High Dividend Canadian Oil Royalty Trusts

Many dividend investors like Canadian Oil Royalty Trusts due to for their high income, their monthly distributions, and possible tax sheltering of their dividends. However, there are fewer trusts to choose from, due to takeovers and termination of payouts for some trusts. These Canadian Income Trusts, also known as Canadian Oil Income Trusts or Canadian Royalty Trusts generally pay a very high income. The trusts pass through all their earnings and deductions from oil and gas wells to the trust holders, similar to real estate investment trusts. There is no taxation at the corporate level since they are structured as trusts. Also, a portion of the dividends may be non-taxable due to depletion and depreciation deductions.

You should be aware that the Canadian government came out with a plan to tax all Canadian trusts at the corporate level beginning in the year 2011. However, the average yield from some of the Canadian trusts is still higher than the U.S. royalty trusts. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com recently came out with an updated free database list of Canadian Oil Royalty Trusts. Below are a couple of the Canadian Royalty Trusts that are traded on United States stock exchanges.

Baytex Energy (BTE) has a P/E ratio of 28.2, and pays a yield of 7.0%. They have been paying dividends since 2006.

Enerplus Resources Fund (ERF) has a P/E ratio of 13.7, and pays a yield of 9.5%. They have been paying dividends since 2000.

To get a free Excel database list of all the US-traded Canadian Income Trusts, which you can download and sort, go to WSNN.com.

Author does not own any of the above. Please note: these high yields are subject to change, reduction, and elimination.

By Stockerblog.com

Book Review: Super Freakonomics

If you liked the book Freakonomics by Seven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, you will love SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. As a matter of fact, the latest edition has 16 new pages of multi-color charts, graphs, diagrams, and other illustrations.

Did you know that if a baby is born in May in Uganda or Michigan, the baby is 20% more likely to have learning, vision, and hearing disabilities? Do you know why? Did you know that women emergency room doctors are better than male ER doctors? Did you know that terrorists don't usually use savings accounts or safe deposit boxes? Did you know that kids watching too much TV can cause them to commit crimes, no matter what type of shows they watch? Did you know that the majority of doctors don't wash their hands? Did you know that car seats are no better than seat belts for kids? Did you know about the simple ways of fixing global warming? If you didn't know about any of this, you need to get the book. It is extremely well written, well researched, with humor.

For great reading or a nice gift for a friend, get SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Make an Apple iPhone Sandwich

If you like Apple and you like sandwich, how about an iPhone sandwich?

Natural Gas Utilities Yielding Over 3%

As a follow-up to our electric utility article, we took a look at natural gas utilities. Consider natural gas utilities as possible income investments, especially because of the great dividends. Many of these stocks pay 4% or more.

Here are a few examples of high yielding natural gas and propane utilities and limited partnerships:

WGL Holdings Inc (WGL) 4.5%
National Grid Plc (NGG) 4.4%
Transcanada Corp (TRP) 4.4%
Piedmont Nat Gas (PNY) 4.1%

To see a list of 25 gas utilities, you can get a free downloadable Excel database of natural gas and propane stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

By Stockerblog.com

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Apparently some information was leaked from Apple (AAPL):

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of February

If you are sure we are still in a bull market, consider the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' which has generated a lot of interest from investors. 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.

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 free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $250 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) ex div date: 2/10/2010 market cap: $41.2B yield: 5.5%

Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR) ex div date: 2/10/2010 market cap: $8.6B yield: 4.2%

Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) ex div date: 2/10/2010 market cap: $14.3B yield: 4.5%

Other 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 the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

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.

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 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.

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

Another Cord Blood Stock

A couple weeks ago, we had an article about cord blood stocks. However, they are all United States companies. There is one more that should be added to the list, China Cord Blood Corporation (CO), which trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

It provides cord blood collection, and stem cell storage services.The company, which is based in Beijing, China, reported a 30.4% increase in revenues for the latest reported quarter, ending September, and a 205% increase in earnings.

To see more Cord Blood companies, check out cord blood stocks.

NASA Developing a Flying Suit

How would you like to wear a suit that flies? Actually, it is more like a very small plane that fits around your body. It is called the Puffin, 12 feet long and weighs 300 pounds. It is officially known as a personal air vehicle.

Funny Corporate Mergers

Cisco Systems (CSCO) + Kid Brands, Inc. (KID) = Cisco Kid

Amazon (AMZN) and James River Coal (JRCC) = Amazon River

FedEx (FDX) and UPS = FED UP

Home Depot (HD) + Stanley Works (SWK) = Home Work

DryShips, Inc. (DRYS) + Wal Mart Stores (WMT) = Dry Wal

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) + Marks & Spencer (MAKSF.PK) + The Knot, Inc. (KNOT) + Potash Corp. (POT) = Ex Marks The Pot

Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH) + GameStop Corp. (GME) = Card Game

Cincinnati Bell Inc. (CBB) + Citigroup, Inc. (C) = Cin Citi

Washington Post Co. (WPO) + Office Depot, Inc. (ODP) = Post Office

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) + ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) = Pro & Con

Chevron Corp. (CVX) + E*TRADE Financial Corporation (ETFC) + JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) = Chev E Chase

If you like these, check out more Funny Mergers.

By Stockerblog.com

'Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder' Caused by Economic Problems

Want to know what the stress caused by the recession is called, that is affecting many people around the world? Posttraumatic embitterment disorder. Feeling a little anxiety? Maybe you have it.

Book Review: Burst This!

Frank McKinney, author of Burst This!: Frank McKinney's Bubble Proof Real Estate Strategies, takes a completely different approach to making money in real estate. He says that 'location, location, location' is not the most important factor in real estate investing. McKinney recommends being a contrarian investor and looking in areas where others don't, making your own market. He made a significant amount of money investing 'where other people were too scared to go.' Very specific advice is given on what to look for in undervalued neighborhoods and a very simple formula for determining if the property is a buy.

McKinney spends a lot of the book discussing the creation of 'green' and environmentally responsible homes and home construction. He knows what he is talking about; he built the largest green home in the world.

Since we are at the bottom of the real estate market (according to me, called last October), now is the time to start looking to invest in real estate. And if you need a guide, don't let McKinney's rock musician appearance turn you off. He has the knowledge and experience. Check out Burst This!: Frank McKinney's Bubble Proof Real Estate Strategies.

The Flight to Electric Utilities with Yields from 4% to 7%

The flight to safety, security, and income is on. Investors are now turning to electric utilities; after all, over the last three months, the Dow Jones Utility Index outperformed the S&P 500. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has come up with a list of over 30 electric utility stocks that pay a dividend of 4% or more.

Utilities have historically been known as 'safer' stocks throughout history, meaning that they have been considered very conservative investments. Recently, that has shown to be not so true in recent history with respect to certain companies (e.g. General Public Utilities Three Mile Island), although overall, during long periods of time, utilities have paid favorable dividends with low volatility.

