Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of October

 Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

-->

Darden Restaurants	DRI	10/8/2013	4.8%
General Mills	GIS	10/8/2013	3.1%
UDR Inc.	UDR	10/8/2013	4.0%
Verizon	VZ	10/8/2013	4.5%
WGL Holdings	WGL	10/8/2013	3.9%
AuRico Gold Inc	AUQ	10/9/2013	4.1%
Bezant Resources plc	BZT	10/9/2013	6.3%
Duke Energy Corporation H	DUKH	10/9/2013	6.2%
General Electric Company	GEB	10/9/2013	5.7%

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
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.


By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the First Week of October

 Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

-->

Kimco Realty Corp	KIM	10/1/2013	4.2%
RAIT Financial Trust	RAS	10/1/2013	8.5%
Toronto-Dominion Bank	TD	10/1/2013	3.8%
Brandywine Realty	BDN	10/2/2013	4.5%
Saul Centers, Inc. Depos. Shrs	BFS-C	10/2/2013	3.5%
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	10/2/2013	3.0%
Chimera Investment Corporation	CIM	10/2/2013	11.8%

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
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.

By Stockerblog.com

Famous Apple Computer Garage of Steve Jobs Becoming Historical Landmark

Many major Silicon Valley companies were started in garages. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started up Hewlett Packard (HPQ) in a Palo Alto, California one-car garage. When Google (GOOG) was incorporated, the company was located in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California. She was a friend of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. And of course, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's Apple (AAPL) was founded in the garage of the parents of Jobs.

Now this famous garage, and the house it is connected to, is under review by the City of Los Altos in California to become a historical landmark. The house, which is located at 2066 Crist Drive, is the house that Jobs grew up in.

The Los Altos Planning Commission reviewed the 26 page Historic Property Evaluation on September 23. According to the evaluation, the property should be considered to be in a historical context because it is the birthplace of Apple computers. As a reference, it gave the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

The evaluation stated:

"The subject property is associated with the development of the first Apple computers in Silicon Valley. ... the very first 50 Apple 1 computers were assembled for Paul Terrell's Byte Shop by Steve Jobs, Patricia Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Daniel Kottke, and Elizabeth Holmes and then sold for $500 from the said property 2066 Crist Drive."

and it also mentioned that the original owners of the property were Paul and Clara Jobs, the foster parents of Steve Jobs.

If you want to see a picture of the first Apple computer (basically just a motherboard) and a copy of the original Apple Computer Partnership Agreement, you should take a look at the 26 page document, with can be found at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com as one of the files in its repository. The document also has an early photograph, a copy of the withdrawal from the partnership of Ronald Wayne, and much more.

You can get the document at the following location:

 Steve Jobs House at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of September

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

Republic Services	RSG	9/27/2013	3.1%
Stifel Financial Corp	SFB	9/27/2013	6.4%
Federal Agricultural Mortgage	AGM-A	9/30/2013	4.7%
Corrections Corp of Amercia	CXW	9/30/2013	5.6%

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
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.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Turn a $100 Bill into Thousands Without Even Trying

Recently there have been attention grabbing articles in the news about making money off hundred dollar bills. The Boston Globe published an article called For serial-number hunters, $100 isn’t just $100 and on Yahoo! Finance, New $100 Bills Worth up to $15,000. So what's the catch?

The key is the serial number that appears on the bill. If the serial number is a low number like 00000008, a solid set of numbers like 77777777, or a repeating number like 23232323, or repeaters which are two sets of identical four numbers like 87128712, or a radar number which reads the same forwards or backwards like 43900934, then the note has a value. Bills such as these can have significant value many times the face value.

One thing to keep in mind is the condition of the bill. Don't write on it as it can cause a significant drop in value. As an example, there are a couple of $1 radar notes offered on eBay (EBAY), one in superb condition with a starting bid of $9. The other one was unfortunately stamped with a Where's George stamp in circulated condition, and is currently bidding for $4.99, a tenth of the value.

When you receive a $100 bill from your bank, or for that matter, any currency, even a one dollar bill, check the serial number. If you find a good one, don't fold it or let it get wrinkled. There are plenty of currency and banknote dealers that may be willing to buy it or you can sell it on eBay.

How to Buy Stocks Putting Up Only 1% (No it's not the futures market, it's stocks)

Generally when you invest in stocks on margin, you normally have to put up 50% of the value of the stock, and you have a maintenance requirement of 30%. However, how would you like to have a margin requirement of only 1%, yes one percent! Think of the leverage you would have. Risks? I'll talk about risks in a minute.

This has nothing to do with the futures market, it is entirely legal, and it is offered by a major US investment brokerage firm.  Here are the details.

TDAmeritrade has now come up with something called Portfolio Margin for certain clients, which looks at the whole portfolio instead of individual stocks and options. Let's look at how this would work. This example is similar to what was shown in a write-up in an email flyer from TDAmeritrade.

Let's say you own 100 shares of a $100 stock for a total of $10,000 and a put on that stock with a strike price of 100 and a cost of 1 (or $100). Initially, you would put up $5,100. To maintain the position, you would need to have $3,000 or 30%. However, under this new Portfolio Margin Requirement, the maintenance amount would only be $100.

But wait a minute, you might say; what about the risk to both you and the brokerage firm? In actuality, your total risk is only $100. Let's examine what would happen in three scenarios.

The stock drops to $80 a share. You lose $2000 on the stock but make $2000 on the put (actually a profit of $1900 on the put for a net loss of only $100)

The stock does nothing. You make nothing on the stock and lose $100 on the put, for a net loss of only $100.

