Articles

With stocks on the upswing, the appetite for risk is back! That might tempt some folks to abandon sound long-term investing and take a stab at day trading.

Before we go too far into whether this is a good idea, I’d say that to be a successful day trader, you should be aiming to beat the market … and a lot of ink has been spilled about how active managers—and I’d include individual investors here—can’t do that.

Well, that’s nonsense. Plenty of portfolio managers and individual investors do beat the market regularly. Consider closed-end funds (CEFs), for example, which yield 7%+ on average, with plenty sporting histories of beating their benchmarks.… Read more

Seriously. Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) pays a dividend that is now a sizzling 8.2% (read: eight-point-two). Plus, the fund raises its payout regularly. It dishes 12% more today than it did twelve months ago!

As a result, AMLP is so popular that investors keep the price up!

Seriously, check out this quarter-ending stock price chart. AMLP’s quote may drift for a quarter, or two, max. That’s why any meanderings lower are great buying opportunities:

Source: Income Calendar

AMLP is up 19% since we added it to our Contrarian Income Report portfolio just over a year ago. Despite this stellar performance by an income stock, it may indeed be the one missed by most plain-vanilla investors.… Read more

A key insider has quietly snapped up 10,000 shares of his 13%-yielding stock. And we contrarian income seekers are putting the ticker on our buy list, too.

That’s because insider buying really is the ultimate “buy alert.” Legendary value investor Peter Lynch said it best:

“Insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they only buy for one: they think the price will rise.”

Heck, I can almost see my regular readers nodding along to this one. We’ve talked about it again and again in my Contrarian Income Report service. In fact, we’d go one step further than Lynch:

Insiders buy because they think the dividend will rise, too. … Read more

Right now—today—we’re looking at a terrific buy window on 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs). Interest rates are maxed out (and let’s be honest, they’re likely headed lower from here—it’s just a question of when).

That will drive up the appeal of CEFs, thanks to their outsized income streams.

So now is a great time to take a look at these (too) often overlooked income generators. So today, we’re going to do just that. We’ll start by debunking a CEF myth called “return of capital,” or ROC, that has caused many investors to miss out on the sustainable high income streams these funds offer.… Read more

Quarterly dividends.

Getting paid every 90 days. Ninety. Who wants to wait that long?

That’s life as a vanilla income investor. These poor folks (literally!) have no idea about “special dividend” stocks.

These are companies that pay each shareholder hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars a year more than expected. The payments often come around the holidays. Think of them as year-end bonuses.

Beats a subscription to the jelly-of-the-month club!

These special dividends can make a big retirement difference. I’m talking about a 1.3% “headline yield” that actually adds up to 6%, and a 4% print that really totals 11% per year.… Read more

Today I want to show you three funds that are highly unusual in a way that matters a lot to many folks: all three are free from a management-fee perspective.

In fact, these three funds—closed-end funds (CEFs), to be precise—are more than free: they have negative management costs!

What do I mean? Well, usually index funds sell themselves on being cheap. Fees on the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), for example, are just 0.03%, or $300 in annual fees for every $1 million invested, in other words.

There are even funds out there that cost nothing, like the Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund (FZROX), which has no expenses at all.… Read more

I staggered out of my Uber into a sea of orange. My next challenge—a monolithic 100,119-seat stadium—loomed in the distance.

Ever regret something instantly? That was me. Dumb decision. Zero chance your dividend guy could make it in and out of that sports palace.

Fortunately, as if sent from above, my new hype man walked by.

“That’s dedication!” An orange-clad Texas Longhorn fan and fellow father pointed at my CAM walker boot. Which, of course, housed my relatively newly-reconnected Achilles. Which was quickly appreciated outside Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium.

“Hardcore, man,” my new BFF reiterated. “I respect that.”

I tapped my chest and pointed back at him.… Read more

Look, we’ve all loved watching our dividend payers rocket to the moon these past few weeks. Best part is, most of the market has been onboard: 

Everyone Wins in This “Close Your Eyes and Throw a Dart” Market

Here we can see the jump in the S&P 500 as a whole (in purple) versus its return on an equal-weight basis (in orange). Sure, there’s a bit of a gap, but safe to say this has been an across-the-board surge.

We can (in a backhanded way!) thank Jay Powell—just as he hinted that high Treasury yields were doing the Fed’s work for it, the bond market (figuratively) flipped him off … and Treasury yields plunged from 5% to around 4.6% now.… Read more

If you always wanted a free lunch but thought they don’t exist, well, they kind of do, in the form of the Fidelity group of ZERO index funds, like the Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund (FZROX).

After all, its 0% fees mean it should easily beat a closed-end fund (CEF) with a high expense ratio, right? Well, not so fast.

0% Fees Do Not Equal Outperformance

FZROX—in purple above—may levy no management fee, but it’s underperformed many equity CEFs over a long period. Since inception, it’s trailed the Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX), in blue, and the General American Investors Co.… Read more

The Fed “pause” is on—and that means we’re this much closer to the first rate cut since the COVID-caused race to zero.

It’ll soon be “game on” for fixed income of all sorts. And that includes one class of stock that has been kicked deep into value territory—giving us a potential one-two punch of high income (6.9% to 9.2% yields) and a violent bounce off the bottom.

More on these sweet payouts in just a second.

A High-Yield Way to Ride Powell’s Coattails

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his henchmen at the central bank recently made the call to keep the benchmark fed funds rate level—a clear acknowledgement that the economy is indeed slowing.… Read more