Thursday, October 29, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the First Week of November


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.

Idacorp IDA 11/3/2015 3.0%
Kansas City Life Insurance Co. KCLI 11/3/2015 2.2%
Northwest Bancshares, Inc. NWBI 11/3/2015 3.7%
S&T Bancorp STBA 11/3/2015 2.3%
Xilinx XLNX 11/3/2015 2.5%
Acacia Research Corp ACTG 11/4/2015 7.2%
Ardmore Shipping Corporation ASC 11/4/2015 8.6%
AVX Corp AVX 11/4/2015 3.1%
Boeing Co. BA 11/4/2015 2.5%
Boston Private Financial Hldgs BPFH 11/4/2015 3.1%
Brookline Bancorp BRKL 11/4/2015 3.1%
Capitol Federal Financial Inc CFFN 11/4/2015 2.6%
CMS Energy CMS 11/4/2015 3.2%
Central Valley Cmty Bancorp CVCY 11/4/2015 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.

Top Halloween Stocks

Halloween Jack-O-Lanturn Pumpkin
Just a couple more days to go until Halloween. Have you bought your candy yet, not just to pass out to the trick-or-treaters, but to help out the candy companies? Look for treats, not tricks, in the following Halloween stocks.

Watching horror movies is one of the popular activities of teenagers on Halloween. Netflix (NFLX) has a huge number of scary movies in its collection of titles. The stock has a trailing price to earnings ratio of 284 and a scary forward P/E of 410.

One of the leading studios of scary movies is Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF), which has made such films as American Psycho, Ginger Snaps, Route 666, The Devil's Rejects, House of the Dead 2, Saw VI, See No Evil, Hostel: Part II, My Bloody Valentine 3D and numerous others. Lionsgate has a P/E ratio of 33 and sports a yield of 0.9%.

Of course, the big beneficiaries of Halloween are the candy companies. Hershey Foods (HSY) is the large chocolate and confectionery company made famous by its Hershey Kisses and Hershey Bars. The stock has a P/E of 35, and a yield of 2.5%.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF) is a very low cap Colorado based company which makes and markets chocolate and candy. The stock has a P/E of 18 and a yield of 4.3%.

Tootsie Roll Industries (TR) makes all kinds of candy for trick-or-treaters including Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll Pops, Caramel Apple Pops, Charms, Blow-Pops, Blue Razz, Zip-A-Dee Pops, Cella's, Mason Dots, Mason Crows, Junior Mint, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddys, and Sugar Babies. The stock has a P/E of 31` and a yield of 1.1%.

Halloween costumes and decorations are available at discount retailers such as Wal-Mart (WMT). It has a P/E of 12, and a yield of 3.4%.

If you like interesting sectors of stocks, such as college stocks, cloud computing stocks, and chocolate and candy stocks, check out WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

How to Invest in Autonomous Cars

Autonomous cars are the wave of the future, and the future is here. An autonomous car is a self-driving car, and many major companies are involved in producing them. If you saw the 60 Minutes episode recently, you know the capabilities of these vehicles.

Obviously, for most of these companies, autonomous vehicles will be a small part of their business. Here are the big players:

Google (GOOG) (GOOGL)
Apple (AAPL)
Delphi Automotive (DLPH)
Nissan Motor (NSANY)
Tesla (TSLA)
General Motors (GM)
Daimler (DDAIY)

Investors might also want to take a look at the suppliers.

Tesla and General Motors used products made by Mobileye (MBLY), which designs and develops software and technologies for camera-based advanced driver assistance systems.

The  chips made by NVIDIA (NVDA) are used by Google, Tesla, Delphi, and Audi (AUDVF)

LG Chem (LGCEY) is the South Korean company that makes batteries for Google's autonomous cars.

I hope I'm steering you straight, as I don't think any of these companies will crash and burn. Hopefully some of these companies will drive your portfolio to new highs. Check out these stocks on some of the free stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL, NSANY, DDAIY.

By Stockerblog.com

Has Your Bank Lost Your IRA?

A growing trend has been taking place, which hasn't seemed to hit the major media yet. I have been hearing from stockbrokers and financial planners recently about clients who have put their money in Individual Retirement Accounts with the funds invested in bank savings accounts and Certificates of Deposit. And the money has disappeared.

I heard about one recently retired person who invested in over a dozen bank IRAs over many years at a major bank, went to consolidate them, and discovered that the bank has no record of the IRA accounts.

What has been going on? First, I heard that at this particular bank, the branches/managers/employees get bonuses or bonus points for every new account opened. So ever year when this person went to invest $2,000 in an IRA, the bank would open up a brand new IRA account and put the funds in a new savings account or CD. This is how this investor ended up with so many IRAs.

