Book Review: The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything

The book, The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything by Jason Kelly has everything you ever wanted to know and even what you didn't even know you wanted to know, about the private equity business.

What is so interesting is how many business are currently owned by private equity funds: Dunkin' Donuts, J. Crew, Toys "R" Us, Burger King, Hilton, Legoland, Hertz, The Weather Channel, Madam Tussaud's, Outback Steakhouse, Gymboree, Guitar Center, Miramax, Sea World, and Petco. Huge amounts of money have been made in the private equity world. And fortunately for smaller investors, there is a way for them to get in on the action, since a few of the private equity funds are publicly traded, companies such as Blackstone Group (BX), Carlyle Group (CG), and KKR (KKR).

Kelly provides extensive coverage of how private equity firms operate, from raising money, purchasing the company, improving operations, and finally selling. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the interviews with the top players. If you want to know all about private equity, read The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend During the last half of May

If you want to try the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' which is the technique 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, there are many stocks to choose from. This technique generally works only in bull markets.

When you buy dividends, there are many stocks in many different sectors to choose from. 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 has compiled a free downloadable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the last half of May. Here are a few examples:

Blackstone (BX) 5/27/09 yield: 9.5%

Hawaiian Electric (HE) 5/19/09 yield: 7.3%

Great Plains Energy (GXP) 5/27/09 yield: 5.9%

If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. For more details on dividend definitions, check out definitions of dividend dates. Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Author doesn't own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com