Here are some examples of utility stocks with decent CD beating yields.

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HE) pays a yield of 5.9%, and has a forward PE of 13.8. The company is one of the leaders in renewable energy sources for electrical generation, such as wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power, sugarcane waste, and municipal waste. It distributes electricity throughout the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai

Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) has a yield of 5.4%, with a forward PE of 12.5. The company provides electricity, gas, and steam to customers in New York City and Westchester County.

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP) yields 4.6% and has a forward PE of 11.6. AEP generates electricity from coal, lignite, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric energy.

You can access a free downloadable Excel database of high yield electric utility stocks, which you can add to, change, and sort, at WSNN.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Guest Article: Where should YOU be in the S&P 500?

Where should YOU be in the S&P 500?

Hello this is Adam Hewison and I’ve just returned from my daughter’s wedding in New Zealand to see that we have some very interesting markets to start the New Year.

In today’s short video we take a fresh look the S&P 500 and what we think it is going to do in 2010. We will also be looking at an important “Trade Triangle” that has just flashed an important signal for this index.

As always our videos are educational, free to watch, and there’s no need to register. Enjoy the video and please feel free to leave your comments on our blog.
http://www.ino.com/info/507/CD3111/
&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3

All the best to you in 2010,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

Upcoming Events for Those Who Like Financial History

National Antique Stock and Bond Show
Jan. 29 through Jan. 30, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel - Dulles Airport
2200 Centreville Rd
Herndon VA 20170
Only 2 miles from Dulles Airport
Admission $3

* * *

MARC CHANDLER ON MAKING SENSE OF THE DOLLAR
Museum of American Finance
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
05:30 PM to 07:00 PM
48 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
Tel: 212.908.4110
Fax: 212.908.4601
Admission $15

Guest Article: OilPrice.com Oil Market Summary for 01/18/2010 – 01/22/2010

New measures by Chinese authorities to curb bank lending reversed a rally in energy prices early in the week, bringing West Texas Intermediate futures down more than 4% in the second half of the week to below $75 a barrel by Friday.

China continued its efforts to slow down its economy and prevent overheating, and told some banks to stop making certain kinds of loans. The Chinese move on Wednesday hit all commodities across the board, from gold to lead, with the prospect of slower economic growth in the country.

Not even the news that China ’s oil imports in December exceeded 5 million barrels of oil a day for the first time could stop the decline.

U.S. data, meanwhile, showed that demand for oil had slipped 1.8% in the four weeks leading to Jan. 15 from the like period a year ago, when the U.S. economy was in the grip of a recession. Crude inventories declined in the week, against expectations, but gasoline inventories rose. Continued milder weather in the Northeast further dampened heating oil prices.

News that utilization of U.S. refinery capacity fell to its lowest levels since the 1980s drove home the point that demand for distillates was lagging. Refinery utilization in the previous week dropped 2.9 percentage points to 78.4% of the 17.6 million barrels per day total capacity, the lowest level in two decades except for periods when hurricanes shut down refinery operations.

The U.S. and China are the world’s top two oil-consuming countries, so the signs of weakening demand in both were bearish for energy prices.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the announcement by the White House on Thursday of tough new measures to limit banks’ proprietary trading threw a double whammy in energy markets. There were concerns that Wall Street banks, among the biggest energy traders, would have to cut back their activities. Plus, the news sent equities into a tailspin, and dragged down commodities prices.

The uncertainty about U.S. bank restructuring reversed the dollar’s climb against the euro, which had also weighed on crude oil prices. After dropping below $1.41, the euro bounced back up above that level at the end of the week.

But continuing concerns about Greece ’s debt and new uncertainty about whether Ben Bernanke will be confirmed for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman supported the dollar and were likely to dampen any strong rise for the euro, analysts said.

Originally published at: http://www.oilprice.com/article-crude-oil-prices-fall-victim-to-china-syndrome.html

By Darrell Delamaide for OilPrice.com who have recently launched a Free Market Intelligence Report which focuses on unique Geopolitical and Investment News which enables readers to spot trends and events in the marketplace and reduce investment risk. To find out more visit: http://www.oilprice.com

Hidden Inflation: Health Bars and Toilet Paper

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics which just reported a couple days ago, the inflation rate has been modest. They announced that the December Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis,the U.S. Over the last 12 months, the index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.

However, other than technology where prices continue to drop and buy greater and greater power [just look at the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. I paid $599 for the original; look at the memory and features you can now buy for one third the price], consumers are getting less bang for the buck. The rate of inflation may appear low but just take a look at how companies are hiding their own 'hidden' inflation, and not doing a very good job.

Check out the following breakfast bar. This was a brand new bar, as it appeared as soon as I opened the package. It barely takes up three quarters of the package. It looks like someone had already taken a couple bites out of it. And it wasn't an aberration. All the bars in the box were about the same size, and all the boxes I opened during the last couple months were similar. A year ago, one of these bars would satisfy me for a snack; now I have to eat two.


Do you remember the days when the toilet paper roll was wide enough to cover the entire roller? Some roll holders, where two large silver arms with circular latches fit into the sides of the roll, can't even hold the modern day rolls (sorry I don't have a picture of one of those).


Fortunately, we don't have the outrageous inflation that Zimbabwe had a couple years ago. Their inflation rate by the end of 2008, was 516,000,000,000,000,000,000% (516 quintillion percent), according to unofficial sources. In the following photo, you can see at the top the one Zimbabwe dollar issued in 2007, then after the runaway inflation the Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar bill issued in 2008, and finally issued in 2009, a 'new' 1 dollar bill equal to the 'old' 100 trillion dollar bill. Now the Zimbabwe dollar is longer in active use. It has been replaced by the United States dollar, South African rand, Botswanan pula, Pound sterling, and Euro, with the US dollar used as the official currency for all government transactions.


Although the United Stated doesn't have a multi-zeros inflation rate, higher inflation is still on the horizon. I expect much higher inflation within four years. They can reduce the size of my health bars only so far.

Author owns AAPL.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Avoiding Yahoo's New Home Page

A lot of my friends have complained about the new home page of Yahoo (YHOO). Popups flash across the page, as you move your mouse, and it is difficult to even click on the link you want. I even have problems scrolling down the page when I use the touchpad on a Mac laptop.

You have a couple options. If you want the Google (GOOG) 'look' (see below), you can change your bookmark or homepage to the following:

http://search.yahoo.com



or if you generally go right to the Finance page, just set your bookmark or homepage to the following:

http://finance.yahoo.com

Author owns YHOO.

Stocks With High Yields Selling Below Book

Two popular metrics that investors often look for are the yields and whether the stock is selling below book value. The stocks that pay dividends return your capital faster and they can reduce the stock's volatility.