The stock goes to $120. You make $2000 on the stock, and lose $100 on the put, for a net profit of $1900.

So there you have it. Maximum total loss of only $100 and unlimited upside potential. This frees up a lot of cash in your portfolio and provides you with a huge amount of leverage.

I see only one major risk with the Portfolio Margin program from TDAmeritrade. If the put is very close to expiration, and you haven't made provisions to roll it over, and something happens to you where you are incapacitated and unable to access your account prior to the put expiring, you could have some major problems. Also, keep in mind that the higher the leverage, the more margin interest you would have to pay.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Buy Stocks Without Paying a Commission: 10 Different Ways

Back in the old days, commissions were pretty substantial. Some brokerage firms had minimum commissions of $35 per trade and some were much higher. And if you bought a low priced stock, you really got screwed.

I remember back when I was a stockbroker before the discount traders came along, if a client bought 10 shares of a $100 stock, they would 'only' pay $35, in other words 3.5%. However, for that same $1,000, if the client bought 1000 shares of a $1 stock, the commission would be a whopping $100 or 10%. (We really enjoyed those trades when they came in, but we couldn't solicit them.)

Now, even paying $7.99, $8.99, or $9.99 per trade, which is a huge savings over the historical commissions, the costs can still add up. Let's use $10 per trade to make it simple. If you do two trades a day, that's $400 a month that you have to earn in your account just to break even.

But there are various ways of buying stocks without paying a commission. Many of these techniques are more appropriate for the longer term investor as opposed to the trader. Here they are:

1. IPOs

Whether you call them Initial Public Offerings, IPOs or New Issues, they are basically shares of stock that are sold to the public for the first time. When these shares are issued, there is no added commission. The trick is to be able to get shares from your broker for hot issues. I have some friends (with accounts in the $100,000 and up range) that have been able to get shares of popular IPOs but usually in amounts ranging from 100 shares to 400 shares, and sometimes as low as 10 shares.

2. Secondary Offerings
Secondary offerings are shares that are issued by a company that is already publicly traded. These could be shares being sold by large investors or institutions or they could be newly issued shares where the cash goes right to the company, or a combination of both. A company could issue new shares several different times but it would still be referred to as a secondary offering. Usually the shares are priced at around the closing price of the stock, but sometimes slightly lower or higher. In any case, there is no added commission to purchase the shares.

3. ETFs
Several online brokers, including Vanguard, Fidelity, and TDAmeritrade, will allow you to trade ETFs with no commissions. However, there are generally restrictions on trading these, usually relating to holding periods.

4. No Load Mutual Funds
If you are considering investing in a mutual fund, pick a no load fund. There are thousands of mutual funds to choose from, covering every sector, every industry, every index, and every style of investing. Why pay loads of 3% to 8% when you can get a no load? 

5. Dividend Reinvestments (DRIPs)
 Dividend Reinvestment Plans are arrangements whereby the dividends from an income producing stock are automatically reinvested back into shares of the same company. On almost all of these plans, the dividends are reinvested free of fees and commissions. If you need a list of these companies that offer these plans, you can check out The Moneypaper's DirectInvestment.com and DRIPInvestor.

6. Direct Stock Purchase Plans (DPPs or DSPPs)
For smaller investors investing money on a long term basis, Direct Purchase Plans, also know as Direct Stock Purchase Plans, may be worth looking into. Basically, the plan allows you to invest almost any amount of money into a stock without any fee or commission in many cases. I'm talking about lesser known stocks and major stocks; companies such as Abbott Labs (ABT), American Electric Power (AEP), Exxon Mobile (XOM), and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ). Let's use Exxon Mobil as an example. You can invest as little as $50 each time or as much as $250,000. Suppose you just want to invest $50 in the stock every few months. Using a Direct Purchase Plan, there would be no commission. If you did it through an online broker and paid a $10 commission, it would work out to 20% of your investment, and that's assuming your broker would even allow you to buy a partial share.
There is a small catch, however. In order to take advantage of most of these plans, you must own at least one share of the stock to begin with (which happens to be what the requirement is for Exxon Mobil). The Moneypaper, described in the previous section, has a service that allows you to buy an initial share or shares to get you started.

7. Special Offers from Online Brokers
Keep an eye out for special offers from online brokers. I try to cover them when I see them. For example, both TDAmeritrade (unlimited trading for 60 days) and E*Trade (500 free trades) are offering commission-free specials.

8. Stocks Sold Out of Inventory or from a Market Maker
This is an option that used to be available from smaller brokerage firms which would buy shares of over-the-counter stocks into inventory or would be market makers in the stocks. Often they would be able to sell the shares at what would be a 'net' price, in other words, without an added commission. These shares would often be local bank stocks that were not widely traded. So for example, if XYZ Bank was trading at 9 bid, 10 asked, you could buy the shares from the firm without paying a commission at 10 per share. However, if you bought the shares from another brokerage firm, you would pay 10 per share plus commission. I'm not sure if these deals are still available but if you work with a smaller brokerage firm, you could check with them.

9. Merrill Edge
Merrill Edge is offering 30 free online trades per month, including equity and ETF trades. The catch is that you have to have a balance of $25,000 in your Bank of America deposit accounts, or have $25,000 in cash in your Merrill Edge self-directed accounts, or maintain Platinum Privileges status.

