Author Archive: Brett Owens

If you’re worried about a pullback, I don’t blame you. But don’t sit in cash and earn nothing when you can hedge your portfolio AND collect yields up to 8%.

Let’s talk about a couple of funds that use a well-worn options tactic – writing “covered calls” – that can generate generous yields typically between 7% and 9%. Conveniently, you never have to deal with the complications of options contracts – these funds do all the work for you!

But, why covered calls, and why now?

Covered calls are an options strategy in which you sell call option contracts against stocks you hold.… Read more

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying” is a well-worn phrase slathered all over the business and investment world, for good reason: It’s true. And it strikes a particularly loud chord when it comes to dividend investing. If your retirement portfolio is full of stocks that are paying the same dividend they did years ago, then, you’re certainly losing the war with inflation, and your nest egg probably isn’t performing to its full potential.

But if your retirement portfolio is stuffed full of companies like the five dividend growers I’ll share with you today, then you’ll stay ahead of the pack, year after year.… Read more

The Federal Reserve just dropped the first of three potential interest-rate bombs on Wall Street – a quarter-rate hike that was supposed to send rate-sensitive assets scurrying. Instead, blue-chip dividend stocks, MLPs, REITs – almost everything headed higher, including the trio of heavy-yielding business development companies (BDCs) I want to show you today.

Investors often look at interest rates and dividend-yielding stocks as a water-and-oil relationship. You know the drill. If interest rates go up, and Treasuries and other bonds begin to yield more in response, they’ll look more attractive versus similar (and even slightly higher-yielding) dividend stocks.

After all, as secure as even the bluest, chippiest blue-chip stocks might seem, they pale in comparison to the full faith and credit of the United States government.… Read more

Thinking of avoiding closed-end funds, now that we’ve got another Fed rate hike in the books?

It’s easy to see why, with the “smart money”—traders betting through the Fed funds futures market—expecting another hike just three months from now. In all, the market’s calling for three hikes this year, and so is Janet Yellen.

One Down, Two to Go?

But if you let that scare you away from high-yield sectors like CEFs, real estate investment trusts and preferred shares, you’ll miss out on some serious income.

In a moment, I’ll show you how to pick the CEFs with the most upside, along with the high payouts these funds are known for.… Read more

There hasn’t been a better time to buy real estate investment trusts (REITs) since July 2009. That was the last time this “simple signal” flashed B-U-Y.

Investors who bought on this signal then have enjoyed 223% returns since. And those gains didn’t require any fancy stock picking – just a one-click purchase of the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ).

The signal? VNQ itself paying 5%:

Highest REIT Yields Since the Financial Crisis

Most income hounds get it wrong. They pile into REITs when their yields are low because they are desperate for any positive income stream. That’s a bad idea because there are only two ways REITs can pay you:

1. With today’s dividend, and
2. With tomorrow’s (hopefully higher) payout.

Dividend stocks are different animals. If you practiced “buy and hope” in your previous investing life, there are some habits you should leave behind.

Using a “stop loss” is one of them. In theory, stop losses limit downside while letting winners run higher. If a stock closes below a certain price, or drops a certain percentage, the “stop” will make you sell before things get worse. Instead of holding a stock all the way to zero, you’re forced to book gains (or at least cut losses) early.

It sounds like a no brainer. Why wouldn’t we want downside protection on all of our positions?… Read more