Every quarter, the board of directors at youth-focused retailer The Buckle (NYSE: BKE) must decide how generous they will be with the company’s cash.#-ad_banner-# After all, they realize that many of the company’s investors count on dividends to help supplement their income. But these directors like to tread cautiously. They know that retail spending is hard to predict, and in any given year, sales and profits might not be as strong as the year before. The cautious approach explains why The Buckle is only committed to an $0.80 a share annual dividend — the same payout… Read More

Every quarter, the board of directors at youth-focused retailer The Buckle (NYSE: BKE) must decide how generous they will be with the company’s cash.#-ad_banner-# After all, they realize that many of the company’s investors count on dividends to help supplement their income. But these directors like to tread cautiously. They know that retail spending is hard to predict, and in any given year, sales and profits might not be as strong as the year before. The cautious approach explains why The Buckle is only committed to an $0.80 a share annual dividend — the same payout the company has offered for four straight years. Indeed, if you go to the leading financial websites, such as Yahoo Finance, you’ll spot that $0.80 a share payout, which translates into a so-so 1.5% dividend yield. But these websites don’t have their facts straight. The truth behind The Buckle’s dividend strategy is a lot more compelling. Let me explain… Even as this retailer sticks with a conservative dividend policy on a quarterly basis, investors are also treated to special one-time annual dividends that really change the game. The Buckle paid out a special $2.30 a share special dividend… Read More

Here’s a not-so-bold prediction: IBM (NYSE: IBM) is likely to be the next company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to replace its CEO.#-ad_banner-# Since its board of directors appointed Virginia Rometty to lead the company on Oct. 26, 2011, IBM has steadily morphed from a technology leader to a cash cow. Innovation has been replaced by financial engineering, and the company’s just-completed third-quarter conference call was an exercise in deep frustration as analysts fumed that Big Blue keeps delivering another set of missteps. It’s not Rometty’s fault. She inherited a… Read More

Here’s a not-so-bold prediction: IBM (NYSE: IBM) is likely to be the next company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to replace its CEO.#-ad_banner-# Since its board of directors appointed Virginia Rometty to lead the company on Oct. 26, 2011, IBM has steadily morphed from a technology leader to a cash cow. Innovation has been replaced by financial engineering, and the company’s just-completed third-quarter conference call was an exercise in deep frustration as analysts fumed that Big Blue keeps delivering another set of missteps. It’s not Rometty’s fault. She inherited a bloated behemoth. But it’s hard to find any solid moves that might pave the way for a turnaround either. In the eyes of investors, Rometty got off to a good start. She immediately tasked her charges with finding every opportunity to squeeze out profits, which pushed shares above $200 in early 2012 for the first time in company history. That time held another, more dubious distinction: IBM posted a revenue decline in the first quarter of 2012 and has yet to show revenue growth since. At this point, analysts have moved their ratings to “neutral” or “hold,” with price targets… Read More

These days Wi-Fi has become a necessity, a part of our everyday lives that we just can’t live without. That demand is now being seen in the friendly skies, as fliers prefer a Wi-Fi connection to amenities such as more legroom or better food.  Carriers are taking note, and one company that stands to benefit from this trend is Global Eagle Entertainment (Nasdaq: ENT). Global Eagle provides airline passengers with Internet access, live television, video content, shopping and travel information. Its in-flight services have been installed on more than 500 aircraft, covering both land… Read More

These days Wi-Fi has become a necessity, a part of our everyday lives that we just can’t live without. That demand is now being seen in the friendly skies, as fliers prefer a Wi-Fi connection to amenities such as more legroom or better food.  Carriers are taking note, and one company that stands to benefit from this trend is Global Eagle Entertainment (Nasdaq: ENT). Global Eagle provides airline passengers with Internet access, live television, video content, shopping and travel information. Its in-flight services have been installed on more than 500 aircraft, covering both land and sea. Through its subsidiary Advanced Inflight Alliance (AIA), Global Eagle provides film and television content, games and applications to more than 130 airlines worldwide. Big Tailwinds One of the big tailwinds for Global Eagle is that a Federal Aviation Administration panel just endorsed Wi-Fi as safe for all portions of flights. The panel’s recommendations would lift the restrictions on the use of certain handheld devices below 10,000 feet. Only ground-based cellular connections for voice and data would be prohibited. Passengers would be allowed to access their email and the Internet during all phases of a flight, but only… Read More

After half a decade, the massive U.S. housing crisis is officially over. Pricing and demand for homes are improving, banks are no longer saddled with billions in sour loans, and shares of many homebuilders are trading far up from their generational lows seen in 2008 and 2009.  So should investors prepare for a housing boom in coming years? If so, that would make this a great time to buy homebuilding stocks, which have recently cooled off after multi-year gains. Here’s a look at five key stats to look for in the housing market to give a sense of what lies… Read More