10. Reimbursements from Brokerage Firm
If your online broker makes a mistake or if their service is down for a while, preventing you from trading, ask for some free trades as compensation. I recently had an issue with a broker where I placed an order through their phone app to sell out of my position and it ended up selling a security in my account that I didn't even own. All I did was click on the position, clicked Close, left it on Market Order, and clicked Submit. I caught it right away, called them, they corrected the order and they even offered me five commission-free trades as compensation.

11. Running Ads to Buy Stocks [Bonus Technique]
I know the title said '10 Ways' but I thought I would include this bonus technique because it is an interesting one. Let me start out by saying that before you even consider this, talk it over with an attorney, as there may be some SEC issues involved. Basically, this involves advertising to buy shares of stock in certificate form from other investors. I know of an individual who did this by advertising in certain classified ads, and a small company that did this using postcard mailers.
The hook for the sellers to the individual was that he would buy stock in quantities as few as one share at the closing price on a mutually determined day, and the seller wouldn't have to pay a commission. For a five or ten dollar stock, it was a great deal.  He told me that he made a lot of purchases from people who bought one or a few shares for a dividend reinvestment and/or direct purchase plan that they had started years earlier that they gave up on.
The hook for the sellers to the organization was that they would buy shares of stock in certificate form that were no longer trading in order to allow the sellers to establish a tax loss. This organization would charge a 'small fee' to handle the transaction, which would be more than the purchase price for the shares. In other words, they would pay a penny a share for 100 shares or one dollar, and charge a $20 fee, making $19 on the deal.

When you look at all these different ways, you may just decide that it is much easier and simpler to just pay the ten buck commission to buy the stock.

By Stockerblog.com

TD Ameritrade is Offering Commission-Free Trading

If you are looking for a way to get free trades, you can get 60 days of no commission trading with TDAmeritrade (AMTD). And if you put $25,000 into your account, they will throw in an additional $100. If you invest more, they will give you up to $600.

Going To Be in NYC in the Next Couple Months? Check Out the Museum of American Finance

Next time you visit New York City, or even if you live in New York City, you should check out the Museum of American Finance, located in the Wall Street area at 48 Wall Street. The museum itself is fascinating with great historical information about the stock market, plus it holds lots of events.

Here is what is upcoming:

Walking Tour: Women of Wall Street
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - 11:00 AM
Discover the female power brokers who have shaped the history of Wall Street in this 90-minute walking tour of the Financial District.

Wall Street Coin, Currency and Collectibles Show
Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 12:00 PM
The annual Wall Street Coin, Currency and Collectibles Show(formerly the Wall Street Bourse) will take place at the Museum from October 17 through 19, 2013. Admission to the Museum is FREE throughout the event.

Consuelo Mack WealthTrack Taping with Live Audience
Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 05:15 PM
Join us for a taping of public television's "Consuelo Mack WealthTrack," followed by audience Q&A. This event is free, but space is limited.

The Role of Natural Gas in America's Energy and Economic Future
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - 05:30 PM
Co-presented by the Museum of American Finance and the Sierra Club and moderated by Theodore Roosevelt IV, this event promises to be a rich discussion on the role of natural gas in America’s energy future. We will look at the many arguments for and against natural gas fracking and production, distribution and usage, as well as the implications of fracking on our economic future, public health, environment and the climate.

Annual Great Crashes Walking Tour
Saturday, November 2, 2013 - 01:00 PM
Relive the Great Crash of 1929 on the Museum's annual crash-themed walking tour of Lower Manhattan.

For more information, go to MOAF.

Will Halloween Help Chocolate and Candy Stocks?

In about a month, trick-or-treaters will be knocking on your door, asking for candy. Stores will be stocked with confectionery offerings, everything from M&M's to Snickers Bars, to Starbursts to Chocolate Hershey Kisses. A dentist's delight! Well, from a health standpoint, all candy isn't all bad. Chocolate has plenty of health benefits. So can these candy and chocolate companies benefit your stock portfolio?

WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has a free list of candy and chocolate companies, with a listing of a dozen stocks. Hershey Foods (HSY) is the large chocolate and confectionery company which is known for its Hershey Bars and Kisses. The stock sports a trailing price to earnings ratio of 29, and a forward P/E ratio of 23. The stock provide a favorable yield of 2.1%. Latest quarterly earnings were reported up 17.6% on a 6.7% boost in revenues.

Tootsie Roll Industries (TR) is a producer of many types 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 trades at 36 times earnings and pays a yield of 1.0%. Although quarterly revenues were down slightly, earnings rose by 11.4%.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF) is a confectionery manufacturer based in Durango, Colorado. The company makes such candies as clusters, caramels, creams, mints, and truffles. The stock trades at 48 times trailing earnings and 16 times forward earnings. The yield is a substantial 3.5%. Earnings spiked 11% on a boost of 5.4% in sales.

More candy and chocolate stock can be found at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which also includes the stock symbol, the P/E ratio, the yield, and the products.



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

By Stockerblog.com

Welcome to the New Appearance for Stockerblog.com

This is the first post with the new interface for Stockerblog.com. No more folksy style with the parchment-like background. The following is a screen shot of the old one.

Several readers mentioned that the old style was hard to read so I have updated it with a more modern professional appearance, and lots of additional features, such as business news, a list of the most popular recent posts, a list of interesting links, and for our viewers outside the US, a translation button.

Hope you like it and if you have suggestions for improvement, let us know.

