Saturday, August 29, 2015

Financial Carnival for the End of August

A financial carnival is a group of interesting links to various articles of interest to investors and others looking for interesting items relating to personal finance, the stock market, venture capital, real estate, and money.  Here is a great list of reads I came across recently for the end of August.

Amazon launches 1-hour alcohol delivery service in the U.S.
Amazon (AMZN) now beginning to deliver beer, wine, and booze.

'Spam King' guilty of posting 27 million Facebook (FB) messages
27 Million?

Where to Get Non-Recourse Loans for Your Art, Rolexes, and Other Fine Items
Need some quick cash to invest in a startup? How about borrowing against the Picasso hanging on your wall?

Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security
Are you familiar with the technique of filing for Social Security and suspending it at the same time at the age of 66, then having your spouse file for spousal benefit, then both of you apply for full benefit at age 70, in order to get tens of thousands in additional Social Security benefits? I hadn't heard about it or other techniques in the book. If you are approaching retirement you better check this out. No wonder why the book has 839 reviews and an overall rating of 4.5 stars.

Watch Sony's (SNE) prototype drone do a vertical takeoff
Big enough to carry 22 pounds

Passport Power Ranks
A ranking of passports by country

Most Expensive Listed Home in California Sold
Sorry you missed out on buying this one for only $47.5 million

Electric Surfboards
I'd like to be the VC that invested in this company


Passive Investing is Broken. Here's how to fix it by Tom Sosnoff

Friday, August 28, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the First Week of September


Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.


Cedar Fair L.P. FUN 9/1/2015 5.6%
Home Depot HD 9/1/2015 2.0%
Kronos Worldwide Inc KRO 9/1/2015 8.2%
Middlefield Banc Corp MBCN 9/1/2015 3.4%
Mosaic Co. MOS 9/1/2015 2.7%
Six Flags Entertainment SIX 9/1/2015 4.7%
Valhi Inc. VHI 9/1/2015 2.9%
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG 9/2/2015 3.4%
American National Bankshares AMNB 9/2/2015 4.0%
Johnson Controls JCI 9/2/2015 2.5%
Joy Global Inc. JOY 9/2/2015 3.3%
Kimberly-Clark KMB 9/2/2015 3.3%
Mainsource Financial Group MSFG 9/2/2015 2.7%
Myers Industries MYE 9/2/2015 4.0%
Navient Corp NAVI 9/2/2015 4.6%
Northern Trust NTRS 9/2/2015 2.1%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. 

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Protect Yourself From Crashing Stock Markets with the SQQQ ETF

Last Friday morning at 8am, I wrote an article called 5 Ways to Protect Yourself in a Bear Market. Since then, the stock market has, well to put it bluntly, crashed. Using the Dow Jones Industrial Average (since that is the index that the media likes to use), by the end of the day on Friday, the index was down over 530 points. Then yesterday, Monday, the stock market was down 588 points (and had actually dropped around 1100 points intra-day). Today, the market tanked again, falling over 200 points. Hopefully, you did something to protect your portfolio.

One of the bear market protection tools is an ETF, an exchange traded fund, called the ProShares Trust UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (SQQQ). The goal of this fund is to replicate three times the inverse of the NASDAQ 100 index using various types of derivatives. What that means is that if the stock market, in terms of the NASDAQ 100 drops by 1%, this ETF should rise by 3%.

This index includes such stocks at Amgen (AMGN), Apple (AAPL), Baidu (BIDU), Cisco (CSCO), eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix (NFLX), Starbucks (SBUX), Tesla (TSLA), Whole Foods (WFM), and Yahoo (YHOO).

Since the close last Thursday, SQQQ has risen from 24.33 to 31.10, an increase of 27%. The nice thing about using an ETF such as this is that you don't have to short stocks, you don't have to use options, and you don't have to use margin. Not a bad over three business days.

However, you should be aware that if the market goes against you, in this case if the market rises, your loss on the ETF can be substantial. If the market goes up 1%, you would lose 3% on the ETF.