The book value is what the shareholder would receive if the company went out of business, sold off all its assets, paid off its debts, and distributed all the cash equally among all the shareholders. So if you buy the stock for less than book value, you have that additional protection.

There are over 35 stocks selling below book value and pay dividends, that wallstreetnewsnetwork.com just turned up, all with market caps over $500 million.

As an example, Foot Locker, Inc. (FL), which sells for 93% of book value and yields 5%. This retailer of athletic footwear and apparel has a forward PE of 16.2 and has a market cap of $1.9 billion.

Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (SAFT), a provider of automobile insurance in Massachusetts, sells for 86% of book value and yields 4.5%. The stock has a forward PE of 10.6 and a market cap of $526.5 million.

There are plenty of real estate investment trusts on the list including Colonial Properties Trust (CLP), trading at 62% of book, yielding 4.9%, with a forward PE of 13, and market cap of $807.0 million.

To see the entire list of high yield below book stocks in an Excel format, go to wsnn.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Get Average Loan Rates and Closing Costs in Your Zip Code

Planning on buying a home or refinancing? The Fair Mortgage Collaborative has launched a free tool that allows you to see the average mortgage loan prices, including interest rates and closing costs, right down to the zip code where you live. Make sure your bank isn't overcharging you.

Teenager Terrorizes NY Apple Store

A teenager in New York left a threatening message on a computer in an Apple (AAPL) store, claiming 'bloody death'. The teenager claimed it was a joke but the police took it seriously and arrested him.

Earnings Calls for Thursday, January 21

A ton of earnings calls, a lot more earnings calls than Wednesday. The following shows the companies announcing their earnings on Thursday, January 21, and when they are planning on making their announcements, if available. Pay clos attention to the Goldman Sachs (GS) and Google (GOOG) announcements.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD After Close
Affiliated Computer Services ACS After Close
American Express Company AXP After Close
Amphenol APH na
BancorpSouth, Inc. BXS After Close
Brookline Bancorp BRKL After Close
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation BNI 4:00 pm ET
Capital One Financial Corp. COF 4:05 pm ET
Comerica Incorporated CMA Before Open
Conexant Systems Inc. CNXT na
Consolidated Edison, Inc. ED na
Continental Airlines CAL Before Open
Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CBST na
Digi International Inc. DGII After Close
Electronics for Imaging EFII na
Emulex ELX After Close
EZCORP Inc EZPW After Close
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. FCS Before Open
Fifth Third Bancorp FITB 6:00 am ET
First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. FNFG Before Open
First Security Group, Inc. FSGI Before Open
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold FCX Before Open
GATX Corporation GMT Before Open
Goldman Sachs GS Before Open
Google GOOG After Close
ICICI Bank Ltd. IBN na
Imation Corp. IMN 7:00 am ET
Independent Bank Corp. INDB After Close
Insteel Industries IIIN 8:30 am ET
Interactive Brokers Group Inc. IBKR After Close
International Game Technology IGT After Close
Intuitive Surgical ISRG na
ITT Educational Services, Inc. ESI Before Open
J&J Snack Foods JJSF 4:00 pm ET
KeyCorp KEY Before Market Open
Kimberly Clark De Mexico KCDMF.PK na
Knight Capital Group, Inc. NITE 6:00 am ET
Legg Mason LM 07:00 am ET
LSI Industries Inc. LYTS Before Open
Matthews International MATW After Close
MDS Inc. MDZ Before Open
Meredith Corporation MDP Before Open
Meridian Bioscience, Inc VIVO Before Open
Microsemi MSCC After Close
NetScout Systems NTCT After Close
Pacific Continental Corporation PCBK na
People's United Financial Inc. PBCT After Close
PNC Financial Services Group PNC na
Popular, Inc. BPOP na
PPG Industries PPG Before Open
Precision Castparts PCP Before Open
Simmons First National SFNC Before Open
Somanetics Corporation SMTS Before Open
Southwest Airlines LUV na
Sterling Bancshares SBIB Before Open
SVB Financial Group SIVB After Close
Synaptics Incorporated SYNA After Close
TCF Financial Corporation TCB na
Twin Disc TWIN Before Open
Union Pacific UNP Before Market Open
UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH Before Open
Urologix, Inc. ULGX After Close
Valley National Bancorp VLY Before Open
Westamerica Bancorporation WABC na
Western Alliance Bancorp WAL After Close
Western Digital Corp. WDC After Close
Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. WIBC na
WNS Holdings Ltd. WNS 6:00 am ET
Xerox Corporation XRX 7:00 am ET

Time for a Tea Party? The Price of Tea is Down

I keep reading about political 'Tea Parties' in the news. It may becoming cheaper to have such parties at the price of African tea dropped last week by 3.9%.

Where are the Buffett Books?

We've published lists of books by Carl Icahn, T. Boone Pickens, George Soros, and Jim Cramer. Readers have been asking, where are the Warren Buffet books? After all, he is one of the most successful investors in history, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B), and the second richest man in the world. Here are a list of books by and about Warren Buffett:

by Buffett

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) Warren E. Buffett (Collaborator)

The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America Warren E. Buffett (Author)

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition Warren E. Buffett (Foreword)

Los ensayos de Warren Buffett (Spanish Edition) Warren E. Buffett (Author)

about Buffett

Trade Like Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett Way, Second Edition

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros

The New Buffettology: The Proven Techniques for Investing Successfully in Changing Markets That Have Made Warren Buffett the World's Most Famous Investor

Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor

The Tao of Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett's Words of Wisdom: Quotations and Interpretations to Help Guide You to Billionaire Wealth and Enlightened Business Management

By Stockerblog.com

Who Owns the Best Domain Names Part 2

Following up on the article I wrote last week about the publicly traded corporations which own the best Internet domain names, we have come up with another list of top domain names and which companies have them.

bras.com Calvin Klein, subsidiary of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH)
brew.com Marchex, Inc. (MCHX)
construction.com The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP)
help.com CBS Corporation (CBS)
jobs.com Monster Worldwide, Inc. (MWW)
lawyers.com LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier NV (ENL) (RUK)
money.com TimeWarner (TWX)
mortgage.com Citigroup, Inc. (C)
realestate.com LendingTree, LLC a division of Tree.com, Inc. (TREE)
shirt.com owned by Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), brings up Amazon.com (AMZN)
shoes.com Brown Shoe Company (BWS)
underwear.com Calvin Klein, subsidiary of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH)

By Stockerblog.com

Bernie Madoff in 2007

"In our regulatory environment, it is virtually impossible to violate rules." ~ Bernard Madoff, 2007

"It is impossible for a violation to go undetected." ~ Bernard Madoff, 2007

FDIC Opening a Temporary Midwest Satellite Office

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today announced it will open a temporary satellite office in suburban Chicago, to manage receiverships and to liquidate assets from failed financial institutions primarily located in Midwestern states.

