Author Archive: Michael Foster

Donald Trump’s win has done something extraordinary to the financial sector. Just look at this one-month chart for the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF):

Banks Love Trump

This is unexpected on two levels.

First, of course, Trump’s very election came as a shock to many. Second, there was no shortage of people saying stocks would tank if the real estate mogul won. Meantime, not only has the market reached new heights since November 9 but financials have gone from one of the worst-performing sectors to one of the best—almost overnight.

The reasons are simple. First, Trump has promised to repeal the financial reforms brought in under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which have limited banks’ activities, and their growth potential along with them.… Read more

You’ve probably been told you can’t have high yields and high growth in the same investment.

If you want growth, the traditional thinking goes, you need to accept little or no dividend income. And if you want high dividends, you can forget about growth.

Today I’m going to show you two investments that turn this outdated thinking on its head. They’re closed-end funds (CEFs) that hold convertible bonds, a powerful asset class most investors ignore.

More on these two funds in a moment.

First, let’s take a quick look at how convertible bonds work, and why so many investors are making a big mistake by not including them in their portfolios.… Read more

It may sound crazy, but if you were to invest $1 million in the S&P 500 right now, you’d generate just $1,750 in monthly income.

That’s just barely above the poverty line for a family of three.

When that much capital fetches such a pathetic amount of income, something’s wrong.

You came blame the Federal Reserve and its ultra-low interest rates. Or a retirement system that has thrown Americans to the wolves, replacing defined-payout pensions with 401(k)s that are too often designed to take—rather than grow—your savings with absurdly high management fees and low returns.

In such an environment, our parents’ retirement strategies just don’t work anymore.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you a crystal-clear, highly predictable market pattern we can cash in on—and 5 safe, high-yield funds we can use to do it.

It’s all thanks to the Federal Reserve’s cat-and-mouse game with interest rates.

Let me explain.

Now that we’re past the days of quantitative easing boosting stocks, investors’ attention has shifted back to rates, with a quarter-point rise in December looking more likely after last Friday’s strong jobs report.

Fears of a rate hike pulled the rug out from under stocks, including six straight days of declines at the start of November. The financial press has fanned the flames with doomsayer headlines that have amped up investors’ panic.… Read more