Stocks that Own the Highest Priced Domain Names

A domain name, or domain for short, is what you type in the web address bar at the top of your web browser. It is usually what comes after the "http://". For example, WallStreetNewsNetwork.com is a domain name. The interesting thing about these domains, is that they can be very valuable. If you had registered some of the one word domains many years ago, you could sell them for very high prices.

Many large publicly traded corporations understand this and have been willing to pay extremely large amounts for certain domains. The following is a list of the highest priced domain names and the names of the stocks that purchased them, along with the purchase price:

fb.com Facebook (FB) $8.5 million
loans.com Bank of America (BAC) $3 million
social.com Salesforce.com (CRM) $2.6 million
mortgage.com Citigroup (C) $1.8 million
fly.com Travelzoo (TZOO) $1.5 million
vista.com Vista Print (VPRT) $1.25 million
mercury.com Hewlett Packard (HPQ) $1.1 million
sky.com British Sky Broadcasting (BSYBF) $1 million
o.co Overstock.co (OSTK) $350 thousand

Also, don't forget to check out:

Stocks that Own the Shortest Domain Names: One Letter Long

Sales data came from Domaining.com

The Latest Penny Stock Promotion: This One is Scary!!!

Every day, I receive dozens of spam emails in some of my varied email accounts. They are usually promoting some stock that trades anywhere from a penny to a dollar, and sometimes even less than a penny!

They all seem to have the same style, and similar headline like "This one is on the move" or "This stock will make you rich." Most (if not all) of these seem to be pump-and-dump schemes.
However, I just received a new one today, that kind of scares me. Check it out. The subject line in the email is:

My new pick could literally DOUBLE YOUR MONEY OR MORE!  
OK, now read the content of the message:

Apple (Nasdaq:A-A-P-L) has shown its latter-day iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, which have not affected the investors. Nevertheless, we got to hear about a secret newly-designed product, which is developed in Cupertino (the Headquarter of Apple). Everyone will have interest in this newcomer (throughout a year, it will be put in use by all the people). Today, it's high time to get hold of the Apple's stocks. These securities will go up in price very soon.

Has Apple (AAPL) fallen to the level (figuratively) of a penny stock and a pump-and-dump?

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL.

Top Stocks of Spain - Las mejores acciones de España

According to a recent article in the New York Times, the recession in Spain should end before year end. Luis de Guindos, the economic minister, also said that the country's budget deficit target for 2013 should be achieved. Although Spains's unemployment rate was 27% recently, it is predicted to be substantially less in 2014, along with improved economic growth.

Investors who are looking for a way to invest in Spain's recovery have a few options available. First, there is the iShares MSCI Spain Capped Index (EWP), an exchange traded fund that trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and has a goal of tracking the MSCI Spain 25/50 Index. The ETF ha a trailing price to earnings ratio of 13, and pays a favorable yield of 4.1%. Over the last couple years, EWP was up less than 10%, whereas the S&P 500 was up over 40%. Maybe its time for this ETF to move, as it seems to have a resistance level this year at around 33, which it has just broken above, closing at 34.80 today.

Other ways to invest are through individual stocks of companies based in Spain.

WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up a list of a dozen stocks of companies based in Spain but traded in the United States. One example is Banco Santander (SAN), the largest bank in the Eurozone and one of the largest banks in the world. The company has branches in Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Portugal, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Poland, the United States, and other countries. The stock trades at 24.5 times trailing earnings and 13 times forward earnings. Earnings spiked 760.7% for the latest quarter on a 49.8% rise in revenues. Dividends which are paid quarterly, provide investors with an annual yield of 8%.

Another Spanish company is Grifols (GRFS), which is a multinational pharmaceutical company that produces blood plasma based products. The stock, which trades on NASDAQ, has a fairly high P/E ratio of 54.9. However, earnings for the latest quarter were up 39.2% on a 7.3% increase in revenues. The company even pays a dividend, and based on what has been paid out this year, works out to around 2.6%.

Information about some of the other Spain stocks, such as P/E ratio, yield, and business, can be found on the free list a WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Maybe now is time to take a closer look at the country of Spain and its stocks.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time it was written. 
 
By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of September

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

Campus Crest Communities (CCG) 9/23/2013 6.2%
Portland General Electric (POR) 9/23/2013 3.8%
Cypress Semiconductor (CY) 9/24/2013 3.8%
Getty Realty Corp (GTY) 9/24/2013 4.2%
Superior Industries (SUP) 9/25/2013 3.6%
B&G Foods (BGS) 9/26/2013 3.7%
Centex Corp. (CTX) 9/26/2013 7.2%

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
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.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Get Free Movies, Free Kindle Library Access, and Free Shipping from Amazon for FREE

If you are a regular shopper at Amazon, you are probably familiar with the Free Super Saver Shipping option. The disadvantage of that option is that it can take up to eight business days, and that's after all of your items are available to ship. In addition, you need to order at least $25 worth of items. I've had times when I've had an order totaling $23 or $24, and had to come up with something else, in order to get the free shipping.
Well now you have another option. You have also heard about Amazon Prime, which allows you to have these benefits, but you weren't sure if it was worth it. Well how would you like to have Amazon Prime for Free?
Amazon is offering this special for a limited time so sign up now. It allows you free access to Amazon Prime for 30 days. Here's what you get:
* More than 40,000 movies and TV episodes
* Kindle Owners' Lending Library to borrow Kindle books
* FREE two-day shipping, no minimum order size, as many times as you want in the 30 day period
If you want more details, click on the following link:
Amazon Prime for Free
If you want to sign up now (the offer is only for a limited time), chick here:
Amazon Prime for Free



Join Amazon Prime - Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of September

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

Cincinnati Financial (CINF) 9/16/2013 3.6%

Gladstone Investment (GAIN) 9/16/2013 8.5%

Gladstone Commercial (GOOD) 9/16/2013 8.4%

Navios Maritime (NM) 9/16/2013 3.6%

Safeway (SWY) 9/17/2013 3.1%

Xcel Energy (XEL) 9/17/2013 4.0%

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

Dividend definitions:

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

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

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

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

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded
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.