After conducting a competitive leasing acquisition process, the FDIC entered into a short-term agreement to lease space at 200 North Martingale Road, Schaumburg, Illinois. The decision was based on mission needs and workload.

The new office will provide facilities for up to 500 non-permanent staff and contractors. Staffing will be based on the workload needs of this office, including the number of closings in the Midwest, the resulting number of receiverships, and the post-closing workload.

Throughout its history, the FDIC has used temporary satellite offices to keep temporary asset resolution staff closer to the concentration of failed bank assets they oversee. As the work diminishes, the temporary satellite offices are closed. The FDIC currently has similar offices in Irvine, California, and Jacksonville, Florida.

The FDIC expects to gradually move into the space starting in March 2010.

Top 8 IPOs for the Last Year

The Initial Public Offering or IPO with the highest return for last year is Tri-Tech Holding (TRIT), which provides software and hardware solutions to monitor and manage natural and municipal water supplies in China. The stock went public on September 9, 2009 at 6.75 per share and now trades above 20, an increase of over 190% in less than five months.

The following is a list of the top eight performing IPOs for the last year, showing the stock symbol, the day they went public, and the return so far since going public:

Tri Tech Holding Inc TRIT Sep 9, 2009 193.8%
Lihua International Inc LIWA Sep 4, 2009 147.5%
Changyou.com Ltd CYOU Apr 1, 2009 115.8%
Mead Johnson Nutrition Co MJN Feb 10, 2009 95.0%
Territorial Bancorp Inc TBNK Jul 13, 2009 80.0%
SolarWinds Inc SWI May 19, 2009 74.8%
STR Holdings Inc STRI Nov 6, 2009 74.6%
Rue21 inc RUE Nov 12, 2009 57.3%

Author does not own any of the above.

Earnings Calls for Wednesday, January 20

There are lots and lots of earnings announcements tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20 (this is being written Tuesday evening). Here is a list of over 35 companies with earnings calls.

Amdocs Limited DOX
AMR Corporation AMR
Applied Industrial Technologies AIT
ASML Holdings NV ASML
Bank of America Corporation BAC
Bank of New York Mellon Corp BK
Brinker International EAT
Coach, Inc. COH
Courier Corporation CRRC
Covidien Plc. COV
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. RDY
eBay EBAY
F5 Networks FFIV
Hudson City Bancorp HCBK
iGate Corporation IGTE
Jefferies JEF
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. KMP
LaBranche & Co Inc. LAB
LG Display LPL
Logitech International LOGI
M&T Bank Corporation MTB
Marshall & Ilsley MI
Morgan Stanley MS
Northern Trust NTRS
NVE Corporation NVEC
Plexus PLXS
Raymond James RJF
Seagate Technology STX
Skyworks SWKS
SLM Corporation SLM
Starbucks SBUX
State Street Corporation STT
TSYS TSS
U.S. Bancorp USB
Wells Fargo & Company WFC
Wipro Limited WIT
Woodward WGOV
Xilinx, Inc. XLNX

Author owns EBAY.

Guest Article: Free Email Trading Course

First of all I want to thank you for having me as a guest today!

My name is Adam Hewison. You might want to Google Me to confirm what I am about to share with you.

There are plenty of people out there that create “exclusive email courses” with little or no credentials to actually backup their teachings. So, I think it’s right that I share a little bit about myself with you before we even start.

I was a former floor trader on the IMM, IOM, NYFE and LIFFE as well as a risk manager of a large, multinational corporation in Geneva, Switzerland. I also have written books on forex trading and trend following. In 1995, I founded INO.com and later co-founded MarketClub. I’ve been in the trading biz for over three decades and have seen it all. I created this course as a way to give back and share trading tips and techniques that I still use in my trading today.

http://www.ino.com/info/447/CD3111/
&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=6

In my Free Mini Email Course, I will show and explain the tools and strategies you need to increase your success rate in the marketplace.

(1) The importance of psychology in price movement

(2) How to spot mega trends

(3) Understanding of technical price objectives

(4) How to picture price objectives

(5) How to trade with moving averages

(6) How to use point and figure trading techniques

(7) How to use the RSI indicator

(8) How to correctly use stochastics in your trading

(9) How to use the ADX indicator to capture trends

(10) How to capitalize on natural market cycles.

Plus, you will you will learn all about fibonacci retracements, MACD, Bollinger Bands and much more.

Just fill out the form and we’ll get you started right away.

http://www.ino.com/info/447/CD3111/
&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=6

Every success,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com & Co-Creator, MarketClub

Guest Article: OilPrice.com Oil Market Summary for 01/11/2010 – 01/15/2010

Crude oil futures fell for five straight sessions as warmer weather in the U.S. dispelled forecasts of unusually low temperatures and allowed concerns about demand to come to the fore. The price for Nymex’s West Texas crude fell about 6% during the week, starting at nearly $83 and finishing at $78.

Analysts said that the unusually cold weather had supported prices with a “winter premium,” as added heating demand compensated for lower demand in transportation due to slow economic recovery.

Even a report early in the week that China ’s energy imports had registered a big jump in December failed to help, as it was quickly followed by moves at the Chinese central bank to tighten credit and slow down economic growth.

Further bearish news came on Wednesday with the report that U.S. inventories of crude oil had risen by 3.7 million tons in the week, three times more than expected.

Then the coup de grace came on Friday as the International Energy Agency failed to raise its forecasts for global oil demand in its monthly oil report, saying that the cold weather wasn’t sufficient to increase demand projections.

“Oil demand recovery in the OECD will likely remain sluggish, despite a bout of recent cold weather,” the agency said.

Even so, U.S. industrial production figures for January posted their sixth straight increase on Friday, coming in slightly higher than expectations at 0.6%, and this helped trim some of the losses on the crude contract.

Some analysts found comfort in the fact that the decline in crude prices was not greater, seeing this as a sign of resilience. Goldman Sachs reiterated its forecast that West Texas crude would average $90 this year and rise to an average $110 in 2011. The bank said demand from emerging economies would make up for the sluggishness in the industrial countries.

The IEA echoed this sentiment in its report. “Growth is driven by non-OECD countries, most notably in Asia ,” the IEA said.

A move by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to impose position limits had no impact on trading. The proposed limits are generous enough that only the very biggest traders will have to pay attention to them, analysts said.

Heating oil and gasoline prices trended down with crude. Natural gas benefited from bargain hunters on Friday to claw back some of its losses for the week, ending up for the day.

