Many years ago I was invited in to my oldest son’s classroom to talk to the kids about what I do for a living. These were fourth graders and obviously I didn’t want to get too deep with them about how stocks work and so forth. Because I rely on technical analysis quite a bit, […]
Most people have heard of Bitcoin by now. News about it appears online daily. It’s likely to be the subject of watercooler talk, too. If you haven’t heard of it, you will soon. Bitcoin was created to counter the actions of irresponsible governments and central banks. The cryptocurrency emerged shortly after the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. […]
If you’re a buy-and-hold investor looking for great, steady dividend players, chances are you’re leaving money on the table. A lot. At least enough to double your dividend or more. How? By using of one of the safest, lowest-risk options trades out there — covered call writing. When you write a covered call, you’re essentially […]
When most investors think of precious metal investments, they immediately think of gold. Silver tends to take a backseat to gold and platinum, but that is understandable. Gold is trading for $1,965 an ounce and platinum is over $982 an ounce. Silver is trading at $27 an ounce and that’s after a pretty sizable rally. […]
Investors that bought Vipshop Holdings (VIPS) one year ago have experienced some very impressive gains, even after a recent brutal decline. The stock was trading below $7 at the beginning of August 2019. By January of this year the stock was trading above $14, giving investors a gain of 100% in less than six months. […]
Currently, most money market funds or bank accounts offer little to no interest, effectively making funds held there dormant and not working in any way for you. So I’ve designed and am currently personally using a simple cash alternative portfolio built around low cost Vanguard Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The portfolio I have set up […]
The global economic slowdown has caused demand for oil and natural gas to fall. A recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the demand for various natural gas products will decline by 3% in 2020 and the demand is expected to remain low in 2021. This isn’t the news natural gas producers […]
One of the first bosses I ever had was a third-generation owner of International Business Machines (IBM) stock. Naturally he was one of the first people I know to really talk up the benefits of covered call writing. Writing calls allowed him to take the moderate dividend yield on his shares and turn it into […]
There have been a great number of articles written about gold and its huge rally from the March low. I wrote a piece two weeks ago about how investors should watch the Commitment of Traders (COT) report to see when large speculators have become too bullish. I am still keeping an eye on those reports […]
Should you cut back on your bond holdings? Consider the following comparison. A 30-year Treasury bond purchased in January cost $100 and has a 2.34% coupon. Every year for 30 years the owner will receive $2.34. At bond maturity in 30 years the bond will be redeemed for $100. The total annual return for that […]
