Consumers are becoming more and more accustomed to being completely connected. We want to control our electronics, adjust the thermostat, close the garage, and lower the shades — all from the comforts of our couches.  #-ad_banner-#As a result, our homes are becoming smarter and smarter. Some of the world’s biggest players are looking to get into the home automation space.  Last week, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) said it would buy Nest Labs, a maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors, for over $3 billion. The likes of Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) have already been showing interest… Read More

Consumers are becoming more and more accustomed to being completely connected. We want to control our electronics, adjust the thermostat, close the garage, and lower the shades — all from the comforts of our couches.  #-ad_banner-#As a result, our homes are becoming smarter and smarter. Some of the world’s biggest players are looking to get into the home automation space.  Last week, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) said it would buy Nest Labs, a maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors, for over $3 billion. The likes of Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) have already been showing interest with acquisitions and in-house developments.  There’s a reason there’s suddenly so much interest in home automation. The industry is expected to soar from its current estimated value of $570 million to $2.6 billion in 2017, according to ABI Research.  So what’s the best pure play on this booming market? It appears to be Control4 Corp. (Nasdaq: CTRL).  With nearly three dozen patents, the company is at the forefront of the “connected home” concept, with products for controlling lighting, music, video, temperature, security and communications. Control4’s home automation software automatically finds and adds devices, which cuts down on the time it… Read More

If you’d invested $100,000 in the S&P 500 back in 1982, it would have been worth $2.3 million by the end of 2011. If you would have invested that same amount in dividend payers, you’d have $4.3 million.  Not bad. And that’s where most investors stop.  But if you’d invested the same amount of cash using a simple strategy that too many investors often ignore, then it would have been worth $6.7 million. Seem too good to be true? It’s not.  #-ad_banner-#Many investors searching for the best total returns will simply look for high-yielding stocks. But dividends don’t… Read More

If you’d invested $100,000 in the S&P 500 back in 1982, it would have been worth $2.3 million by the end of 2011. If you would have invested that same amount in dividend payers, you’d have $4.3 million.  Not bad. And that’s where most investors stop.  But if you’d invested the same amount of cash using a simple strategy that too many investors often ignore, then it would have been worth $6.7 million. Seem too good to be true? It’s not.  #-ad_banner-#Many investors searching for the best total returns will simply look for high-yielding stocks. But dividends don’t tell the whole story — not even half of it. If you’re looking for more cash from your investments, you should be looking at all of the ways a company distributes its cash.  Don’t get me wrong — dividends can be a great indicator of company health. From 1972 through 2011, members of the S&P that don’t pay dividends returned just 1.4% per year, turning a $1,000 investment into just $1,710 according to research by Ned Davis. Meanwhile, companies that pay dividends returned 8.6% annually — significantly more than those that did not. Dividends are obviously a key ingredient to… Read More

In most places, swallowing microchips and wearing sensors to monitor back posture wouldn’t be cool. But the annual International Consumer Electronics Show isn’t most places. #-ad_banner-#It’s more like an episode of “Star Trek” — fueled by a couple trillion dollars and 100,000 mad scientists. The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the Super Bowl for the technology industry. As the hottest industry event of the year, CES is the place where tech’s biggest brands and boldest startups come to show off. That makes the event a window into the mind of the technology industry. And with… Read More

In most places, swallowing microchips and wearing sensors to monitor back posture wouldn’t be cool. But the annual International Consumer Electronics Show isn’t most places. #-ad_banner-#It’s more like an episode of “Star Trek” — fueled by a couple trillion dollars and 100,000 mad scientists. The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the Super Bowl for the technology industry. As the hottest industry event of the year, CES is the place where tech’s biggest brands and boldest startups come to show off. That makes the event a window into the mind of the technology industry. And with all the hottest products and ideas on display, it’s also a great way to see where the tech industry is making its biggest investments. Some of the products at this year’s CES will be rock stars, and others will fail — but across the board, the biggest and best ideas coming out of tech all have one thing in common: the ability to send and receive data. Consumer and commercial devices are getting smarter. They are also becoming more connected to the Internet and increasingly networked with other devices.  That has led to huge increases in data consumption, particularly mobile. Read More