Originally published at: http://www.oilprice.com/article-oil-prices-fall-as-winter-premium-melts-away.html

This article was written by Darrell Delamaide for Oilprice.com who focus on Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, Oil Prices and Geopolitics. To find out more visit their website at: http://www.oilprice.com

Jim Cramer Books

Jim Cramer's latest book is currently in the top 1000 of all books and is #4 of all stock market related books books, according to Amazon. Cramer has actually written quite a few books. In case you missed one or two, here they all are:

Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even

Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World

Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)

Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich

Confessions of a Street Addict

You Got Screwed! Why Wall Street Tanked and How You Can Prosper

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the First Week of February 2010

The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' has generated a lot of interest from investors. 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.

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 free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many dividend paying companies companies all with market caps over $250 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

The Boeing Company (BA) ex div date: 2/3/10 market cap: $44.2B, yield: 2.8%

Bowne & Co., Inc. (BNE) ex div date: 2/3/10 market cap: $281.8M, yield: 3.1%

FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) ex div date: 2/3/10 market cap: $14.2B, yield: 4.7%

Genesis Energy, L.P. (GEL) ex div date: 2/3/10 market cap: $784.9M, yield: 7.2%

Other 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 the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

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.

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 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.

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

Do Debt Free Stocks Under $10 Really Do Well?

Last month, we ran an article about 11 debt free stocks trading under $10 per share with lots of cash called 11 Under 10: Low Share Price, Debt Free, Lots of Cash. The entire list of low priced shares with no debt was and still is available at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

If you look at the returns on those eleven stocks from the time the list was published to last Friday, and this is even after the Dow was down over 100 on that day, the average gain on the stocks is 4.2%, versus only 1.4% on the Dow over that same time frame. Not a bad return for less than a month.

Most of the eleven stocks were up, with a low gain of 0.4% for Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) and a high of 34.5% for Joe's Jeans Inc. (JOEZ). Other stocks that were up strong include Landec Corporation (LNDC) and SonicWALL, Inc. (SNWL).

Only a few on the list were down, with Hot Topic, Inc. (HOTT) being the lowest performer, down only 3%.

Stay tuned for our next update. Hopefully we can come up with 12 stocks under 10. However, there are plenty of other lists of stocks at wsnn.com, especially high dividend lists, which are worth checking out.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Umbilical Cord Blood Breakthrough for Treating Leukemia

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington made a major breakthrough in the use of umbilical cord blood to treat blood cancers such as leukemia. The discovery dramatically decreases the recovery time of white blood cells.

Cord blood is blood that comes from umbilical cords, and contains a significant amount of hematopoietic stem cells. Specialized cord blood banks are available to store this blood. Cord blood stem cells are considered far superior to stem cells from bone marrow. Parents often have their newborn's cord blood preserved in the event it may be needed at some point in the future for treatment of their child's or the child's sibling's cancer or genetic disease. Numerous diseases have been treated with cord blood. For a lot more detail on cord blood and how it is collected, stored, and used, go to CordBloodStocks.com.

The growth of the cord blood industry is substantial. Even Richard Branson, of Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways fame, is in the cord blood business, setting up Virgin Health, a cord blood bank.

Investors can choose either the cord blood banks or the companies that use cord blood to develop cures. Here are some stocks that participate in the cord blood business. Be aware that some of these companies have low market caps and are very speculative.

Baxter International Inc. (BAX) makes blood collection bags for umbilical cord blood and develop adult stem-cell therapies. They also own a patent for assembling and methods to process cord blood in a sterile fashion to avoid exposure to bacterial contamination and to disburse the introduction of cryopreservation solution into cord blood at a desired rate, thereby avoiding damage or trauma to the cord blood cells. The stock has a PE ratio of 17 and pays a yield of 1.9%.

PerkinElmer, Inc. (PKI) owns ViaCell, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company which sells ViaCord, a product which is used to preserve baby's umbilical cord blood. They also research and other therapeutic uses of umbilical cord blood-derived and adult-derived stem cells. The stock has a PE of 33 and a yield of 1.3%.

Celgene (CELG) This New Jersey company is involved in the discovery, production, and marketing of therapies designed to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases. They own LifeBank USA, a cord blood bank. The P/E is 72.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) is also funding research into cord blood extraction, preservation, and storage. The stock has a PE of 12.

Cryo-Cell International (CCEL.OB) This is a Florida based cord blood stem cell bank, specializing in the family market. The stock has a PE ratio of 10. This is an extremely low cap stock and should therefore be considered extremely speculative.

ThermoGenesis (KOOL) This California company designs, makes, and sells automated blood processing systems for the manufacture, preservation, and delivery of cell therapies. They are involved in a joint venture with GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (GE) to distribute the AXP[TM] AutoXpress Platform, a closed and automated system for harvesting mononuclear cells from cord blood. They have recently generated negative earnings. This is an extremely low cap stock and should therefore be considered extremely speculative.

Cord Blood America Inc. (CBAI.OB) One of the cord blood bankers, this Los Angeles company is involved in the collection, testing, processing, and preservation of the blood from umbilical cords for use in future stem cell therapy. They own the Cord Partners umbilical cord blood banking company. They have recently generated negative earnings. This is an extremely low cap stock and should therefore be considered extremely speculative.

For a free downloadable Excel database of cord blood and stem cell stocks, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Show Business is Anti Capitalist?

In a BBC News story, a case is made that the motion picture industry is anti-capitalist and anti-corporations.

20% of Brits Never Heard of Apple's Steve Jobs

In a recent pole in England, it was found that 20% of British individuals had never heard of Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple (AAPL), and one out of ten thought he was a trade union member. Five percent of those interviewed thought that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MSFT), was a comedian, and some thought he was a famous thief.

Berkshire Hathaway Splitting 50-for-1

Warren Buffett has decided to split the Berkshire Hathaway B shares (BRK-B) by 50 to 1, in order to streamline the transition of the takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI). The split is expected to take place next week. The Berkshire Hathaway A shares (BRK-A) will not change and are currently trading at $97,500 per share.

Dividends from ETFs? Yes!

Many investors who have never purchased an ETF or Exchange Traded Fund, think that ETFs are primarily for for traders. However, there are actually hundreds of ETFs which pay dividends, and WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up more than 20 with yields above 5%. There are several ETF categories to choose from including high yield bond, real estate, and emerging markets bond. Here are a few examples.

The PowerShares High Yield Corporate Bond (PHB) ETF pays a yield of 8.8%, and attempts to track the Wachovia High-Yield Bond index. The fund has been paying monthly dividends since December of 2007. It has outperformed the High Yield Bond category over the last three months. Some of the largest holdings include bonds from Baldor Electric (BEZ) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK).

The iShares S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (PFF) ETF yields 7.9% tracking the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index. They have been paying dividends almost every month since May 2007. The ETF has outperformed its category and index over the last year. Larger holdings include preferreds from Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) and Barclays plc (BCS).

Do your homework on these ETFs before investing, especially the yield calculations, since many of the yields are based on recent higher than typical dividends that may not be maintained in the future. Always check the historical dividend payment history. A good starting point for high yield ETF ideas is the free database at wsnn.com, which can be sorted, added to, and changed.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

What Do Warren Buffett and George Soros Have In Common (besides being successful billionaire traders)?