After half a decade, the massive U.S. housing crisis is officially over. Pricing and demand for homes are improving, banks are no longer saddled with billions in sour loans, and shares of many homebuilders are trading far up from their generational lows seen in 2008 and 2009.  So should investors prepare for a housing boom in coming years? If so, that would make this a great time to buy homebuilding stocks, which have recently cooled off after multi-year gains. Here’s a look at five key stats to look for in the housing market to give a sense of what lies ahead. 1. 9 Years And 5 Months That’s how long it has been since the average home in the top 20 U.S. cities sold for the price it sells for today. And adjusted for inflation, home prices are substantially cheaper than they were back in May 2004.  Housing prices peaked in late 2006 and are off roughly 20% since then. The hardest-hit markets since September 2006: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and Tampa, all of which are still more than 35% below their peak. (Denver and Dallas are the only major cities to see prices move higher from that late 2006… Read More

Ken Griffin, a wunderkind of Wall Street, was managing a million dollars while still in college. After launching Citadel Investment Group with just over $4 million, Griffin’s fund is now among the largest in the world, with over $40 billion under management. His fund is among my favorites for investment ideas. Griffin recently made an unusual investment: He just took a nearly 6% stake in the newly public Global Brass and Copper Holdings (NYSE: BRSS).#-ad_banner-# The company specializes in fabricating, processing and distributing specialized brass and copper products. While the company has existed since 2007, its books have been open… Read More

Ken Griffin, a wunderkind of Wall Street, was managing a million dollars while still in college. After launching Citadel Investment Group with just over $4 million, Griffin’s fund is now among the largest in the world, with over $40 billion under management. His fund is among my favorites for investment ideas. Griffin recently made an unusual investment: He just took a nearly 6% stake in the newly public Global Brass and Copper Holdings (NYSE: BRSS).#-ad_banner-# The company specializes in fabricating, processing and distributing specialized brass and copper products. While the company has existed since 2007, its books have been open for scrutiny only since its May IPO.  Global Brass, which recently posted impressive second-quarter results, appears solid, and Citadel’s investment increases my confidence. However, whenever I consider investing in a base metal fabricating company, I am reminded of my first experience in the field.  I made my first copper fabrication investment at 9 years old. I lost 99% of my capital, not counting transaction costs, on the investment. This experience was the first of many in the never-ending learning curve of the financial markets. Here’s what happened: At that age, I was a voracious reader of pulp magazines and comic… Read More

If lending money to the government for years is one of the worst things you can do, then this strategy is the smartest. The 30-year U.S. Treasury Bond is quite possibly the worst investment option out there right now. Even your Uncle Dave’s coin and baseball card collection might offer better long-term returns. Let’s forget for a moment about the Fed’s intention to taper quantitative easing, which has already begun to place upward pressure on interest rates (and thus downward pressure on bond prices). And let’s forget that the longer a bond’s duration, the greater its sensitivity to interest rate… Read More

If lending money to the government for years is one of the worst things you can do, then this strategy is the smartest. The 30-year U.S. Treasury Bond is quite possibly the worst investment option out there right now. Even your Uncle Dave’s coin and baseball card collection might offer better long-term returns. Let’s forget for a moment about the Fed’s intention to taper quantitative easing, which has already begun to place upward pressure on interest rates (and thus downward pressure on bond prices). And let’s forget that the longer a bond’s duration, the greater its sensitivity to interest rate movements. So with every basis point uptick, nothing will feel the pain more acutely than the 30-year “long bond.” #-ad_banner-#Let’s even forget that Uncle Sam’s credit rating has already been downgraded by at least one ratings agency.  Even if interest rates don’t rise and Congress miraculously balances the budget — a best-case scenario — you’re still tying up your capital for the next three decades at a paltry rate of around 3.5%. But here’s the kicker: when your principal is finally repaid in the distant future, those dollars will have lost much of their purchasing power. Just ask anyone who… Read More

“Always be in a position to trade another day.” Those were some words of advice John Bollinger gave Income Trader’s Amber Hestla as they sat at a dinner table at Ted’s Montana Grill in Denver two weeks ago.#-ad_banner-# “John, like Amber, has made a career out of trading options. It was his initial work with options back in the ’80s that led him to develop the Bollinger Bands®, a technical indicator used by analysts the world over to identify when an asset may be overbought or oversold.” Given his contributions to the profession and his accomplishments as a… Read More