The triple bearish ETFs are just another tool at your disposal to protect your portfolio and make money when stocks drop. They should only be used on a short term basis. For a free list of other triple bearish ETFs, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of August


Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.

Greenhill & Co. GHL 8/31/2015 4.6%
Qualcomm, Inc. QCOM 8/31/2015 3.0%
Whitestone REIT Cl B Shs  WSR 8/31/2015 8.9%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. 

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Top Selling Real Estate Books: Rich Man Poor Man No Longer in the Top 10

Here are the top selling real estate investing books on Amazon (AMZN) right now. One book that is conspicuous by its absence is Robert T. Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!. Usually, Kiyosaki's book ranks near the top. However, there are plenty of other great books on investing in real estate.

Here are the top ten real estate investing books according to Amazon.

The Book on Flipping Houses: How to Buy, Rehab, and Resell Residential Properties by Mr. J Scott

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller

The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People's Money by Brandon Turner

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs: The Investor's Guide to Defining Your Renovation Plan, Building Your Budget, and Knowing Exactly How Much It All Costs by Mr. J Scott

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli

The Real Estate Rehab Investing Bible: A Proven-Profit System for Finding, Funding, Fixing, and Flipping Houses...Without Lifting a Paintbrush by Paul Esajian

Loopholes of Real Estate by Garrett Sutton

Real Estate Finance and Investments by Jeffrey D. Fisher (this book sells for $205.97)

The ABCs of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss by Ken McElroy

Buy It, Rent It, Profit!: Make Money as a Landlord in ANY Real Estate Market by Bryan Chavis

Friday, August 21, 2015

5 Ways to Protect Yourself in a Bear Market

Don't be the fish
Disney (DIS) is down 19% in the last two and a half weeks. Just in the last month, Apple (AAPL) tanked 15%. Twitter (TWTR) puked over 27% in the same time frame. If this scares you and you believe we are entering a bear market, there are ways to protect yourself.

There are actually several ways to protect yourself and even make money from a stock market that is going down. Here is a list of five ways to trade during a period of falling stocks.

Short Stocks 

1. You can short stocks. If you have never shorted a stock before, this is what happens in simple terms. You borrow stock, you sell the stock, and eventually you have to buy the stock back eventually to return the stock that was borrowed. Traders should be aware though that the potential loss from selling short is unlimited.

Buy Put Options 

2. You can buy put options to protect stocks that you currently own, or just as a trade on a stock you believe is going to drop. A put is the right to sell a stock at a certain price within a set period of time.

Here is an example. A stock is trading at 50, you buy a put with a strike price of 49. The strike price is the price at which you can put the stock to someone. You pay 1 for the option. If the stock drops to 45, your one dollar option increases to at least 4 (the difference between the 49 and the 45). If the stock closes at 49 or higher, then the option expires worthless.

Writing Covered Calls

3. Writing calls against your stocks is one way to help protect your portfolio on the downside. Maybe you don't want to sell out of you stock positions, but you want some way to help reduce the loss on the downside. You can write covered calls. There is the chance that your stock could get called away if the stock starts to rally, but it just means that you made money on the transaction.

An example would be if the stock sells at 50 and you write a call with a strike price of 51 for 1, if the stock remains at the same price at option expiration, you make 1 per share. If the stock goes up to 53, you will get called away at 51 making 1 on the stock plus you collect another 1 for the sold option, for a total profit of 2. If the stock drops to 47, you lose 3 on the stock but you make 1 on the sold call for a net loss on 2. Without the written call, your net loss would be 3 on the stock.

Bearish ETFs 

4. Bearish exchange traded funds, also known as Bearish ETFs are investments that have a goal of providing the daily inverse of a stock index. The bearish ETFs are very volatile investments that are designed for short term trading, and not as long term investments. They achieve their performance through the use of various financial instruments including futures contracts, options,  collars, swap agreements, short positions, and other derivatives.

Double and Triple Bearish ETFs 

5. Double and triple bearish ETFs can provide a 200% or 300% opposite return of a sector or market. Listed at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com are over a dozen commonly traded triple bearish ETFs which investors can use to get a 300% play.