Then if there is no activity in the account (in other words, no contributions, since earning interest is not considered activity), it is deemed to be dormant, and after a certain number of years, the funds are supposed to be turned over to the state. In this case, the state has no record of this person's funds.

Because these contributions had been going on for many years, this person never saved old paperwork going back that far, not even cancelled checks (although in some cases, the funds could have been transferred directly from the checking account to the IRA).

What's an investor to do? In this particular case, let's hope the bank has records going back that far and can find them. But this is one of many cases I have been hearing about, with various banks involved.

The takeaway from this is keep records that may affect something in the future. Any paper records showing retirement contributions should be saved, no matter how many years into the future your retirement is. It doesn't matter whether you are investing with a bank, a brokerage firm, a mutual fund, or an insurance company, keep the records. Any online IRA contribution transactions should be printed out and saved (don't just save a copy on your computer).

The same rules apply to other long term investments, especially real estate, such as documents related to your home and rental property. Hopefully, you won't have to rent a storage unit to save all this paper, but a file box should be more than adequate. Being a micro-packrat can save you a lot of grief.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of October


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.


Brookfield Canada Office Properties BOXC 10/28/2015 5.1%
Full Circle Capital Corporation FULL 10/28/2015 13.3%
MOCON Inc. MOCO 10/28/2015 3.2%
NiSource NI 10/28/2015 3.6%
STAG Industrial, Inc. STAG 10/28/2015 6.9%
Student Transportation Inc STB 10/28/2015 13.7%
Texas Instruments TXN 10/28/2015 3.3%
Bank of Montreal BMO 10/29/2015 6.3%
PNM Resources PNM 10/29/2015 3.1%

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, October 20, 2015

Top 10 Haunted Homes For Sale: Just in Time for Halloween Investing

New York's Most Fashionable Haunted House
Top 10 Halloween Haunted Homes For Sale

TopTenRealEstateDeals.com delivers the latest scoop on today's hot real estate news - celebrity, famous and ‘spooktacular’ homes currently for sale. A haunted house would make a great Halloween related investment.
     
The floors creak and groan as the colder weather sets in. Kitchen lights turn on and off by themselves and garage doors open on their own in the middle of the night. Window shutters slam shut in the wind and maniacal creature eyeballs watch from the attic. Demented screams of fear and desperation come from somewhere in the house.  These are just a few of the everyday situations that can make even the bravest home buyer want to run back to the safety of their rented apartment. It’s Halloween - that spooky time of the year when ghosts and goblins might be your neighbors. Or, even in your own new home.

Looking for a new home that is different than the cookie-cutter, classic colonial or the mid-century modern with a pool and two-car garage? TopTenRealEstateDeals.com's annual Top 10 Haunted Homes For Sale feature has some ‘spooktacular’ listings that give new meaning to the term “buyer beware.” 

The Dakota Building
Would anyone buy the Ohio home where 18-year old Jeffrey Dahmer killed and dismembered his first victim, scattered the remains about the woods and buried body parts under the front porch? Or, an Arizona home built inside billion-year-old boulders that emit a Stonehenge-type light phenomenon on both the spring and fall equinoxes? What about the "Silence of the Lambs" movie home where Buffalo Bill skinned his victims? Perhaps, a Colorado ghost town where everyone disappeared in the 1990s. Afraid of Michael Jackson's ghost at Neverland Ranch or the terrifying Dakota in New York City where Yoko Ono discovered John Lennon playing their piano - after he was dead.  

Is it ghosts in your new home, or something even worse? Could that dream home become a nightmare? No one ever said buying a home was easy. What difference could a few ghosts make?

Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Venture Capital Conundrum

Venture Capital Actuarial Tables
The VC Conundrum


It is not that all VCs are bad, it’s just that not many VCs are good.

Entrepreneurs need money to launch a business, and here in Silicon Valley there are endless lines of founders queuing in front of an endless line of venture capitalists (VCs) with money to invest. Yet the question entrepreneurs far too rarely ask is if VC money is a good thing. Nor do they ask if one or another VC has the correct long-term interest in the founders, their vision or their company.

VCs, a necessary anomaly

So what is the purpose of VCs?  They exist to insert money into companies during their earliest years. It takes cash to start a company, but VC cash is only one possible source. The three primary means for raising starting cash include:
  • Founders use their own personal assets and resources (friends, family, etc.)
  • They borrow without exchanging equity and power, through a bank loan secured against personal assets.
  • They come, hat in hand, to VCs pitch parties.
This is where VC money becomes a Faustian temptation. Most founders lack the personal resources required to launch a company, to hire staff, and to feed the development, marketing, sales and support processes. Like most people, founders’ assets are otherwise occupied – tied up in our homes, retirement accounts, kids’ college funds, investments, and personal property.