“Always be in a position to trade another day.” Those were some words of advice John Bollinger gave Income Trader’s Amber Hestla as they sat at a dinner table at Ted’s Montana Grill in Denver two weeks ago.#-ad_banner-# “John, like Amber, has made a career out of trading options. It was his initial work with options back in the ’80s that led him to develop the Bollinger Bands®, a technical indicator used by analysts the world over to identify when an asset may be overbought or oversold.” Given his contributions to the profession and his accomplishments as a trader, it’s safe to say John has had considerable success navigating the options market. So when Amber asked him what the key to that success has been, she wasn’t surprised to hear his answer: “Always be in a position to trade another day.” As any good trader or investor knows, you should always have capital preservation in mind when taking a position — especially when it comes to options. According to our research, nearly 80% of people who buy options lose money in the process. With those kinds of statistics, it’s not hard to see how some options traders can… Read More

This is the most foolproof way I can think of to earn 1,000% returns and yields above 50%. It may sound impossible, but this will be a reality for many forward-thinking investors. The numbers will be different for every investor, depending on when they recognized this opportunity. Those who saw it earliest will make the most money. I’ll explain everything you need to know shortly. But before we go any further, you need to understand one very critical point… #-ad_banner-#To take advantage of this opportunity you have to change the way you look at your portfolio…  As it stands, many… Read More

This is the most foolproof way I can think of to earn 1,000% returns and yields above 50%. It may sound impossible, but this will be a reality for many forward-thinking investors. The numbers will be different for every investor, depending on when they recognized this opportunity. Those who saw it earliest will make the most money. I’ll explain everything you need to know shortly. But before we go any further, you need to understand one very critical point… #-ad_banner-#To take advantage of this opportunity you have to change the way you look at your portfolio…  As it stands, many investors will ignore what I’m going to share with you… and I know exactly why. You see, as with any great goal, this one will take time to reach. Try to think of a great achievement that only took a few weeks or months to accomplish — they are few and far between. It took decades to put a man on the moon. It took decades to develop a vaccine for polio. It took four years to construct the Golden Gate Bridge… and five years to build the Hoover Dam. These accomplishments weren’t done in a few weeks or a… Read More

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Over two days in November, more than 150 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico will find out what it’s like to experience an electrical outage more massive than anything in our lifetime.#-ad_banner-# Scary proposition, huh? Well, it’s actually a first-of-a-kind drill organized by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to simulate an enemy attack that wipes out chunks of the power grid and leaves continentwide areas without electricity for weeks. It’s attracting a virtual who’s who of military, corporate, academic and utility personnel. We already know… Read More

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Over two days in November, more than 150 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico will find out what it’s like to experience an electrical outage more massive than anything in our lifetime.#-ad_banner-# Scary proposition, huh? Well, it’s actually a first-of-a-kind drill organized by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to simulate an enemy attack that wipes out chunks of the power grid and leaves continentwide areas without electricity for weeks. It’s attracting a virtual who’s who of military, corporate, academic and utility personnel. We already know how portions of the electric grid perform when severe storms strike. Eight million people in the Northeast lost power during Hurricane Sandy last year, making a disastrous situation that much worse. However, the drill, set for Nov. 13-14, is unlikely to reveal anything that disproves what physicists, nuclear scientists, electrical engineers, utilities and the Department of Homeland Security, among others, have been warning of for years. The U.S. grid is a century old. It consists of a patchwork of 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and 5,800 major power plants. The average substation transformer is two years older than its… Read More

Exactly 100 years after Henry Ford launched Ford Motor (NYSE: F), Elon Musk launched Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA). Despite the massive head start, Ford is now seen as the laggard. By a wide variety of measures, Tesla is held in far higher esteem by investors. Depending on your view, Tesla’s lack of an extensive operating history is either the company’s greatest virtue — enabling engineers to start with a blank slate, so to speak — or its greatest risk, as the company has miles to go before it becomes a high-volume automaker, capable of making money in any economic climate. Read More

Exactly 100 years after Henry Ford launched Ford Motor (NYSE: F), Elon Musk launched Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA). Despite the massive head start, Ford is now seen as the laggard. By a wide variety of measures, Tesla is held in far higher esteem by investors. Depending on your view, Tesla’s lack of an extensive operating history is either the company’s greatest virtue — enabling engineers to start with a blank slate, so to speak — or its greatest risk, as the company has miles to go before it becomes a high-volume automaker, capable of making money in any economic climate. In effect, shares of Ford are valued in the context of where the company has been and where it now stands. Shares of Tesla are valued on where the company is headed. Before we look down the road, let’s see how these two stocks compare based on projected 2013 results. #-ad_banner-#This is truly a breakout year for Tesla, as sales are likely to rise from $400 million in 2012 to more than $2 billion this year. And that figure could approach $4 billion by 2015. Of course, investors are paying up for that scorching growth. Shares trade for more… Read More