For investors looking to buy stock in a clothing retailer, it would normally be a no-brainer to consider stalwarts like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), well-known dollar stores, or other discount merchandisers. But things aren’t normal, and they haven’t been for years. Since the economy just can’t seem to shift into a higher gear, I’d avoid Wal-Mart and the other types of clothing outlets I just mentioned. Their sales come mainly from middle- and lower-income consumers, the people who have suffered most in the years since the financial crisis and who… Read More

For investors looking to buy stock in a clothing retailer, it would normally be a no-brainer to consider stalwarts like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), well-known dollar stores, or other discount merchandisers. But things aren’t normal, and they haven’t been for years. Since the economy just can’t seem to shift into a higher gear, I’d avoid Wal-Mart and the other types of clothing outlets I just mentioned. Their sales come mainly from middle- and lower-income consumers, the people who have suffered most in the years since the financial crisis and who continue to see their spending power dwindle. #-ad_banner-# Rising costs, stagnant or shrinking wages, and lousy or non-existent benefits are squeezing these groups hard, Wal-Mart and other discounters could well be facing years of erosion in revenue and earnings growth rates. At this point, for example, Wal-Mart’s sales are growing at only about 3% a year, from around $406 billion in 2009 to just over $473 billion now. That’s pretty anemic compared with 2004 through 2008, when sales rose at a healthy 7.9% clip. The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if annual sales and profits at Wal-Mart… Read More

I have a large number of readers who have been with me since the launch of my premium advisory, The Daily Paycheck, back in January 2010. They watched as I slowly transformed the $200,000 cash stake from my company into the $291,776 portfolio it is today. New subscribers are now greeted with a portfolio of more than 50 securities. And the questions I get asked most are 1) How do I get started? and 2) Can I use this strategy if I have less than $200,000 to invest? The short answers to those questions are: slowly and absolutely.  But I… Read More

I have a large number of readers who have been with me since the launch of my premium advisory, The Daily Paycheck, back in January 2010. They watched as I slowly transformed the $200,000 cash stake from my company into the $291,776 portfolio it is today. New subscribers are now greeted with a portfolio of more than 50 securities. And the questions I get asked most are 1) How do I get started? and 2) Can I use this strategy if I have less than $200,000 to invest? The short answers to those questions are: slowly and absolutely.  But I want to spend a little time today explaining the “science” behind The Daily Paycheck strategy and how you can use this strategy to meet your individual needs. #-ad_banner-#It was as much a surprise to StreetAuthority co-founder Paul Tracy as it was to me. As an experiment, Paul tried to build a personal portfolio of dividend paying stocks to see if he could get 30 dividend checks in a month. But he achieved far more than the joy of receiving dividends every day. Paul enrolled all his securities in an automatic reinvestment program through his online brokerage account. And before long,… Read More

Selling puts in your investment account can be a tremendous strategy for generating reliable income while taking on less risk than more traditional income strategies like buying and holding dividend stocks. The trading approach is made possible by selling a put option to speculators who either: 1. Think that the underlying stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF) is headed lower, or 2. Want to hedge their current exposure.#-ad_banner-# From our perspective as option sellers, one of the most important decisions is what types of securities to sell puts against. Specifically, some traders struggle with the… Read More

Selling puts in your investment account can be a tremendous strategy for generating reliable income while taking on less risk than more traditional income strategies like buying and holding dividend stocks. The trading approach is made possible by selling a put option to speculators who either: 1. Think that the underlying stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF) is headed lower, or 2. Want to hedge their current exposure.#-ad_banner-# From our perspective as option sellers, one of the most important decisions is what types of securities to sell puts against. Specifically, some traders struggle with the decision of whether to sell puts against individual stocks (which give them a risk/return profile that is affected by the individual company dynamics), or against broad indexes or ETFs (which offer more diversification). To determine where you should put your capital to work, let’s look at the driving forces for both risk and returns based on both of these approaches. Volatility And Diversification One of the primary benefits of investing in an ETF as opposed to individual stock positions is that the ETF gives you instant diversification. However, keep in mind that not all ETFs are as diversified as… Read More

The life of a Wall Street analyst can be vexing.  Hedge fund managers will take your call only if you have a can’t-miss idea to put in front of them. The analysts push their investment committees to help their cause by designating certain stocks as a top pick, or in the case of Goldman Sachs, they get the stock added to the Conviction List. Yet here’s the trouble with this back-and-forth between analysts and fund managers: If a stock pick doesn’t work out, they must yank it from the list and admit defeat. As an example, Goldman Sachs… Read More