This creates a very uncomfortable situation for anyone with common risk aversion. Risking a lifetime of work and savings is unappetizing. So founders are all too willing to trade equity and the collateral authority for financial help. Given that banks are typically loath to finance startups with thin track records, they rarely do (I secured bank financing to launch Micrel, a semiconductor company, a rarity that few can imagine). Even if banks are willing to lend, founders are often unwilling to secure these loans with their hard-earned assets. Under those rare circumstances where the bank and the founder are willing, the bank often offers less than is actually necessary to sustain the startup.

Let’s face it, startups are extremely risky.  Statistics show that fewer than 10 percent of them live longer than three years … though the odds of failure might well diminish if founders had their assets on the line.

VC Actuarial Conundrum

Would you make an investment if you knew that there was a 90 percent chance that it would fail?
VCs do. VCs are, by definition, gamblers. They know the odds and continue rolling the dice day in and day out on the long shot that one in ten investments will pay well enough to balance out the other nine. And they pray for the lottery-level odds that number ten is the next Google. When a VC says he is betting on your company, he means it quite literally.

VCs do stack the odds in their favor to some degree, but the process reduces the odds, a great outcome for founders. VCs know that to make an investment more likely profitable involves selling the portfolio company to a much larger entity. And Silicon Valley is not at a loss for mammoth companies who consume smaller companies for intellectual property and talent.

To make these companies “valuable” enough to balance books, VCs push founders to “grow” their companies at blinding speed, assuring the startup CEO that more cash is available for ongoing operations (for another hunk of equity, of course). Grow, gather cash, grow, gather cash – this is the life of a startup CEO. The growth is artificial, often producing unsustainable companies, but with some demonstrated technology and a patch of market traction. Properly fluffed, and with associated valuations of unrealistic natures, VC portfolio companies are corralled, auctioned off to the highest bidder, and slaughtered.

VCs, Egos and Actuaries

Many (perhaps most) venture capitalists believe they provide some special sauce that grants them the ability to beat the early-investor odds. They believe their investment success ratio will be exactly opposite of the real world – that they will win nine out of every ten bets.

Their strategy is flawed.  Actuary tables for humans are statistically calculable and accurate, thus everyone buys into insurance industry stats.  VC actuary tables are at best inaccurate, and at worst a poor man’s bet. A life insurance company using VC actuary statistics would have to charge premiums that exceed what rational people would pay.

Which is what founders do. By switching from being leaders to being money hunters, by trading control for cash, by not paying attention to their company, customers and culture as their principal priority, they pay huge premiums betting they won’t die. Yet by giving away control to VCs, and following their lead concerning the perpetual money hunt, they all but guarantee their demise.

Since business failure rates are high, many founders are acutely risk-averse. Without excellent native leadership and management skills, the odds are against them.  But being an entrepreneur is such a tremendous lure that feisty founders expect to beat the odds. Often it is only their manic vision and relentless drive that pushes past the pits of failure.

However, this does not change their risk-averse mentality. As I formulate my mentoring process, which is tied to my investments, I talk to many founders. An acid test question I ask of each man and woman is if they are willing to put up some of their own money for the venture. Thus far all have declined.  Just last week a couple of gentlemen approached me, wanting to start a high-tech company. Their initial assessment was that they needed half a million dollars. After reviewing their business plan and counseling them accordingly, they moved their go-to-market plan out by two years and decided they needed nearly four million dollars. They also assumed than none of the risked capital would be theirs.

Fortunately for them, I have extensive executive experience in the markets in which they want me to invest – something no VC can contribute. Having launched a successful company, having had thirty-six nearly consecutive profitable years, having survived five major industry downturns, I can help guide a portfolio company’s rational growth.

This is where, I believe, not all VC funds are good.  VCs lack the executive expertise to fully understand the risk and capability within a startup. I know that the two gentlemen I interviewed were involved in three other startups over the past fifteen years – and all but one failed miserably. Their most recent startup raised over $300M in venture capital funding and now, eight years later, the company is still seeking venture capital while generating less than $5M in revenue per year. 

With $300 million in financing, one would assume their VCs would provide a rich assortment of advisors with expert insight into their company’s industry, markets, niche segments and operations. But they didn’t. These two gentleman claim that their VCs told them to spend the money as quickly as possible so that they could get a head start or jump on the competition.

A sprint that led to a corporate heart attack.