By Stockerblog.com

From a Personal Financial Blog to Selling Out for Millions: How He Did It

This interview is reprinted courtesy of StartupAlmanac.com.

Readers who are interested in starting up their own blog should pay attention. The following interview was graciously provided by Jim Wang, founder of Bargaineering.com which he started initially to keep track of financial information for himself and eventually ended up selling the blog for millions, according to SEC filings. He now shows others how to be successful bloggers through his latest blog, Microblogger.com.

1. What made you decide to write your Bargaineering blog in the first place and when was your first post?

I just started working my first job after graduating college and I felt like I needed a better understanding of personal finance. It was about the time Wordpress was getting popular and so I felt like I could use it to keep an online journal of everything I learned. My first post was in January of 2005 and my goals with the site were to write down the things that I learned as I was learning them - a riff on the idea that you truly understand a subject if you're able to teach it.

2. How was your Bargaineering blog '"hosted"? Blogger? Wordpress? How did you make that decision?

It was a self-hosted Wordpress installation, I think that's the best option that gives you the most flexibility. Blogger and hosted platforms are convenient but I prefer having complete control, even if it means a little more work. Also, there are some sexy plugins that really provide a lot of extra functionality.

3. How many articles did you write each month and how much time did you spend writing each article?

At the peak I was writing three a day on every weekday with just one "Your Take" type of community conversation post on Friday. I probably spent an hour or so on each post. I type quickly. :)

4. Did you ever use "ghostwriters" for your articles? If so, how did you find them and how costly were they?

I never used ghostwriters. Around the time I sold the site, I hired a few freelancers who write articles but never hired ghostwriters. I wanted the freelancers to provide a different voice, give the site more breadth, but I feel like my name should only go on my own writing.

5. In the last couple years, I noticed that there have been several other writers for your blog. When and how did that begin?

I sought them out for a different voice. Interestingly enough they have all been women, which was inadvertent, but it makes sense - it's a different voice and perspective.

6. Would you say that Bargaineering has a target audience, and did you have a target audience in mind when you first started blogging? I never set out with a target market in mind but I always wrote about subjects that interested me. So by default my target demographic was young professional and slowly morphed to not as young and starting a family, buying a house, etc.

7. As a follow-up to that question, how did you decide what to write about for each new article?

It matched what I was interested in so it's hard to distill how I decided what I'd write about. Sometimes I would do some research on why subjects were popular but with 3 articles a day, I relied on my gut.

8. When did you start having ads on your blog and how did you determine what type of ads you should run?

I started putting them on early, probably earlier than I needed to, but I was just learning the space and trying everything at least once. I used Adsense.

9. Talk about the logo. Did you design it, or did you have someone else create it, and how important do you think a unique logo is?

The cartoon logo didn't appear for several years and I hired a cartoonist to make it, with my vision in mind. I think a logo is important for branding purposes but the site was successful before we had a logo (before the logo it was just text that said Bargaineering).

10. How about pictures? Do you think they are necessary for every blog post? Did you buy them, get free ones, or take your own?

I like pictures because they catch the eye. Walls of text are difficult for me to read and just having a picture at the top can really make a post stand out. I used Flickr and images that are allowed on commercial sites.

11. Now, a couple of questions about blog management. Are you concerned about losing viewers by having several outbound links in your articles that direct readers to other websites?

Not at all, I link to resources that add value to the article and I'm not stingy about linking out. Readers aren't prisoners, they can always leave by closing the browser.

12. How do you deal with spam comments, such as the ones that say "You have such a wonderful blog and check out my website at ….com"?

Mark as spam and move on, usually Akismet catches those value-less comments so I rarely have to deal with it.

13. Can you give us an idea of your growth of visitors over the years?

At the site's peak it was serving 600,000+ unique visitors a month and that was approximately 5 years into the site's existence.

14. In regards to the sale of your blog, did you approach them or did they approach you?

I worked with an investment bank to seek out potential buyers but there were a lot of companies poking around in the space. Before Bargaineering, several blogs had been acquired by several businesses.

15. Is there anything else you are allowed to say or feel comfortable about saying about the sale of Bargaineering.com, other than what readers can see in SEC filings?

I'm afraid I can't go into those details.

16. Tell us a little about your latest blog, Microblogger.com, what it covers and what your goals are for it.

I spent 8.5 years building Bargaineering and in that time I've learned a lot. I've also met a ton of great people and I often answer the same questions about blogging, how to grow a site, how to generate income, how to this, that, and the other thing. I thought it would be fun to build a resource for bloggers that would answer those questions, and more, while still being a creative outlet for me. More importantly, I think there's value in another blog about blogging, especially when it's written by someone who has had a successful exit. My goal is to have fun, help people, and earn some income if that's in the cards.

Thank you Jim for your time and your willingness to provide this enlightening information to potential and current bloggers.