The life of a Wall Street analyst can be vexing.  Hedge fund managers will take your call only if you have a can’t-miss idea to put in front of them. The analysts push their investment committees to help their cause by designating certain stocks as a top pick, or in the case of Goldman Sachs, they get the stock added to the Conviction List. Yet here’s the trouble with this back-and-forth between analysts and fund managers: If a stock pick doesn’t work out, they must yank it from the list and admit defeat. As an example, Goldman Sachs just gave up on its Conviction List rating for The Fresh Market (NYSE: TFM), a smaller and less established rival to Whole Foods Market (NYSE: WFM). Since TFM was first added to Goldman’s coveted group of Conviction List stocks in February, it has fallen 15% while the S&P 500 Index has risen 20%. The one-year performance for TFM has been even weaker. #-ad_banner-#​Yet it’s the reasoning behind the rating change that should spook any investors that are bullish on Whole Foods. “TFM’s expansion into more competitive markets will weigh on results, and rising… Read More

Today, I want to show you a chart every investor in America needs to be aware of.  Not only does this simple graph answer one of the biggest questions facing U.S. investors today, but it could also be painting a picture regarding the state of the U.S. stock market right now.  It’s our hope that after seeing this chart, you’ll have a better understanding of what the investing future might look like… and how you can start preparing your portfolio for it.  Take a look…  The chart above shows the yield on Japanese Government 10-Year bonds… Read More

Today, I want to show you a chart every investor in America needs to be aware of.  Not only does this simple graph answer one of the biggest questions facing U.S. investors today, but it could also be painting a picture regarding the state of the U.S. stock market right now.  It’s our hope that after seeing this chart, you’ll have a better understanding of what the investing future might look like… and how you can start preparing your portfolio for it.  Take a look…  The chart above shows the yield on Japanese Government 10-Year bonds since 1986. As you can see, after falling sharply in the 90s, bond yields haven’t topped 3% since 1995 in Japan.  What do Japanese bond yields have to do with the U.S. stock market? Let me explain…  Like the U.S., Japan has seen its share of “asset bubbles.”  #-ad_banner-#In the late 1980s, a bubble in the Japanese housing market caused real estate prices in Tokyo to surge 180%. Stocks also soared, with the Nikkei 225 (Japan’s equivalent to the S&P 500) rising 132% in five years.  But shortly thereafter, the Japanese economy came crashing down. Between 1989 and 1992, Japanese… Read More

Black Friday, Nov. 29, is less than a week away. The iconic day can be described as one of numbers: Millions of bargain hunters will spend hours upon hours waiting in lines to spend billions to walk away with the best deals. This year, U.S. Black Friday sales are expected to total about $13.6 billion, a 3.9% increase from last year, according to IbisWorld research. There’s one sure winner to emerge from this buying frenzy. And no, it’s not necessarily Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) or Target (NYSE: TGT). In my mind, it’s the credit card companies who really benefit. Read More

Black Friday, Nov. 29, is less than a week away. The iconic day can be described as one of numbers: Millions of bargain hunters will spend hours upon hours waiting in lines to spend billions to walk away with the best deals. This year, U.S. Black Friday sales are expected to total about $13.6 billion, a 3.9% increase from last year, according to IbisWorld research. There’s one sure winner to emerge from this buying frenzy. And no, it’s not necessarily Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) or Target (NYSE: TGT). In my mind, it’s the credit card companies who really benefit. In 2011, the National Retail Federation found Americans primarily use credit cards to fuel their Black Friday buying binges. In 2012, MasterCard (NYSE: MA) reported a 26.2% increase in retail transactions compared to the previous year tied to Black Friday purchases.#-ad_banner-# With tight budgets prevailing again this year, MA may receive another boost as consumers choose to hoard their cash and put purchases on their cards. But it’s not just Black Friday, or even U.S. retail sales, that is driving MA higher. Currently, over 1.9 billion people worldwide use a MasterCard, and the card is accepted at over 35.9 million… Read More

Imagine if Ford (NYSE: F) offered up its assembly lines to Chrysler. Or if Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) started building computers for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).#-ad_banner-# Well, semiconductor giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is pursuing just such a move. The chipmaker has built up so much excess manufacturing capacity that is now looking to make chips — for other chipmakers.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that “Intel’s fabs would be open ‘to any company able to utilize our leading-edge silicon.'” It’s a painful but necessary move. Intel has spent billions on its various fabrication plants (“fabs,” for… Read More

Imagine if Ford (NYSE: F) offered up its assembly lines to Chrysler. Or if Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) started building computers for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).#-ad_banner-# Well, semiconductor giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is pursuing just such a move. The chipmaker has built up so much excess manufacturing capacity that is now looking to make chips — for other chipmakers.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that “Intel’s fabs would be open ‘to any company able to utilize our leading-edge silicon.'” It’s a painful but necessary move. Intel has spent billions on its various fabrication plants (“fabs,” for short) and simply can’t afford to let them sit idle. Trouble is, it’s a crowded field. Firms such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) and Samsung already operate chip foundries for firms such as Apple and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) that choose to go “fab”-less (that is, outsource their production). To help snag customers, analysts think Intel will need to beef up its sales proposition by offering the ability to design and test chips — a key series of steps before production can actually begin. And that has put the spotlight on the leading players in field known as electronic design… Read More