Both Warren Buffett and George Soros have something in common besides the fact that they are both billionaires and both successful investors and traders. They were born in the month of August. If you want to send a birthday card to any of your favorite traders, you can check out their birthdays below.

Birthdays of Famous Traders

Charlie Munger January 1, 1924
Carlos Slim Helú January 28, 1940
Jim Cramer February 10, 1955
Carl Icahn February 16, 1936
Prince Al-Waleed March 7, 1955
Al Gore March 31, 1948
Bernie Madoff* April 29, 1938
William Ackman May 11, 1966
Michael Price May 17, 1953
T. Boone Pickens May 22, 1928
Eddie Lampert July 19 1962
George Soros August 12, 1930
Warren Buffett August 30, 1930
Bill Gates October 28, 1955
Joel Greenblatt December 13, 1957

By Stockerblog.com

* Can Madoff be considered a trader?

Who Owns the Best Domain Names

If you have been reading my articles regularly, you would notice that I do a lot of reporting on domain names, since so much money has been made from buying and reselling domain names and also turning them into online businesses and monetizing them. Recently, I've reported on one letter domains and two letter domains that have been put up for sale.

Some domains, such as insure.com, have sold for over $1 million. If you ever wondered what publicly traded companies have top generic domain names, here are some of the major ones.

Asthma.com Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK)
Book.com Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)
Books.com Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)
Baby.com Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Cat.com Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)
Flowers.com 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (FLWS)
Flu.com AstraZeneca plc (AZN)
Gift.com J. C. Penney Company, Inc (JCP)
Icecream.com Dreyers, division of NESTLE (NSRGY.PK)
Loans.com Bank of America Corporation (BAC)
Pet.com Petsmart Inc. (PETM)
Pets.com Petsmart Inc. (PETM)
School.com Office Depot, Inc. (ODP)
Tv.com CBS (CBS)
Video.com Disney (DIS)

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of January 2010

January may be a good time to buy dividends. The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' has generated a lot of interest from investors. 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.

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 free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many dividend paying companies companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Royal Bank of Canada (RY) ex div date: 1/22/10 market cap: $76.0 billion, yield: 3.6%

PNM Resources, Inc. (PNM) ex div date: 1/25/10 market cap: $1.1 billion, yield: 4.0%

Other 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 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

Prostitute Owes $820,000 in Taxes

A prostitute in Warsaw, Poland was hit with an $820,000 bill in back taxes. This was based on income of over $4 million. She said that one client paid her over $1.7 million in a five year period.

Marriage in a Whole Foods Market

A Florida couple decided to tie the knot in a Whole Foods Market (WFMI), where they had originally met. The ceremony was held in the market's cafe. Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI) trades on NASDAQ.

Rampage at McDonald's

A woman in Missouri ordered a McDonald's (MCD) cheeseburger, but didn't like it, so she went on a rampage throwing three cash registers on the floor. She was arrested. McDonald's trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Guest Article: Do hedge funds have an impact on energy trading?

Regulators Seek to Throw Light on Hedge Fund Impact in Energy Trading

While the answer might seem intuitive, the debate as to whether they actually do has come to resemble the medieval theological dispute about how many angels can dance on the head of the pin.

Because, like angels, many trades in energy futures are invisible, and it is often not possible to pinpoint where they take place.

And yet, for most of us, including lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it seems obvious that when hedge funds buy and sell billions of dollars worth of oil and gas futures, it must be having an impact on energy prices. While hedge funds and other speculative traders would never dream of taking delivery of a barrel of oil, their trading activity affects the prices for actual consumers of oil and gas and their downstream customers – or so it would seem.

When Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Treasury Department official, was nominated last year as chairman of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission – the chief regulator for energy futures trading – he reversed the CFTC party line that speculators don’t have an impact on energy trading.

“I believe that excessive speculation in commodity futures can cause sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in commodity prices,” Gensler said in a written response to lawmakers’ questions ahead of his nomination hearing.

Gensler went on to pledge that if confirmed, he would have the CFTC guard against such speculation.

While he stopped short of saying that excessive speculation had taken place in the run-up of energy prices in 2008, he did express the opinion that the rapid growth of commodity index funds and increased hedge fund allocation to commodity assets contributed to the “bubble in commodities prices that peaked in mid-2008.”

He noted that non-commercial investors sometimes account for up to 90% of open interest in a contract. (Open interest is a calculation of the number of active trades for a particular market, and is used as an indicator whether trading is becoming more or less active.)

Gensler’s answer, enshrined in draft legislation currently before Congress, is to make trades more visible by requiring all over-the-counter derivatives to trade through an approved clearing house. While the thrust of new legislation is to get a better handle on financial derivatives such as credit default swaps, it will give regulators a better picture of all derivatives trading, including energy contracts.

At the same time, the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission both are beefing up their ability to monitor hedge fund activity. The SEC for the first time will require hedge funds to register as investment advisors, and Gensler has pledged closer oversight of the funds that it supervises as commodity pool operators.

The industry, predictably, is pushing back. In congressional testimony on the new legislation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest futures exchange in the world, and other exchange operators presented studies based on CFTC data to show that large positions held by index funds and other managed money were not “routinely detrimental” to the commodity markets in the period January 2005 to June 2008.

“All of the trader groups displayed instances of non-optimal behavior (including small traders), but none were consistently harmful to the studied markets,” they said.

A task force of the International Organization of Securities Regulators (IOSCO) released a report last March that came to a similar conclusion.

“While reports reviewed by the task force concluded that fundamentals rather than speculative activity was the plausible explanation for price changes, the task force has made a number of recommendations to improve the transparency and supervision of these markets,” IOSCO said.

These included suggestions regarding information about the underlying commodities, access to and sharing of information about trading positions, beefing up enforcement powers, and improving global coordination.

The spectacular collapse of the Amaranth Advisors hedge fund in 2006 when it lost $6 billion on natural gas futures did pull back the veil on hedge fund activity in energy markets. Amaranth built up its huge position in natural gas futures through OTC contracts that exactly mirrored the contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange but remained hidden from regulators, who were unable to enforce position limits designed to rein in speculative trading.

In hearings about Amaranth before various House and Senate committees as well as at the CFTC itself, it became clear, at least to many lawmakers, that contracts on unregulated trading venues can influence prices.

The case was so straightforward that it prompted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to flex its new post-Enron mandate to stop manipulation of energy prices by pursuing disciplinary action against Amaranth.

This led to a turf war with the CFTC, which claimed exclusive jurisdiction over futures trading and argued that FERC’s mandate extended only to spot trading. FERC countered that when activity in the futures market affected spot prices, it was authorized to act.

