Investors stepped in this week to do some value shopping, leading to the longest winning streak for the S&P 500 since last September.

The minutes from the December FOMC meeting were released on Wednesday, suggesting a more patient outlook for future interest rate increases. In fact, Fed funds futures are now pricing in just a 19.2% probability of an interest rate hike in 2019, compared with a 10.4% chance of a rate cut.

According to Bespoke Investment Group, energy names and other cyclical groups have been behind the market’s recent winning streak, which are precisely the names that were a drag in 2019.… Read more

It’s a pearl of investment wisdom that’s been around for 100+ years. You’ve probably heard it over and over again.

It goes like this: if you want to make money in stocks, you must buy companies with unforgettable household names.

Too bad this “wisdom” is a relic of the past—so much so that it can actually kill your profits! I’ll show you why now, and give you four big names you should avoid, or sell if you hold them.

Then we’ll move on to two much better buys—off-the-radar companies that have been quietly handing their shareholders big price gains and massive dividend hikes that put their “cool kid” cousins to shame.… Read more

It sounds hard to believe, but sometimes a dividend hike can be dangerous. In fact, when it comes to closed-end funds (CEFs), sometimes the worst thing you can see is a fund with a generous payout, a very high yield and a history of dividend increases.

It’s true!

And today I’m going to show you how this tough-to-spot CEF trap can slash your payouts (and your nest egg). Then we’ll dive into one fund that looks like a healthy dividend grower—but is, in fact, anything but.

A Hidden Danger

Make no mistake: the hazard I’m going to show you now is real.… Read more

If you’re like many income investors I hear from, you’re probably worried that 2019 is already shaping up to be a repeat of 2008. The media doesn’t help – the talking heads like to conjure up fear because it draws eyeballs to the TV screen and clicks to Internet articles.

But what if they’re right? In a moment we’ll discuss the safest dividends for a serious pullback.

First, let me calm you down and add that a 2008 rerun is not our most likely scenario. As generals tend to fight the last war, investors tend to fear the last bear market.… Read more

This market wipeout has one big silver lining for income investors like you and me: dividend yields are soaring—and today we’re going to tap four of my favorite stocks for payouts all the way up to 8.9%.

First, though, to see just how incredible this buying opportunity is, look no further than the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ), the benchmark ETF for real estate investment trusts (REITs).

If you logged into your investment account now and simply bought VNQ, you’d kick-start a nice 4.8% income stream. The ETF has only shelled out a payout that big on two other occasions—and only very briefly—in the last 10 years.… Read more

Forget the 2018 market drop—because it’s handed us a golden opportunity to grab some double-digit “bounce-back” gains as 2019 rolls out.

I’ll tell you why I’m so excited about the year ahead in a moment. Then I’ll give you eight cheap funds set to arc higher as we move through 2019.

The kicker? Not only are these eight funds poised for big gains in the next 12 months, they throw off incredible dividend yields up to 12.6%, too!

Putting 2018 in Context

First, back to last year’s return, which came in at negative 6.1%, including dividends.

The first bit of good news here is that despite their decline, US stocks still led the rest of the world.… Read more

If the market’s resolution for the new year was to start with a clean slate and forget about the worries that piled up toward the end of 2018, that plan lasted fewer than two days.

Sure, traders bought into a sharply lower open on Wednesday and U.S. stocks actually ended with small gains.

However, after the close of the first trading session of 2019, Apple (AAPL) shocked investors with a revenue warning for the first time since 2002.

China Trade Talks Loom

The main reason that Apple cited for the lower quarterly sales was lower iPhone demand in China, heightened by tariffs and other trade issues.… Read more

What good is a 2% or 3% annual yield if you can lose it in a single trading session?

The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are officially in bear markets, which means they’re down 20% from their peak. But bear markets don’t have to stop at 20%.

They can just keep on collapsing. And the weakest links can fall much, much farther than 20%.

In fact, they often do. Just take a look below at the 444 S&P 500 components that were part of the index during the 2007-09 selloff. Only a handful fell even close to the bear-market minimum.

Meanwhile, almost a quarter hemorrhaged 70% of their value or more!… Read more

Since launching my CEF Insider service in early 2017, the picks I’ve given subscribers have outperformed the broader CEF market—even through the recent market volatility that’s caused just about everything to go down.

The key to this performance is a process of analysis and selection that is both complicated and straightforward. I have a checklist of 52 points I go through to choose the right fund. I apply these one by one, first using some of the broader points to screen funds, then zooming in closer, using more complex analysis to bring you my very best buys.

While it’d take a long time to go through that entire checklist, I want to share with you a five-point system that I use as a springboard for picking winning CEFs for CEF Insider.… Read more

Thanks to the December selloff, it’s relatively easy to find 9% yields. The stock market was a relentlessly receding tide in the fourth quarter, which is bad for “buy and hope” investors but quite helpful for income specialists like us.

Let’s look first at real estate investment trusts (REITs). Many now pay 9% – some good, some bad. The main index Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has only paid this much (4.9%) twice before in the past ten years:

VNQ Is Rarely This Generous

By cherry picking the lot we can find 49 stocks paying 9% or more. But we should avoid names like Government Properties Income Trust (GOV), which frequently pops up on cute recession-proof dividend lists.… Read more