No investment recommendation nor any investment promotion is expressed or implied by either the publisher, the interviewer, the interviewee, or any of the above mentioned websites.

How to Make 150% Profit on Your Money in 10 Days

How would you like to earn a return of 150% on your money in only ten business days, guaranteed by a United States bank? Seems like there is a catch but there really isn't. There are just a few restrictions.

Here's the deal. Get your Chase Total Checking account coupon code here. Then open a Chase checking account with $100 and submit the coupon when opening the account. The only additional requirement is that you have to have direct deposit set up within 60 days.

The one big restriction is that if you already have a Chase account, you aren't eligible. Plus, you can't close the account within six months. Also, the bonus is treated as taxable interest.

Don't waste time; the deal ends October 5.

Thanks to David Bakke at MoneyCrashers for finding this offer.

Where You Can Buy Municipal Bonds Online

Municipal bonds are debt obligations issued by states, counties, cities, and other governmental agencies. The primary advantage to investing in municipal bonds is the tax free interest. The interest is exempt from Federal taxes and if you live in the state in which the bonds were issued, the interest is exempt from state taxes also (with a few states that are exceptions). Plus, any muni bonds issued by the Governments of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands, or bonds issued after October 16, 2004 by American Samoa are also exempt from all state income taxes, according to Federal law. If you live in New York City and own New York State bonds, the interest is exempt from city, state, and Federal income taxes .

The following companies allow you to view their municipal bond offerings online without having to log in or even open an account, until you are ready to buy.

ZionsDirect

FMSbonds

Fidelity

Stoever Glass

A great resource for information about municipal bonds is MunicipalBonds.com, which includes a lookup by CUSIP number.

Will the Robot Takeover of the World Benefit Robotics Stocks?

If you are watching 60 Minutes this evening, you would have seen the initial segment on robots in the business world. Although much of the focus was on the loss of American jobs due to the increased utilization of robotics in industry, it was pointed out that robots are eliminating the use of overseas workers. One company mentioned that by buying a robot, based on the robot's life span, it works out to about three and a half dollars an hour. (Of course, companies don't have to provide medical insurance or any other benefits for their robots.)
If you want to invest in robotics stocks, the simple way would be to go with the Robot ETF. But if you want to pick and choose your robot stocks, you have a wide variety to choose from, including flying drone and 3D printer companies.
iRobot (IRBT) is one of the pure plays in the robot industry. This Bedford, Massachusetts company, which trades on NASDAQ, produces the Roomba vacuum cleaner, the PackBot police and military robots, medical robots, and underwater research robots. The stock trades at 37 times trailing earnings and 31 times forward earnings. Latest quarterly earnings were up 12.5% on a 17% rise in revenues. This debt-free company has $5.34 in cash per share.
ABB Ltd. (ABB), which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, is a Swiss company that has about 200,000 robots around the world. It is also involved in the production of power and low voltage products. The stock trades at 18 times current earnings and 14 times forward earnings. In addition, it provides investors with a decent yield of 3.2%, payable quarterly. Earnings for the latest reported quarter were up 16.3% on a 5.8% rise in revenues.
Adept Technology (ADEP) is a Pleasanton, California based robotics company, including robot hardware, software, and vision. The stock trades at 12 times forward earnings. Earnings for this debt free company were negative for the latest quarter.
To access a free list of dozens of the robot companies, which includes price earnings information along with the company's connection to robotics, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.
Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.
By Stockerblog.com

3D Printed Car Race Challenge

In the past couple years, I've written about 3D printing of human tissue, buildings, eyeglasses, and even full size cars.

Check out these little cars, all of which were printed.
 

Are Facial Recognition Stocks Staring You in the Face?

You may have seen the term 'facial recognition' in the new recently, for several different reasons. Facial recognition is the technological process automatically identifying a person from a digital image or a video, by comparing comparing facial features to an extensive facial database. 3D facial recognition is the latest trend, which is more accurate and can be used with profiles of faces. Facial recognition systems are employed by law enforcement, national security governmental agencies, casinos, banking, mobile devices, and even social media.
A Slap in the Facial Recognition Industry
Facebook (FB), which utilizes facial recognition, was criticized by the German government which outlaws such usage, since facial recognition is now mentioned in Facebook's latest privacy policy. A year ago, Facebook removed the software for European users, but wants to reactivate it again. And just a couple months ago, Congress pressured Google (GOOG) to leave out facial recognition software in the 'Google Glass' smart glasses.
Through the Looking Glass of Facial Recognition Stocks
According to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, ther are about a dozen stocks involved in facial recognition technology, with some having it as a small part of their business and a few pure plays. Some of the other major players include 3M (MMM), which has the Cogent BioTrust biometric logon software and the CAFIS facial recognition authentication system, Apple (AAPL), which has the iPhoto software Faces and the Polar Rose facial recognition company, and Safran (SAFRY), which owns L-1 Identity Solutions.
As for companies that are more pure plays, there is Nxt-ID, Inc. (NXTD), a Shelton, Connecticut company which provides biometric solutions for the law enforcement facial recognition markets. The company has MobileBio FaceMatch, a modular facial recognition system for smartphones, tablets, laptop, and desktop computers, and 3D FaceMatch Biometric Identity Systems, which combines 3D facial recognition, 2D facial recognition, and optional fingerprint biometrics. This very low cap stock generated a loss of three cents a share for the latest quarter.
To access a free list of all the companies with some involvement in the facial recognition industry, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Although there are many privacy issues, this is a growth industry of the future.
Disclosure: Author owns AAPL.
By Stockerblog.com

How to Get 500 Stock and Option Trades for Free

If you trade stocks like me, you could trade ten or twenty trades a week. Assuming ten dollar commission per trade, you might end up paying $800 a month just on commission. That's not chump change! One way to look at it is that your account has to increase by $800 just to break even for the month. Ten dollars a trade might not seem like much but it adds up for an active trader.

