Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Warren Buffett's Book Recommendations

Want to read what the head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B) In the recent Billionaire's issue of Forbes Magazine, there was a short article called Buffett's Book Club, about the books that Warren Buffett recommends.

The following are Buffett's books:

Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch

Where Are the Customers' Yachts?: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Streetby Fred Schwed

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike

Unbeatable: Tom Osborne and the Greatest Era of Nebraska Footballby Henry J. Cordes


7 Ways to Play the Oil Market with ETFs

Unless you never pay any attention to the financial news and you never buy gasoline for your car, you would know that the price of crude oil has dropped substantially over the last month.

Since the beginning of September, the price of WTI crude oil has gone from over $90 a barrel to $61 a barrel, a drop of over 32%. Do you think the price of oil is going to continue dropping? Do you think it has bottomed out? Either way, there are several ways to play the oil market through the use of ETFs.

Bullish

United States Oil ETF (USO) has a goal of tracking the performance of West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude oil.

PowerShares DB Oil ETF (DBO) also attempts to reflect the performance of crude oil.

The iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (OIL) is another unleveraged follower of WTI crude oil futures contracts.

If you are looking for a play on the daily price changes of unleaded gasoline, check out United States Gasoline (UGA).

Really Bullish

Are you really bullish on oil? There is the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (UCO) which seeks to provide twice the daily performance of the Dow Jones - UBS Crude Oil Sub-Index.

Bearish

So what can the bears do? You have available the United States Short Oil ETF (DNO), which has a goal of tracking the inverse percentage changes of the spot price of light sweet crude oil.

Really Bearish

And if you are really bearish, there is always the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil (SCO) for a 200% inverse of oil.

Hopefully, you will choose the right direction and put some money in your tank.If you like stock lists like this, check out many of the free stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of December


  

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

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


UIL Holdings UIL 12/15/2014 4.4%
Parkway Properties  PKY 12/15/2014 3.9%
Rayonier  RYN 12/15/2014 3.7%
Equity One, Inc.  EQY 12/15/2014 3.7%
Cincinnati Financial CINF 12/15/2014 3.4%
Span-America Medical Systems SPAN 12/15/2014 3.1%
Solar Capital Ltd. SLRC 12/16/2014 8.7%

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

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia
A Great Gift!

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

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


Sunday, December 07, 2014

Two Stocking Stuffer Ideas

Are you looking for a couple of stocking stuffers? Something for a friend or relative who enjoys stock market investing or trading? Here are a couple of perfect gifts.



Stock Market Trivia

The book, Stock Market Trivia, has a lot of obscure, interesting, and fascination information relating to Wall Street, investing, and the stock market. Do you know what stock traded for over a million dollars a share? (Hint: it was not Berkshire Hathaway.) Did you know you could have bought stock in a company that owned a rock with George Washington's graffiti on it? Find out about the company that paid $8.5 million for a domain name. Learn about stocks with weird names and weird stock symbols. Get  Stock Market Trivia, and put it in your own stocking.




Stock Market Trivia Volume 2: 

Who Says Wall Street is Boring?


The book Stock Market Trivia Volume 2: Who Says Wall Street is Boring? continues on where Volume 1 leaves off. It covers information on weird stock certificates, unusual stock market correlations, celebrity stock indexes, the stock that went from $5.5 million a share to 12 cents, the Hemline Index, and more. There is a special section at the end that includes three chapters on investment bubbles from Charles Mackay's book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, from 1841. Add Stock Market Trivia Volume 2: Who Says Wall Street is Boring? to your Buy list.