We just passed a major milestone. No, I’m not talking about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (although that is certainly worthy of recognition). But while we’re on the subject, it would be remiss of me to not cite a couple of examples of what the market has done for investors since that historic date in July 1969. #-ad_banner-#If you bought a few shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) back then, they would have since multiplied in value 400 times over. Better still, a stake in McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) would have delivered an astronomical return of… Read More

We just passed a major milestone. No, I’m not talking about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (although that is certainly worthy of recognition). But while we’re on the subject, it would be remiss of me to not cite a couple of examples of what the market has done for investors since that historic date in July 1969. #-ad_banner-#If you bought a few shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) back then, they would have since multiplied in value 400 times over. Better still, a stake in McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) would have delivered an astronomical return of 82,000%, including dividends. That’s what happens when you become a part-owner in iconic American businesses, reinvest your dividends dutifully, and harness the long-term power of compound interest – which brings us to the real milestone I was talking about. $150,000. That’s the cumulative distributions of dividends and interest we’ve collected in our Daily Paycheck portfolio since it was created in January 2010. The latest running tally through last month is 3,389 “paychecks” worth a total of $155,219. And while August looks to be somewhat of a slow month for dividends, we’re still scheduled to receive $1,313. That money… Read More

Spooked by the threat of trade war acceleration and despite the quarter-point interest rate cut Wednesday, the market sold off practically all off all week. Then, on Monday morning, we learned that the Chinese government had allowed its currency, the yuan, to slide to its lowest levels in more than a decade. The market sold off sharply as a result. Despite this slide though, large-cap indices still trade close to their all-time highs. The market is losing momentum, but the buyers can return as fast as they retreated if the market senses that the worst of the trade war is… Read More

Spooked by the threat of trade war acceleration and despite the quarter-point interest rate cut Wednesday, the market sold off practically all off all week. Then, on Monday morning, we learned that the Chinese government had allowed its currency, the yuan, to slide to its lowest levels in more than a decade. The market sold off sharply as a result. Despite this slide though, large-cap indices still trade close to their all-time highs. The market is losing momentum, but the buyers can return as fast as they retreated if the market senses that the worst of the trade war is over or if the Fed indicates more dovishness. In the meantime, investors have clearly become more cautious, booking profits on their best stocks of the year and taking losses on some of the laggards. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy today. Here’s all you need to know to retire as early as this year. Let’s Go Hunting For Momentum In a normal… Read More

I’d like to start off today’s issue by asking you a simple question… If you discovered the key to making a fortune trading stocks, would you share it with the world? —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account Finally revealed! This “long lost” secret turns a quick 3-minute phone call into the opportunity to collect $8,760 checks. Every payment is backed by the full authority of the U.S. Government… and over $1.75 billion will be delivered to income-seeking Americans. But your action is required TODAY while the enrollment window is open. Read More

I’d like to start off today’s issue by asking you a simple question… If you discovered the key to making a fortune trading stocks, would you share it with the world? —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account Finally revealed! This “long lost” secret turns a quick 3-minute phone call into the opportunity to collect $8,760 checks. Every payment is backed by the full authority of the U.S. Government… and over $1.75 billion will be delivered to income-seeking Americans. But your action is required TODAY while the enrollment window is open. You must click here right now to get started. If history is any guide, you’d be a fool if you did. That’s because studies have shown the more well-known a market-beating strategy becomes, the less it becomes a market-beating strategy. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Why So-Called Market “Edges” Soon Disappear Back in 1981, an academic named Rolf Banz published a paper on something called the “small-firm effect.” It showed that buying small-cap stocks generated “abnormal returns,” even when adjusted for risk. At around the same time, researchers uncovered the “value effect,” which showed that buying stocks… Read More

Whenever a sinking share price pushes a dividend yield above 10%, the market is usually expressing some skepticism regarding dividend sustainability. That’s even more true at 15% and higher… With an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and a current share price below $4, WPG carries an extreme yield above 25%. Clearly, investors have some serious doubts. The market was expecting a dividend cut when the company released its second-quarter results a few ago. They didn’t get one. Washington Prime reaffirmed its policy of distributing $0.25 per share each quarter. And it earned $0.27 in funds from operation (FFO), enough… Read More

Whenever a sinking share price pushes a dividend yield above 10%, the market is usually expressing some skepticism regarding dividend sustainability. That’s even more true at 15% and higher… With an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and a current share price below $4, WPG carries an extreme yield above 25%. Clearly, investors have some serious doubts. The market was expecting a dividend cut when the company released its second-quarter results a few ago. They didn’t get one. Washington Prime reaffirmed its policy of distributing $0.25 per share each quarter. And it earned $0.27 in funds from operation (FFO), enough to cover the distribution with room to spare. Management forecast full-year FFO of $1.20 per share – providing a minimum coverage ratio of 120% on the $1.00 per share annual distribution. Unless that has changed over the past few days, the company is generating enough cash to continue paying its current dividend. But should it? That’s a better question to ask. I say no. Dividends are eating up most of the firm’s cash flow, leaving little for required maintenance expenditures. They run about $65 million annually, or $0.30 per share. But the bigger drain on capital is redevelopment costs needed… Read More

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it will lower interest rates by 25 basis points. This is the first cut we’ve seen in a decade, and rates are already low by historical standards.  Cheaper money, by design, is intended to stimulate the economy and to make sure investing is still preferable to saving.  Another upshot: more financing available to private companies. And it’s not just private equity. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing… Read More

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it will lower interest rates by 25 basis points. This is the first cut we’ve seen in a decade, and rates are already low by historical standards.  Cheaper money, by design, is intended to stimulate the economy and to make sure investing is still preferable to saving.  Another upshot: more financing available to private companies. And it’s not just private equity. —Recommended Link— The Real Reason Most Americans Can’t Retire by 65 If you’re following traditional retirement advice that made sense 50 years ago… You may be missing out on the most effective retirement strategy today. Here’s all you need to know to retire as early as this year. In the past few years, mutual funds and hedge funds have been actively investing in privately-held tech companies and startups in their search for market-beating returns. This brings more money to private companies, and paves the way to building relationships and to receiving more shares when those companies go public. Here’s another byproduct of low interest rates: companies stay private for longer. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) went public in… Read More

If I had to name the biggest game-changing trend of the past decade — a trend that has disturbed the most companies, made the biggest organizational impact, changed the way businesses are structured, and impacted the most lives — it would be cloud computing.  Nothing short of a paradigm change, the advent of the cloud has truly transformed the way most technology companies do business. Even consumer companies have been significantly affected by the shift.  #-ad_banner-#The premise behind the cloud computing is simple: When technology — from simple applications to complete data centers — is delivered over the internet, it… Read More

If I had to name the biggest game-changing trend of the past decade — a trend that has disturbed the most companies, made the biggest organizational impact, changed the way businesses are structured, and impacted the most lives — it would be cloud computing.  Nothing short of a paradigm change, the advent of the cloud has truly transformed the way most technology companies do business. Even consumer companies have been significantly affected by the shift.  #-ad_banner-#The premise behind the cloud computing is simple: When technology — from simple applications to complete data centers — is delivered over the internet, it can be delivered as-needed, or on-demand. This on-demand business is now known as the cloud.  The on-demand feature makes everything easier. Companies have found that signing up for on-demand services is the easiest way to meet their future needs; the cloud-based model can easily get you more (or less), depending on how those needs change.  It also turns out that consuming technology over the internet is less expensive than doing it the traditional way: Basically, you pay for what you use — no more, no less. It requires much less hardware, too: All the hard work is done somewhere off-site… Read More