The size and reach of this relatively new industry is astounding. Once written off as just a passing fad for children and teenagers, this sector has become a major economic force — and its growth shows no signs of abating. #-ad_banner-# Consumers spent nearly $21 billion in this sector in 2012, and nearly 60% of Americans actively participate in this form of entertainment. I can’t think of another hobby or sport that involves so many participants.  Although this business is widely thought of as being a pastime for teenagers, the average age of its participants is 30 years old,… Read More

The size and reach of this relatively new industry is astounding. Once written off as just a passing fad for children and teenagers, this sector has become a major economic force — and its growth shows no signs of abating. #-ad_banner-# Consumers spent nearly $21 billion in this sector in 2012, and nearly 60% of Americans actively participate in this form of entertainment. I can’t think of another hobby or sport that involves so many participants.  Although this business is widely thought of as being a pastime for teenagers, the average age of its participants is 30 years old, and 45% of them are female. If you haven’t already guessed, this huge and thriving industry is electronic gaming.   Electronic gaming has grown from the video game parlors of yesterday to a multi-billion-dollar industry that touches an enormous segment of the population. There are plenty of profit opportunities across the industry for savvy investors, but I want to focus on a particular company that’s well positioned to earn long-term profits from the electronic gaming revolution.   The company is GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world’s largest multi-channel video game retailer. In addition to nearly 6,500 stores in 15 countries, GameStop… Read More

There has been a lot of strong commentary this month about gold and gold stocks. Major firms are downgrading their outlooks while financial headlines are rife with calls that the bottom is in. Which is it?#-ad_banner-# I agree more with the latter than the former. Let’s say for now that the bottom really is in. Which stocks should be on your watch list, if not already in your portfolio, to take advantage of the early rallies? Working strictly from the technical side, this is what I want to see in a nutshell. I want stocks that have broken… Read More

There has been a lot of strong commentary this month about gold and gold stocks. Major firms are downgrading their outlooks while financial headlines are rife with calls that the bottom is in. Which is it?#-ad_banner-# I agree more with the latter than the former. Let’s say for now that the bottom really is in. Which stocks should be on your watch list, if not already in your portfolio, to take advantage of the early rallies? Working strictly from the technical side, this is what I want to see in a nutshell. I want stocks that have broken out on a relative basis versus the sector. In other words, I want stocks that have already shown technical strength, and therefore, greater demand from investors, even if their charts seem not quite ripe on an absolute basis. Should gold stocks as a group get moving to the upside, these “in demand” stocks should outperform. We have to start with the sector itself and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) as its proxy. It is no secret that this ETF suffered a steep bear market over the past two-plus years. The latest “proof” was a lower low set… Read More

After an exceptional five-year run, U.S. stock markets are now touching all-time highs. It follows that stocks here at home are not nearly as attractively priced as they were at the start of this run.#-ad_banner-# I’m not suggesting that the U.S. markets are going to collapse, but I do think that it is time to start looking around the globe for better valuations.      One place to start looking might be China. While the U.S. markets have roared back from the financial crisis, the Chinese market is only at a third of its pre-financial crisis… Read More

After an exceptional five-year run, U.S. stock markets are now touching all-time highs. It follows that stocks here at home are not nearly as attractively priced as they were at the start of this run.#-ad_banner-# I’m not suggesting that the U.S. markets are going to collapse, but I do think that it is time to start looking around the globe for better valuations.      One place to start looking might be China. While the U.S. markets have roared back from the financial crisis, the Chinese market is only at a third of its pre-financial crisis high. Investing in a Chinese company isn’t particularly hard. You don’t have to go to the trouble to obtain direct access to the Shanghai market itself. There are plenty of Chinese companies listed here in the U.S. One attractively valued Chinese stock I’ve been looking at is Kingold Jewelry (Nasdaq: KGJI). For good reason, U.S.-listed Chinese companies have gotten a bit of a bad rap in recent years.  There have been several instances where investigative work by savvy short sellers has revealed several U.S.-listed Chinese companies as nothing more than frauds. Now-delisted companies like Sino-Forest and Rino International spring to… Read More