Three years ago Micrel had the opportunity to purchase Dicera, a MEMs semiconductor company. Dicera was launched in 2003. By the end of 2013 they had raised over $72M in venture capital funds but were turning less than $6M a year in revenue.  Micrel purchased Dicera for a little over $7M. We bought a VC-backed company for a dime on the dollar.

Founders Skew the Actuarial Tables

This is the foul legacy of VC-funded startups – they miss their business plan objectives by an order of magnitude. Without experienced perspective, founders misestimate all. Things take longer, they cost more than budgeted, and markets are tougher to crack than anticipated. With all this working against them, VCs pushing for unsustainable growth merely exacerbate underlying problems. This creates greater portfolio fragility, and oddly causes VCs to place wilder bets on the hopes that they can saddle a unicorn.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. High-flying Silicon Valley software startups are getting most of the VC cash, and not enough payoff. Meanwhile, the same companies – and those in less favored industries – are finding that without mentorship, their ships sail slowly and sink quickly.

Yet we may see a few VCs doing business differently. They will have qualified councilors with industry experience who expertly guide startups. They don’t shoot for rapid yet unsustainable growth, but instead count on forming enduring companies. They insist that founders take risks, with their own assets as part of a grander, longer-term marriage. In short, the new VC may be seen as the anti-VC.

Not all VCs are bad, but not all VCs are good. Choose wisely.

Raymond D. “Ray” Zinn is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the longest serving CEO of a publicly traded company in Silicon Valley. He is best known for creating and selling the first Wafer Stepper (an industry standard piece of semiconductor manufacturing equipment), and for co-founding semiconductor company, Micrel (acquired by Microchip in 2015), which provides essential components for smartphones, consumer electronics and enterprise networks. He served as Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of its Board of Directors and President since Micrel’s inception in 1978 until his retirement in August 2015. Zinn’s philosophy on people, servant leadership, humanistic management and the ethics of corporate culture are credited with Micrel’s nearly unbroken profitability. Zinn also holds over 20 patents for semiconductor design.

His new book, Tough Things First (McGraw Hill), is now available for ordering.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of October


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.


Main Street Capital Corp MAIN 10/19/2015 6.9%
Apache Corp APA 10/20/2015 2.7%
American Capital Senior Fltg ACSF 10/21/2015 9.8%

Colgate-Palmolive CL 10/21/2015 2.5%
Capitala Finance Corp CPTA 10/21/2015 14.2%
Western Asset Municipal Term MTT 10/21/2015 4.3%
Pentair Inc. PNR 10/21/2015 2.4%

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, October 11, 2015

You Can Buy Stocks at a 20% Discount from the Current Price

Do you realize that it is possible to buy Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), Wells Fargo (WFC), Wal-Mart (WMT), Cisco (CSCO), and Chevron (CVX) at a 20% discount to their current trading prices? Here is how. 

You can invest in closed end funds, also known as CEFs, that are trading at a discount from Net Asset Value, also known as NAV. The NAV is similar to the book value of stocks. In other words the NAV is calculated by adding up all the stocks in the portfolio, and dividing that amount by the number of outstanding shares.

A closed end fund is similar to a regular mutual fund except that they trade throughout the day while the market is open and the trading price of the CEFs can fluctuate way above or way below the NAV. In addition, the number of shares is fixed. There are over 20 closed end funds that are trading at a discount of over 20% of their net asset value, according to the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Many investors invest in these discounted CEFs in the hopes that the gap between NAV and price per share will eventually narrow.

One example is Boulder Growth and Income Fund (BIF) managed by Boulder Investment Advisors. The fund is trading at a 21.8% discount to net asset value and based on their latest stockholdings, owns all the stocks listed in the first paragraph above along with Caterpillar (CAT), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Orace (ORCL), and many there stocks that are considered Blue Chip. The expense ratio is 1.72%.

Another deeply discounted CEF is Central Securities (CET), which is trading at a 19% discount to NAV. The fund's stockholdings include Intel (INTC), Citigroup (C), and Rainier (RYN). Investors should be aware that over 21% of the portfolio's assets are invested in The Plymouth Rock Company, which is not publicly traded. The fund's expense ratio is 0.67% and pays an income yield of about 2%.

However, there are several risks. First, the gap may exist for a long time, and can even widen. Second, the gap could theoretically narrow but the stocks in the portfolio could drop, so the fund would drop in price also. Third, and probably most important, is that many CEFs hold illiquid, private, or non-trading stocks, and the NAV is based on how the company valuates those shares, which may be a much higher value than what they could get if they tried to liquidate those stocks. Plus, some funds may own real estate or mortgages, which are very hard to value.