Those proceedings ended in a joint settlement last August, before either CFTC or FERC held their administrative hearings and before an appellate court could decide the jurisdictional issue.

But the Amaranth case remains as a reminder of what a hedge fund can do in energy markets if these trades are not more transparent. Legislation bringing more visibility to the market and strengthening the hand of regulators will ensure that hedge fund activity in the energy markets will be more closely monitored and limited.

This article was written by Darrell Delamaide for OilPrice.com who focus on Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, Oil Prices and Geopolitics. To find out more visit their website at: http://www.oilprice.com

25 Anti Terrorism Stocks

It is sad that we now have to deal with terrorism on a regular basis. But fortunately, there are companies out there that are willing and able to find ways to offset and prevent terrorism. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up a list of 25 different anti terrorism companies which develop products and services in various areas of domestic security. Over 20 of these stocks have market caps over $250 million and eight of the stocks pay a dividend. Many of these stocks have already made a large move, but there still may be a long way to go for several of them.

As an example, Analogic (ALOG) is in the business of making and marketing security technology products, explosives detection systems, and weapon and threat detection aviation security systems, in addition to their medical imaging business. The stock has a market cap of $510 million, and a forward PE of 24. This debt free company has $12 in cash per share. The stock pays a yield of 1.00%.

FLIR Systems, Inc. (FLIR) is a provider of thermal imaging and infrared camera systems for force protection, counter terrorism, search and rescue, perimeter security, navigation safety, and law enforcement. The company has a market cap of $5 billion with a forward PE of 21. The company carries only $60 million in total debt with over $400 million in cash.

L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. (ID) is a bit more speculative as it just reported revenues and earnings below forecast. This provider of identity protection solutions has a market cap of $664 million, and unfortunately a very high forward PE of 104. On the plus side, the stock is selling below book value of 7.96 per share, at the time this article was written.

To see all 25 of the counter terrorism stocks, check out the free database at wsnn.com, which can be downloaded, changed, and added to.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

T. Boone Pickens Gets $42 Million for Claims Against Lehman Brothers

Bilionaire T. Boone Pickens, who made his money in oil and is now into natural gas and wind energy, sold claims he held against Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. He reportedly received $42 million.

What Google Suggests About Yahoo

Whenever you enter a few letters or words in the Google (GOOG) search box, it gives you a list of search suggestions. It is surprising that a very positive suggestion about Yahoo (YHOO) appears at the top of the list when doing a Yahoo related search. Try typing in 'Yahoo is'. You will see that the first item on the list is: 'Yahoo is better than Google'.

What are the Odds?

If you like interesting statistics, check out the following:

What are the odds that a new book published in a year will be about personal finance? 1 in 472.9

What are the odds that a non-cash charitable contribution reported on an itemized income tax return is an investment other than corporate stock or a mutual fund? 1 in 2,103

What are the odds that an employed person is a real estate sales agent? 1 in 823.9

What are the odds that a horse owner considers the horse to be property? 1 in 19.61

What are the odds a tourist in the US will visit New York City, New York? 1 in 52.98

What are the odds an adult overseas traveler to the US will visit New York City, New York? 1 in 3.13

What are the odds that an adult using a public restroom at Ferry Terminal Farmers Market in San Francisco was observed not washing his or her hands? 1 in 3.75

If you like more interesting and unusual statistical odds, check out bookofodds.com, which has a fascinating selection of all kinds of strange odds covering accidents, deaths, daily like, health, sickness, and relationships.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of January

Buy some dividends for yourself for the new year. The stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends' has generated a lot of interest from investors. 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.

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 free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. WSNN.com came up with many dividend paying companies companies all with market caps over $500 million. Here are a couple examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

LTC Properties, Inc. (LTC) ex div date: 1/19/10 market cap: $649.3M yield: 5.7%

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC ADR (ITYBY) ex div date: 1/20/10 market cap: $31.7B yield: 5.6%

Other 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 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

21st Century Style of Motion Picture Promotion

21st Century Style of Motion Picture Promotion

Years ago, the only way to promote an upcoming film would be to show previews in theaters, run ads in the newspaper, and commercials on TV. Now that we are in the 21st century, the scope of promotion has increased significantly.

Let's look at a movie that was recently completed, The Lovely Bones, which was sold to DreamWorks for $70 million in 2007, with Paramount Pictures handling worldwide distribution. Paramount, which is a subsidiary of Viacom (VIA-B), had a limited theater release on December 11, 2009; however, the official release is scheduled for January 15, 2010.

Promotion of the movie is challenging, primarily because it is difficult to describe the unusual plot. It's not a mystery, fantasy, thriller or other standard genre, but it does have bits and pieces of various genres. The story is based on a book written by the award-winning and best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, which was published in 2002.

The plot is about a 14 year old girl who is murdered by a neighbor who happens to be a serial killer. The victim observes the killer and her family from a heaven-like place called the 'in-between'. She must determine whether to take revenge versus the healing of her family over the tragedy.

Paramount reportedly spent $85 million in worldwide marketing and distribution. Some of the marketing techniques that Paramount used included everything from Internet advertising to web based contests offering a trip to New Zealand to showing film clips at the Comic-con to soliciting articles from blog writers and online article writers. The Comic-con is an annual convention that features comics, fantasy, science fiction, toys, games, and motion pictures. Peter Jackson (of The Lord of the Rings fame), who directed, produced, and co-wrote The Lovely Bones script, gave a presentation at the latest Comic-con in San Diego, showing a four-and-a-half minute clip.

In August, an online contest was held with contestants placing their entries at a web site, with the winner receiving a free trip to Wellington, New Zealand, to see a special premiere of the film in December.

YouTube has turned out to be a great promotional venue for the movie. Type 'The Lovely Bones' in the YouTube search box and you get over 1600 results, including movie trailers, reviews, actor interviews, news items on the premieres, and even the movie music.

Investors who like fantasy trading can speculate on the box office gross receipts of the movie at CantorExchange.com, and if you think Peter Jackson may receive an Oscar, you can buy one of the Hollywood Stock Exchange Derivatives for Best Director at hsx.com.

Paramount has several other pictures in the hopper besides The Lovely Bones, including Shutter Island, How to Train Your Dragon, and Iron Man 2. Viacom, which is the conglomerate that owns Paramount, has a reasonable price-to-earnings ratio of 16.6, and turned in a 15.5% increase in earnings for the latest reported quarter. The stock has performed fairly well, up over 50% during the last twelve months.

Author did not own VIA-B at the time of publication.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Quitting Smoking May Cause Diabetes

According to new research in an Annals of Internal Medicine study at Johns Hopkins, giving up smoking may cause diabetes.

Copper Strike at World's Largest Copper Mine

On Monday, a strike began at Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile. The mine is owned by Codelco, the largest miner of copper in the world. Copper has already reached a high for the last 16 months.