There will be a number of earnings reports this week, and traders should start focusing on the trend in earnings. That could be bearish for the stock market. Weak Start to Earnings Season Puts Bull Market at Risk SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed down 0.27% last week. Technical indicators are mostly bullish although bearish divergences are forming. The chart below shows Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) on a weekly chart of SPY, although a similar pattern can be seen with other indicators such as stochastics or… Read More

There will be a number of earnings reports this week, and traders should start focusing on the trend in earnings. That could be bearish for the stock market. Weak Start to Earnings Season Puts Bull Market at Risk SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed down 0.27% last week. Technical indicators are mostly bullish although bearish divergences are forming. The chart below shows Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) on a weekly chart of SPY, although a similar pattern can be seen with other indicators such as stochastics or the Relative Strength Index (RSI). Bearish divergences are also visible on daily charts. A bearish divergence forms when prices move to new highs while an indicator fails to confirm the highs. Many technical analysts believe that divergences are eventually resolved with a decline in prices, but this belief is not confirmed by backtesting. Divergences lead to lower prices only about a third of the time in testing.#-ad_banner-# In testing divergences, I looked at various indicators and different time frames. Divergences that formed over eight weeks or more, like the current one shown in the… Read More

Right now you can earn big, double-digit “Instant Yields” from some of the safest stocks in the world. For example, we’ve found yields as high as 17.4% from Kraft Foods (Nasdaq: KFT)… 17.0% from Disney (NYSE: DIS)… and even as much as 18.1% from tech giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). #-ad_banner-#This isn’t some investment gimmick, either. The payouts I’m talking about are settled in cash. That is, every time you get one of these payments, the money is added to your brokerage account almost instantly. Take a gander at the incredible yields we’re finding from some of the market’s best-known stocks…… Read More

Right now you can earn big, double-digit “Instant Yields” from some of the safest stocks in the world. For example, we’ve found yields as high as 17.4% from Kraft Foods (Nasdaq: KFT)… 17.0% from Disney (NYSE: DIS)… and even as much as 18.1% from tech giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). #-ad_banner-#This isn’t some investment gimmick, either. The payouts I’m talking about are settled in cash. That is, every time you get one of these payments, the money is added to your brokerage account almost instantly. Take a gander at the incredible yields we’re finding from some of the market’s best-known stocks… At first glance, these payouts may seem impossible. After all, a quick look at Yahoo Finance tells us that none of these stocks pay more than 3.5% a year. So how are investors earning so much income from giant brand name stocks like Kraft Foods, Disney and Intel? It’s easy. They’re selling covered calls. On the surface, selling covered calls seems like a complex concept. It involves options, an investing tool most investors don’t know much about to begin with. But used properly, selling covered calls can be one of the market’s most lucrative investment strategies — especially… Read More

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have changed the face of investing.#-ad_banner-#​ First launched in 1993, the ETF industry has surged to more than $1.5 trillion in assets spread across more than 3,100 ETFs and exchange-traded notes (ETNs).  Nearly every conceivable strategy has been converted into an ETF. I can only imagine the financial mad scientists who are hard at work designing the latest ETFs. Unusual ETFs are meant to fill a niche in your portfolio while allowing you to capitalize on your investment ideas for the coming year.  Out of all the niche ETFs available in 2014, my… Read More

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have changed the face of investing.#-ad_banner-#​ First launched in 1993, the ETF industry has surged to more than $1.5 trillion in assets spread across more than 3,100 ETFs and exchange-traded notes (ETNs).  Nearly every conceivable strategy has been converted into an ETF. I can only imagine the financial mad scientists who are hard at work designing the latest ETFs. Unusual ETFs are meant to fill a niche in your portfolio while allowing you to capitalize on your investment ideas for the coming year.  Out of all the niche ETFs available in 2014, my favorites are those that follow the share repurchase trend and those that will benefit from a falling U.S. dollar.  Buyback programs indicate management’s strong belief in the potential of the company’s own shares. This confidence could be signaling bullish activity that is taking place behind the scenes. At the very least, buybacks are a clear sign that the company believes the best use of its cash is to buy back its own shares. Buybacks intrinsically increase the value of investors’ shares by decreasing the number of outstanding shares, thereby lifting earnings per share (EPS).  Last year alone, the 30 companies… Read More