An example is the Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 3X Shares ETF (SPXS), which happens to be up 4% today. This ETF has the goal of making 300% of the inverse of the performance of the S&P 500. What that means is, if the S&P 500 drops 2% in one day, the ETF should go up in value by 6%. Alternatively, if the S&P 500 rises by 2%, the ETF should drop by 6%, which would be a significant loss.

Investors can be more specific in terms of what sectors will drop, or will drop the most. If you think energy stocks will tank, you could buy the Daily Energy Bear 3X Shares ETF (ERY), which attempts to track 300% of the inverse of the Energy Select Sector Index. For financial services companies, an option is the Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares ETF (FAZ).

For those that are bearish on gold, a triple bearish gold ETF called the Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares ETF (DUST) is available. The ETF's objective is to make 300% of the opposite of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index.

For a free list of the most commonly traded triple bearish ETFs which can be downloaded, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author has positions in DIS, AAPL, and TWTR.

By Stockerblog.com

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of August


Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.


Cabot Corp CBT 8/26/2015 2.5%
Diebold, Inc. DBD 8/26/2015 3.5%
Lexmark International Inc. LXK 8/26/2015 4.3%
Oceaneering International OII 8/26/2015 2.7%
Arlington Asset Investment AIC 8/27/2015 6.9%
Bank of Hawaii BOH 8/27/2015 2.7%
Brookfield Canada Office Prop BOXC 8/27/2015 4.8%
Corning Inc. GLW 8/27/2015 2.6%
JMP Group JMP 8/27/2015 3.8%
Spark Energy Inc SPKE 8/27/2015 9.0%
STAG Industrial, Inc. STAG 8/27/2015 6.8%
ACNB Corp. Com. ACNB 8/28/2015 4.0%
Big 5 Sporting Goods BGFV 8/28/2015 2.7%
FutureFuel Corp. FF 8/28/2015 3.8%
Kellogg Co. K 8/28/2015 3.1%
Lockheed Martin LMT 8/28/2015 3.0%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. 

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Why Did Donald Trump Register the DonaldTrumpSucks.com Domain Name?

A domain name is, in simple terms, the address for a website. For example, Apple.com, Google.com, and Yahoo.com are all domain names. Domain names are often referred to as URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) or website addresses. Usually, it is what comes after the http:// or the https://, and sometimes you see a www thrown in there.

Some people actually register domain names as investments, which for the right name, can pay off handsomely. For example, whoever originally registered fb.com, eventually got lucky and sold out to Facebook (FB) for $8.5 million. The person who owned loans.com sold to Bank of America (BAC) for $3 million, with mortgage.com going to Citigroup (C) for $1.8 million. There are many other high priced domain sales that can be found in the Stock Market Trivia book.

Donald Trump, the outspoken and currently lead-running Republican presidential candidate, owns the DonaldTrump.com domain of course. Well technically, the registration shows the ownership as the General Counsel of The Trump Organization, originally registered back on March 7, 1999. It is registered through GoDaddy (GDDY).

But when a friend hinted that I check out the owner of DonaldTrumpSucks.com, I expected that it might have been registered by a Republican opponent or possibly someone on the Democratic side. Yet it turns out that this domain is also owned by The Trump Organization.

DonaldTrumpSucks.com Registration

What is interesting is that this particular domain was registered on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2014.   Was that the day that Trump really decided to run? This domain was also registered through GoDaddy. 

Now it is all over the news that Trump's company has registered over 3,000 domain names, and according to an article by the International Business Times, the organization buys tens of thousands of domains every year. 

Some of these purchases are for legitimate purchases. For example:

trumpequities.com
donaldtrumpbriefcases.com
thetrumpexperience.com
trumpwatches.com

Trump isn't buying all of them them for investment though. Apparently, many are purchased for guarding against "predators." Here are some of the domains acquired by Trump:

trumpnetworkmarketingsucks.com
trumpnetworksucks.com
trumpcorporationsucks.com
trumporganizationsucks.com
trumpnetworkfraud.com
trumpnetworkponzischeme.com

All of the above point to a generic GoDaddy web page. However, it is interesting to note that if you go to TrumpSucks.com, it brings you to Trump's campaign web page at donaldjtrump.com. TrumpSucks was registered back in the year 2000 and its current registrar is Domain.com.