What do a small manufacturing company, a major Internet powerhouse and a West-Coast robotics firm have in common? According to Andy Obermueller, they’re all sitting on some of the biggest ground-breaking technologies of the next 10 years. #-ad_banner-#As Chief Investment Strategist for Game-Changing Stocks, Andy’s job at StreetAuthority is to hunt down companies with the potential to produce the next life-changing investing idea. By finding and investing in these stocks before they become the “next big thing,” Andy (and his subscribers) has been able to lock in enormous gains from some of the market’s biggest game-changing trends. Take one of… Read More

What do a small manufacturing company, a major Internet powerhouse and a West-Coast robotics firm have in common? According to Andy Obermueller, they’re all sitting on some of the biggest ground-breaking technologies of the next 10 years. #-ad_banner-#As Chief Investment Strategist for Game-Changing Stocks, Andy’s job at StreetAuthority is to hunt down companies with the potential to produce the next life-changing investing idea. By finding and investing in these stocks before they become the “next big thing,” Andy (and his subscribers) has been able to lock in enormous gains from some of the market’s biggest game-changing trends. Take one of Andy’s most recent “game-changers” — Gogo Inc. (Nasdaq: GOGO), for example. ​Andy originally brought the $2 billion tech stock to his subscribers’ attention in August of this year. At the time, Andy thought the company’s in-flight Internet connectivity technology would take the airline industry by storm. Turns out he was right… Just two months after his recommendation, Gogo shocked the market by reporting third quarter revenue of $85.4 million — smashing analyst estimates of $76.8 million. The announcement sent Gogo on a triple-digit rally… But as excited as we are about Gogo and the future of… Read More

As we’ve written before here at StreetAuthority, when gold was discovered in the American West over a century and a half ago, many of the people who ultimately got rich were the ones who sold tools and goods to the miners. (Think Levi Strauss, who made his fortune not from gold but from the blue jeans he supplied to prospectors.)#-ad_banner-#​ These days, a different type of commodities rush is here — U.S. natural gas production. Prices across the globe are up to four times higher for natural gas compared with… Read More

As we’ve written before here at StreetAuthority, when gold was discovered in the American West over a century and a half ago, many of the people who ultimately got rich were the ones who sold tools and goods to the miners. (Think Levi Strauss, who made his fortune not from gold but from the blue jeans he supplied to prospectors.)#-ad_banner-#​ These days, a different type of commodities rush is here — U.S. natural gas production. Prices across the globe are up to four times higher for natural gas compared with domestic prices, and that disparity is primed to fuel an export boom over the next several years. While the explorers and producers might do well, it will again be the companies that sell transportation and equipment that make the big money — with much less risk. Explorers Are Already Positioning Despite the still historically low prices in natural gas, explorers are buying up fields and positioning for the boom. Atlas Resource Partners (NYSE: ARP) completed its $733 million acquisition of natural gas assets in the Arkoma Basin of Oklahoma from EP Energy earlier this year. Last year, total global… Read More

The transportation sector is the lifeblood of the global economy — but a glance at a chart of the highs and lows of this cyclical sector can look a lot like the surface of a stormy sea.  Take the Baltic Dry Index, for example — it began the year at record lows but has more than doubled in the past few months.  Out-of-favor industries attract value investors who are looking for a bargain and this upswing in the index could be the beginning of a trend reversal, as the transportation sector is often seen as a… Read More

The transportation sector is the lifeblood of the global economy — but a glance at a chart of the highs and lows of this cyclical sector can look a lot like the surface of a stormy sea.  Take the Baltic Dry Index, for example — it began the year at record lows but has more than doubled in the past few months.  Out-of-favor industries attract value investors who are looking for a bargain and this upswing in the index could be the beginning of a trend reversal, as the transportation sector is often seen as a leading indicator. A classic value story is beginning to take shape, and investors are climbing aboard. Global trade is suffering due the widespread downturn, and the shipping sector has taken a dive from its highs less than a decade ago. Nervous businesses have curbed trading activity, keeping demand for shipping lines low. For 2013, global container trade growth is expected to be around 4.7%, rising to 5.7% in 2014.  That growth is what makes a company that’s lowering costs and increasing revenues by 6.4% from the same quarter last year worth a closer look. TAL International Group (NYSE: TAL) is… Read More