Sometimes activist shareholders buy up a large amount of shares of heavily discounted CEFs and force the liquidation of those CEFs, in order to realize the net asset value. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has come up with a free downloadable Excel database of over 20 CEFs trading at a discount of at least 15% to NAV. Before investing in any of these, check out the web site of the CEFs  to see what  stocks they own, and how many are invested in illiquid shares.

Hopefully, you can find bargain priced stocks in a closed end fund.

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

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of October


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.


AbbVie Inc. ABBV 10/13/2015 3.6%
Abbott Labs ABT 10/13/2015 2.3%
Buckle Inc. BKE 10/13/2015 2.4%
Consolidated Communications CNSL 10/13/2015 7.9%
Epiq Systems EPIQ 10/13/2015 2.9%
Fifth Street Finance FSC 10/13/2015 11.0%
Rouse Properties RSE 10/13/2015 4.6%
Science Applications Intl SAIC 10/13/2015 3.0%
Shaw Communications SJR 10/13/2015 5.0%

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.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

IPOs for the Small Investor: GoDaddy, GoPro, Dave & Busters, Virgin, and More

If you haven't heard about the LOYAL3 brokerage firm, you should. The company allows investors to invest as little as $10 in a variety of stocks, without having to pay a commission. Enrollment is very simple with just three steps and takes only a couple minutes.

$10 Minimum Investment

You can buy full shares and partial shares based on the dollar amount, and you have the ability to invest one time or automatically on a monthly basis. There are no account management or account minimum fees. LOYAL3 receives compensation by performing various services for companies on its platform, and charges them for those services. Click on the link below for more information on the commission-free stock investing.

Invest Fee-Free. LOYAL3 is the only online stock platform that charges $0 fees. Enroll!

IPOs Open to Small Investors

More importantly, LOYAL3 participates in various IPOs, which allows the small investor to get in on some stock issues that are usually open to just wealthy investors and institutions. Some of the IPOs and follow-on investments that LOYAL3 has participated in include AMC (AMC), GoDaddy (GDDY), GoPro (GPRO), Virgin America (VA), and Dave & Busters (DAVE).

As a matter of fact, they are currently participating in an IPO for a major tech company, which is expected to price October 14. Click the link below to sign up for the list of upcoming IPO opportunities.

IPO Stock at LOYAL3.comOwn IPO stock in 3 easy steps.Learn more at LOYAL3.com.

Easy Sign-Up

You are not guaranteed that you will get the entire amount that you request. The minimum investment is $100. In addition, there are maximum investment limitations for the IPO. Plus, you need to have the funds available in the account in order to get shares, so I recommend that you open the account now and fund it so that you are ready when the next IPO that you are interested in comes out.

The LOYAL3 brokerage firm is a member of FINRA and SIPC. In the interest of full disclosure, I have an account with LOYAL3. I participated in two of their recent IPOs, and made roughly 60% the day the stock went public for one of the stocks and 30% the first day for the other stock. The sign-up process is easy and the customer service is superb.


The ABCs of Google Using the XYZ Domain

In case you haven't heard, there is a relatively new top level domain that is starting to become popular, and is called .XYZ. This is in addition to the common ones, such as .COM, .ORG, .and NET, and even the country domains and exotic domains such as .CO, .LY, ME, .XXX, and .TRAVEL. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of these domains.

Well, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) has taken the lead with the .XYZ domain, by registering ABC.XYZ. Why ABC you might ask?

Google is creating a new parent company called Alphabet and will become a publicly traded entity. According to Larry Page on the Alphabet website:
"Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Our two classes of shares will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG."

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of October


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.

CVB Financial CVBF 10/5/2015 2.9%
Gentex Corp GNTX 10/5/2015 2.2%
The Gap Inc. GPS 10/5/2015 2.9%
Raytheon Co. RTN 10/5/2015 2.6%
Terreno Realty Corp TRNO 10/5/2015 3.1%
Destination Maternity Corp DEST 10/6/2015 8.2%
Pulaski Financial Corp PULB 10/6/2015 2.8%
Brady Corp BRC 10/7/2015 4.0%
Darden Restaurants DRI 10/7/2015 3.1%
Ennis, Inc. EBF 10/7/2015 4.1%
General Dynamics Corporation GD 10/7/2015 2.0%
Manhattan Bridge Capital Inc. LOAN 10/7/2015 7.7%
Marsh & McLennan MMC 10/7/2015 2.4%
Monsanto Company MON 10/7/2015 2.6%
NetApp Inc. NTAP 10/7/2015 2.4%

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.