The problem with acquiring the anti-Trump domain names is that there are thousands variances of domain names that people can come up with. One example, that I would rather not put in writing but begins with an F is owned by an individual who apparently has had it registered since 2004. For that matter, another domain, which has as its last part, a word that begins with the letter S is also owned by an individual, and was registered just a couple years ago. Neither of these domains have developed web sites.

But even without the dirty words, there are other top level domains such as .net and .org that could be used with the anti-Trump words, As a matter of fact, an individual just registered donaldtrumpsucks.net today! And donaldtrumpsucks.org was registered exactly one month ago. Both with the registrar of, who else, GoDaddy.

I'm not sure what the intent of these individuals are. Maybe they think they can resell their domains to the Trump Organization. Have fun dealing with the Trump lawyers.

But is there an investment angle to this, other than trying to find a good (bad) domain to resell to Trump? The one investment that sticks out is GoDaddy, due to its popularity as a domain registrar. Potential investors should be aware that, although the stock reported a 16.5% increase in revenues, it generated a loss of over one dollar a share for the latest quarter. Also, it carries over a billion dollars in debt.

It will be interesting to see how the Trump domain activity plays out. If anyone has any ideas on an investment angle to the Trump domains, please post in the comment section below.




Sunday, August 16, 2015

Companies Reporting Earnings Next Week

Here is a list of companies reporting earnings during the next week.

Monday, August 17

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A)
Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) (EL)
Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN)

Tuesday, August 18

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI)
Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ)
DeVry Education Group Inc. (DV)
Home Depot, Inc. (The) (HD)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT)

Wednesday, August 19

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (AEO)
Staples, Inc. (SPLS)
Target Corporation (TGT)

Thursday, August 20

Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ)
Salesforce.com Inc (CRM)

Friday, August 21

Deere & Company (DE)















Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of August


Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.


Consolidated Edison ED 8/17 4.2%
Target TGT 8/17 2.8%
Gladstone Investment GAIN 8/18 7.8%
Gladstone Commercial GOOD 8/18 9.5%
Macerich Company  REIT MAC 8/18 3.3%




Microsoft MSFT 8/18 2.7%
Maxim Integrated Products MXIM 8/18 3.5%
Thomson Reuters TRI 8/18 3.6%
Anadarko Petroleum AEUA 8/19 7.3%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. Dividend definitions:Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of August


Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.


Landmark Bancorp Inc LARK 8/10/2015 2.9%
Pitney Bowes Inc PBI-A 8/10/2015 5.2%
Spectra Energy SE 8/10/2015 4.9%
American Greetings AM 8/11/2015 3.8%
Baylake Corporation BYLK 8/11/2016 2.8%
A. H. Belo Corporation AHC 8/12/2015 6.0%
Applied Industrial Technologies AIT 8/12/2016 2.9%
Collectors Universe Inc CLCT 8/12/2020 7.0%
CenterPoint Energy CNP 8/12/2021 5.0%
DuPont DD 8/12/2022 3.5%
Duke Energy DUK 8/12/2023 4.5%
Exelon Corp EXC 8/12/2024 4.0%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. Dividend definitions:Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.
Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Companies Reporting Earnings This Week

Looking for some earnings plays? Here they are for the week.


American International Group, Inc. (AIG) Monday afternoon

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) Monday afternoon

Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR) Tuesday morning

CVS Health Corporation (CVS) Tuesday morning

Kellogg Company (K) Tuesday morning

Disney (DIS) Tuesday afternoon

Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. (LL) Wednesday morning

Priceline (PCLN) Wednesday morning

SodaStream (SODA) Wednesday morning

Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) Wednesday afternoon

Tesla (TSLA) Wednesday afternoon

Allergan plc (AGN) Thursday morning

Groupon (GRPN) Friday morning