underlying problems in its business. A lower share price leads to a higher dividend yield. That means profitable companies paying yields this high should be rare. #-ad_banner-#My staff and I recently ran the numbers… When we looked only at the companies that turned a profit over the past year, we found just 119 U.S. common stocks paying yields of more than 12%. But did you know there are actually 204 other stocks that yield 12% or more? The difference is that many investors just don’t know where to find them. That’s because the majority of the world’s highest yields aren’t being paid by U.S. companies. My recent search found 204 additional stocks out there yielding 12% or more… all coming from international-based companies. Read More

Interest rates are at record lows across the globe. In the U.S., the S&P 500 offers a dividend yield of around 2%, barely enough to keep up with record low levels of inflation. Fixed-income securities are even worse. The iShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond (NYSE: TLH) is yielding under 2%, close to an all-time low. CDs and savings accounts offer virtually no return. In this environment, investors are desperate for strategies that will help them generate consistent and reliable income. Most investors are content to stick with dividend-paying blue-chip stocks in defensive industries. This makes sense. Stocks like Verizon (NYSE:… Read More

Interest rates are at record lows across the globe. In the U.S., the S&P 500 offers a dividend yield of around 2%, barely enough to keep up with record low levels of inflation. Fixed-income securities are even worse. The iShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond (NYSE: TLH) is yielding under 2%, close to an all-time low. CDs and savings accounts offer virtually no return. In this environment, investors are desperate for strategies that will help them generate consistent and reliable income. Most investors are content to stick with dividend-paying blue-chip stocks in defensive industries. This makes sense. Stocks like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) are not particularly sensitive to economic cycles. Even if the economy falls into a recession, very few people will cancel or change their mobile service. That’s why Verizon was just one of a few S&P 500 companies able to grow its dividend through the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Its current 5% yield ranks as one of the best dividends in the S&P 500 — well above the index’s average yield of 2%. I also consider Verizon to be one of the safest dividends in the S&P 500. But what if I told you there was a chance… Read More

A recent headline read “Study: Preschoolers Better at Figuring out How Gadgets Work than College Students.” At first, it had me scratching my head. But then I figured it out. Preschoolers were more open-minded. They were willing to think unconventionally to solve problems. The Wall Street Journal quoted the research team saying “the best and brightest college students acted as if the machine would always follow the common and obvious rule, even when we showed them how it might work.” That says a lot about human nature. Human beings build barriers to change. The older we get, the more close-minded… Read More

A recent headline read “Study: Preschoolers Better at Figuring out How Gadgets Work than College Students.” At first, it had me scratching my head. But then I figured it out. Preschoolers were more open-minded. They were willing to think unconventionally to solve problems. The Wall Street Journal quoted the research team saying “the best and brightest college students acted as if the machine would always follow the common and obvious rule, even when we showed them how it might work.” That says a lot about human nature. Human beings build barriers to change. The older we get, the more close-minded we become. This provides an important lesson for investing. The common and obvious rule is that buying stocks is a good way to build wealth. And while that’s certainly true to an extent, there’s an unconventional rule that applies more so than ever before in today’s market. But before I get into the details, consider this.  In a 2011 survey, securities broker TD Ameritrade found that more than three-quarters of “buy and hold” investors have never bought or sold stock options. The reasons? “Too risky,” according to a third of the respondents. A quarter of them said they “don’t need… Read More