One way to get a head start on your trading is by looking for deals that online stock brokerage firms are offering. Sometimes these firms offer cash bonuses to sign up and sometimes they offer free trades.

Free Trading for 60 Days

Right now, E*Trade (ETFC) is offering a special deal of 500 trades free of commissions for stock or option trades during the 60 day period after funds have cleared in the new account. This offer is available for Individual, Joint or Retirement accounts. Restrictions include:

the account must opened by 12/31/2013

the account must be funded within 60 days of opening the account

account must have at least $10,000

There are some other restrictions. However, one additional bonus the company is offering is a $200 bonus if you deposit at least $25,000 and higher bonuses if $100,000 or more is put into the account.

The Stock Market Book That Gave Me Nightmares for 8 Weeks

Several years ago, I read the non-fiction autobiography called The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort. At the time, I was doing a lot of reviews of a lot of books, but I held off on this one because the book gave me nightmares for eight weeks (especially one of the hospital scenes). I didn't want anyone else to get nightmares at the time. But now that the book is going to be made into a movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, I think it's OK to tell others about this book and let them have eight weeks of nightmares, if they choose to read it. Be forewarned! (BTW, I actually enjoyed the book in spite of my nightmares. More about that shortly.)

This is probably the most disturbing book I've ever read, not just of investment books but of all books. So what could be so disturbing about a guy who was involved with investments and the stock market? The book is about a guy who started up a pump-and-dump stock brokerage firm, whereby he would buy up a bunch of low priced and penny stocks and have the brokers foist the stocks on the unsuspecting public at much higher prices. He ended up making multi-millions of dollars and became very wealthy. Sound boring? Let me give you a Twitter style version of what it's really about (without doing too many spoilers):

huge amounts of cocaine

four prostitutes with one guy

excessive adultery, of course

taping large wads of cash to a girl's body so it can get through customs to be laundered

throwing little people through the office

walking through the halls of a hospital with a hypodermic hanging out of buttocks (this was not the hospital scene that gave me nightmares)

pushing a guy out a window from a very high building

extreme sex

the yacht that almost sank

expensive cars and private jets

enormous amounts of money

extremely powerful Quaaludes

helicopter crashes

So the above is a list of the reasons why you might want to read it.

I did like reading the book for a couple reasons. First, it gave an extremely close-up view of the inside world of the pump-and-dump brokerage industry and the people involved in it. Second, many parts of the book were very humorous.

The one drawback I found about the book was the in the first chapter, Belfort starts out being "lower than pond scum." In the next chapter, he is wealthy and successful with his own helicopter and pilot. I would like to have seen more on how he made it from the bottom to the top. Maybe he is saving that for another book.

Anyway, if you are offended by lots of dirty words, then don't read The Wolf of Wall Street. If you are offended by any of the items on the list above, don't read The Wolf of Wall Street. Otherwise, if you want an eye-opener on the seamy seedy side of Wall Street, then read The Wolf of Wall Street.

Review of the Jobs Movie: Will There Be a Jobs 2 Movie?

I finally got a chance to see the Jobs movie, starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple (AAPL). I thought the movie was well done and covered a lot of historical information about the founding and history of Apple Computer, along with the rise and fall and rise again of Steve Jobs.

Anyone who has read the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson knows that there is an extensive amount of information about Steve Jobs that could have been included in the movie, but the book is over 650 pages long, and if everything in the book was put into the movie, the movie would have been 20 hours instead of two hours.

Kutcher did a fantastic job portraying Jobs, getting down the Jobs walk, talk, and look. Dermot Mulroney as Mike Markkula, and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, were also outstanding.

There were a couple issues in the movie. I wouldn't call them flaws, but I would consider them incidents that were left out that prevented a clear picture of other issues. A perfect example is when Jobs discovers that Microsoft (MSFT) had 'stolen' the graphical user interface with drop-down menus, then proceeds to give Bill Gates a severe tongue-thrashing over the phone. What wasn't mentioned in the movie was the fact that back in 1997, Bill Gates agreed to bail out Apple to the tune of a $150 million investment and even agreed to develop Microsoft Office for the Mac.

I realize the movie can include only so much, but this bail out by Gates and Microsoft shouldn't have been left out.

By the way, Steve and Steve got the idea for a GUI operating system, icons, and even the mouse from Xerox, which were developed for Xerox's Star computer, long before the Macintosh. These ideas were later put into the the Mac OS.

The movie ended at the time the iPod was announced. I'm wondering if there is going to be a Jobs 2.

Anyway, if you are looking for a great way to spend a couple hours, I highly recommend Jobs. And if you haven't read Steve Jobs, I recommend it also. (It makes a great gift for Apple fans.)

Has Apple Dropped the Ball: Samsung has Just Released the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch

Normally, Apple (AAPL) is the first to come out with innovative technological products. But it seems to be behind now. Where is Steve Jobs when we need him?

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch at the IFA technology tradeshow in Berlin. Check it out in the video below:

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of September

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. 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, many 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.