Claim that Facebook Causes 12.5% Drop in Productivity

According to Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India, Facebook and other online networking sites are costing India companies as much as 12.5% in productivity, with almost half of all employees using Facebook during work hours. Microsoft (MSFT) owns a small portion of Facebook in the form of preferred shares.

Venture Capital and Tech Moving into Zimbabwe

Maybe Harare, Zimbabwe will be the new Bangalore, India. A venture capital firm, Broadhorn Capital, has already invested in two technology companies in Zimbabwe. Now that the country has its inflation under control, its looking more and more favorable as a place to invest. No more $100 trillion bills.

Apple Stock MacWorld Expo Convention Correlation

I first started writing about the MacWorld Expo Apple (AAPL) Stock correlation back in January 14, 2007, in an article called the 'MacWorld Expo Apple Stock Price Indicator' which I have been following for years. This is the stock trend which has historically shown that the price of Apple Computer (AAPL) stock increases as the San Francisco MacWorld Expo convention approaches. My previous articles described how in the previous five out of the last six years, Apple Computer stock has increased by at least 8% and as much as 37%, measured from November 15 to the last day of the Expo.

The causes of this are several, and include strong year-end sales of Apple products from holiday shopping, anticipation and release of new products to be released at previous Expos, and the heavy promotion of the MacWorld Expo which is in effect an indirect stock promotion.

The following table shows the results since 2001. A few notes about this analysis. For the 2008 Expo, the stock was down slightly, although on January 15 at the beginning of the conference, the stock closed higher than the previous November 15 date. This just looks at the 'effect' of the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, not New York or Boston. If a date fell on a weekend, it was moved to the next business day to determine pricing. All prices were adjusted for splits and all returns rounded to the nearest percent.

11/15/2001 ...... 9.73 ..... 1/11/2002 ..... 10.52 ....... 8%
11/15/2002 ...... 7.97 ..... 1/10/2003 ...... 7.36 ...... -8%
11/15/2003 ..... 10.56 ...... 1/8/2004 ..... 11.50 ....... 9%
11/15/2004 ..... 27.62 ..... 1/14/2005 ..... 35.10 ..... 27%
11/15/2005 ..... 62.28 ..... 1/13/2006 ..... 85.59 ..... 37%
11/15/2006 ..... 84.05 ..... 1/12/2007 ..... 94.62 ..... 13%
11/15/2007 .....164.30 ..... 1/18/2008 ..... 161.36 ... -1.8%
11/17/2008* .....88.14 ..... 1/9/2009 ...... 90.58 ..... 2.8%
11/15/2009 .....194.17 ..... 1/4/2010 ..... 214.01 ... 10.2% (so far)
Average Return .................................................. 10.8%

*11/15/08 fell on a Saturday. The following Monday as used.

This year, the MacWorld Expo won't be held until the second week of February. Since the rumors are flying about the new Apple products that are going to be announced at the Expo, there may be more upside potential.

By the way, Apple was one of my screaming buys back in 2006.

If you like interesting correlations, you should check out Correlation Between the Stock Market and Sun Spots, Chocolate Chip Cookies versus the Stock Market, Gasoline at the Pump versus S&P 500, and the Hurricane & Stock Market Indicator.

Author owns AAPL. Keep in mind that past performance is not a guarantee of future results. No recommendation is expressed or implied.


By Stockerblog.com

New Years Resolutions Stocks

Now that we are in a new year and a new decade, Americans are making their New Years resolutions, everything from losing weight to getting a new job to exercising more. Fortunately, there are many publicly traded companies that are available to fill these needs.

For example Weight Watcher's International Inc. (WTW), founded in 1963, is one of the oldest weight loss companies. The stock has a forward PE of 10.4, and pays a fairly generous yield, at least compared to other New Years stocks, of 2.4%. The company just declared another dividend of 17.5 cents per share, and went ex dividend on December 31, with a payable date of January 15.

Another company that has a lot of weight loss customers around the world is Herbalife Ltd. (HLF). The company, which also provides nutritional supplement and personal care products, has a forward PE of 11, with a yield of 2%.

For those that want to exercise more this year, you first need to have the right clothing. Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) is a Vancouver, Canada based company that produces and markets fitness related apparel for yoga, running, dancing, and other exercise related activities. The stock has a forward PE of 32.4, which is a bit on the high side compared to its competitors.

Once you have the clothes, you can join the health club. Life Time Fitness Inc. (LTM) operates sports, athletic, and fitness centers. The stock has a forward PE of 12.7.

Once you have your weight and health under control, maybe you want to look for a new and better job. Robert Half International Inc. (RHI) is the Menlo Park, California based provider of temporary and permanent staffing around the world. The stock has a very high PE of 65.2, but does pay a yield of 1.8%.

Last but not least, if you are single, maybe now is the time to start looking for a mate. IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI) owns two of the largest online dating services, Match.com and Chemistry.com. The stock has a forward PE of 28.9.

If you want to see a free downloadable Excel databased of a dozen New Years Resolution stocks, half of which pay dividends, check out WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

10 Preferred Stocks Yielding Over 10%

Preferred stocks have several advantages over common stocks. If the company goes out of business, the preferred shareholders get paid off before the common shareholders. Preferreds pay a steady income. They are usually less volatile than the common stock. However, they don't participate in the growth of the company in the way the common stock does, unless it is a convertible preferred.

Preferreds can be a safer way to speculate on the recovery of a company. If the preferred stock has been knocked down because of the negative earnings of the company, as long as the dividends are still paid regularly and the company eventually recovers, the return can be fairly substantial. Plus, if the business does go belly up, you may still recover your investment, whereas the common shareholders may get little or nothing.

WallStreetNewsNetwork.com turned up a list of ten preferred stocks (and minibonds), all yielding over 10%, and all of which have kept their dividends up to date, as of the latest quarter. Most made payments in November and December of 2009. This does not guarantee that they will continue to make a payment three months from now, but if the economy and the company's business continues in an upward recovery mode, then you may receive not only your dividend but appreciation in the preferred stock price. Minibonds, which are bonds issued in very small denominations such as $25, were also included in this list due to their similarity with preferreds.

One example is the American International Group Preferred F shares ( AVF), which have a healthy yield of 12.4%. This preferred has been paying 48.1 cents per share every quarter. Assuming the US government doesn't let them go out of business, the dividend should be OK, but of course, that's a big assumption.

Supertel Hospitality Inc Preferred P (SPPRP) is another high yielder. This preferred of the Supertel real estate investment trust, pays 6.7 cents every month, generating a yield of 10.5%. The company operates limited service hotels such as Super 8, Comfort Inn/Comfort Suites, Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western Suites, Days Inn, and Ramada.

To see other high yield preferreds yielding above 10%, some as much as 28.3% and still paying, check out the free database at wsnn.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com