Ameren Corp (AEE) 9/9/2013 4.8%

Laclede Group (LG) 9/9/2013 3.8%

Parkway Properties (PKY) 9/9/2013 3.5%

Univest Corp of Pennsylvania (UVSP) 9/9/2013 4.1%

Lumos Networks Corp (LMOS) 9/10/2013 3.3%

Mercury General (MCY) 9/10/2013 5.6%

Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) 9/11/2013 3.4%

Digital Realty Trust (DLR) 9/11/2013 5.7%

Encana (ECA) 9/11/2013 4.6%

El Paso Electric Co. (EE) 9/11/2013 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
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.

By Stockerblog.com

France has the Nicest People in Europe

After recently returning from a trip to Paris and telling my friends and acquaintances about what a great vacation it was, I kept getting asked over and over again by many different people, "Weren't the French people rude?" It seemed like a strange comment but it was a carryover from an old stereotype, which seems to persist.

Let me set the record straight. French people could not have been nicer, friendlier, or more helpful. From the immigration official who said "Welcome to France," to the taxi drivers, to the hotel staff, to the restaurant waiters, to the tour guides, they were all polite and courteous. Even the woman con artist was friendly. Maybe it was a matter of luck, but I don't think so.

Everyone in the hotel was fantastic, at the Hotel Saint Honore. (The hotel advertises itself as a 3 star hotel but it seems more like a 4 star plus.) I can speak some French, and when I talked to the hotel staff in French, and reached my limit, they would immediately switch to English for me without a pause. I believe the French really support tourism and appreciate the tourist dollars.

It is interesting to note that France, which has Europe's second largest economy, has finally come out of its recession. France's exports increased by 2 percent during the latest quarter, and the country's quarterly GDP went up by 0.5 percent.

During the last couple years, French stocks have underperformed the S&P 500, with the market up over 35% but the iShares MSCI France Index (EWQ) was up only about 12%. Yet French stocks are catching up. In the last month, the France ETF outperformed the S&P.

If you want to invest in French companies more directly, there are a few stocks that pay decent dividends, such as Total SA (TOT), the oil and gas company which yields 4.8%. There is also Veolia Environnement (VE), which provides environmental management services and has a payout of 5%, and the healthcare company Sanofi (SNY) which yield 2.7%.

A bunch of other French stocks can be found on the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

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

Who Needs Bitcoins When We Have Amazon Dollars?

Bitcoins are a cyber currency that are transferred from and to any computer without going through a financial institution, and is not backed by any governmental agency. Since the Bitcoin system is decentralized, there is no entity that controls it. The number of bitcoins is essentially limited, as with each update of bitcoin generation, new updates are cut in half every four years until the year 2140. The privacy feature is one favorable feature of bitcoin proponents.

According to Doug Casey, the five essential attributes of good currency, based on Aristotle's writings, are that the money has to be durable, divisible, convenient, consistent, and have value in itself. Casey covers these attributes with respect to bitcoins in detail. However, let's look at a competitor to bitcoins which no one ever thinks of.

Did you know that you can buy just about anything on Amazon (AMZN)? And when I say just about anything, I mean just about anything, without going into specifics. Obviously, you can't buy cars or guns (unless you are buying a tattoo gun, and ear piercing gun, a pellet gun, or a toy gun). But this world's largest retailer, which started out as an online bookseller, can offer you everything from cellphones to makeup to clothing to food to coffeemakers to watches (does anyone still wear those?) to jewelry to guitars to baseballs to gift cards, either electronic or physical. If you receive an Amazon gift card, you log in to your Amazon account, type in the card code, and your card is credited.

Durable

These funds, which Amazon refers to as Gift Card Balance and I'll refer to as Amazon dollars, are good forever. You can spend these on whatever you want (assuming Amazon sells it) whenever you want. Plus, the data for these Amazon dollars are stored on very secure servers. The company recently won a huge contract to provide computing services and data storage to the CIA. Although IBM is challenging the decision, it does show that if the CIA is willing to trust Amazon, it must provide very secure services. So Amazon $s certainly qualify as durable.

Divisible

How small a purchase can you make? One cent, so this currency is certainly divisible.

Convenient

Are Amazon $s convenient? Sure, just go to your account and use them. You don't need to pull out your credit card and type in your credit card number. You don't need to send a check in. As a matter of fact, you don't need a checking account or even a credit card to be able to use Amazon dollars. You can go to almost any supermarket, pay cash for a gift card, then type in the code to your account.

Consistent

Each Amazon dollar is identical to any other, so they are certainly consistent.

Have value in itself

Does the Amazon dollar have value in and of itself? Yes, each one is worth exactly one US dollar, no more no less. Of course, if the value of the dollar drops, the value of the Amazon $ drops, but at least it won't drop below the value of a dollar.

Privacy

Although privacy isn't part of Aristotle's Five Characteristics, I thought I would mention it in relation to the Amazon dollars. One drawback to the Amazon $s is that you can't just transfer your Amazon $s to another person (currently) or even buy a gift card with your Amazon dollars. But what you can do is walk into a supermarket, pay cash for a gift card and mail it to the person you want to transfer the money to. (Or you can email the gift code to the person.) So transferability can be a challenge but is still possible.

Don't get me wrong about bitcoins; I like the concept and I even own some bitcoins. The point I'm trying to get across is that I see a lot of similarities between bitcoins and Amazon dollars, and that Amazon.com gift card balances can even be considered a kind of currency.

Disclosure: Author didn't own AMZN at the time the article was written.