A few years after the global economy emerged from the economic crisis of 2008, commodity prices began to surge, thanks to ongoing robust demand from China. Chief financial officers at mining firms quickly realized that firm commodity prices implied robust future profit streams, and a broad range of new mining projects were put into motion. To pay for those projects, billions of dollars were borrowed, and investors began to anticipate impressive… Read More

A few years after the global economy emerged from the economic crisis of 2008, commodity prices began to surge, thanks to ongoing robust demand from China. Chief financial officers at mining firms quickly realized that firm commodity prices implied robust future profit streams, and a broad range of new mining projects were put into motion. To pay for those projects, billions of dollars were borrowed, and investors began to anticipate impressive cash flow returns from all of that borrowing. Just a few years later, that optimism has evaporated. Slumping commodity prices have hurt potential returns from these expansion plans. Of greater concern, some mining firms are now carrying too much debt, and unless commodity prices rebound, they could be looking at a cash crisis in the next year or two. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (INDX: CRB), which tracks… Read More

If you’d like us to answer one of your investing questions in our weekly Ask The Expert Q&A column, email us at editors@investinganswers.com. (Note: We will not respond to requests for stock picks.) Question: When’s the best time of year to invest? –Valerie V., Seattle Investors have become well acquainted with the phrase “Sell in May and go away,” which suggests that stocks only generate… Read More

If you’d like us to answer one of your investing questions in our weekly Ask The Expert Q&A column, email us at editors@investinganswers.com. (Note: We will not respond to requests for stock picks.) Question: When’s the best time of year to invest? –Valerie V., Seattle Investors have become well acquainted with the phrase “Sell in May and go away,” which suggests that stocks only generate gains until Memorial Day, after which they slip in value before rising again after Labor Day. Is this axiom on the mark, or is it a myth? Well, in an analysis of 100 years’ worth of monthly returns, Bespoke Investment Research couldn’t find any such trend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 0.37% on average every June, 1.39% each July, and 1.01% every August. Then again, the market tends to modestly rise in most months, with February… Read More

A big part of my job as managing editor of StreetAuthority involves talking with our premium newsletter experts to get a sense of what they like in the market, where they think it’s headed and how they plan to help their followers profit. #-ad_banner-#That means I get paid to hear from some of the top investing minds in the country on a regular basis. What could be better? I want to share some… Read More

A big part of my job as managing editor of StreetAuthority involves talking with our premium newsletter experts to get a sense of what they like in the market, where they think it’s headed and how they plan to help their followers profit. #-ad_banner-#That means I get paid to hear from some of the top investing minds in the country on a regular basis. What could be better? I want to share some of that wisdom. Starting today I will feature insights and top picks from each of our experts over the next couple weeks as a way of saying thanks for being a StreetAuthority.com reader.  Today’s pick comes courtesy of Nathan Slaughter. Prior to taking over the reins at High-Yield Investing this summer, Nathan successfully managed three income portfolios at several other StreetAuthority newsletters over the past 10 years. Nathan racked up gains of 45.9% for the positions in his “… Read More

Going against the masses rarely pays off in investing. Finding an opportunity that the rest of the market is completely missing, identifying the right instruments, calculating the right amount of leverage and… Read More

In search of a second income after graduating from college, I started a small real estate publication that worked with local real estate agents to help promote their home listings.  By broad standards, my venture could be labeled… Read More

I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. Read More

I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. It has an interest in 881 producing wells in Texas and Kansas. VOC pays the costs of operating and drilling wells. VOC Partners, the sponsoring company, gets 20% of the net income from the wells. The remaining 80% goes to the trust, which pays it out to shareholders. (Come tax time, shareholders receive a 1099 — not a K-1, thankfully. This makes VOC a good holding for a retirement account.) For a while, things went swimmingly and VOC paid handsome distributions. Then in October 2012, VOC announced it had drilled a bad well. The… Read More

Despite the markets’ push to record levels, energy stocks have been locked into a bearish slump for the past two years.  With natural gas plummeting to an all-time low in the summer of 2012 and crude contained by slow economic growth, energy stocks have been big underperformers. That shows up in the sector’s 3% gain in the past five years, 12% gain in the past three and just 7% gain in 2013 against the S&P 500’s 20%.#-ad_banner-# But with natural gas… Read More

Despite the markets’ push to record levels, energy stocks have been locked into a bearish slump for the past two years.  With natural gas plummeting to an all-time low in the summer of 2012 and crude contained by slow economic growth, energy stocks have been big underperformers. That shows up in the sector’s 3% gain in the past five years, 12% gain in the past three and just 7% gain in 2013 against the S&P 500’s 20%.#-ad_banner-# But with natural gas trading well above its multi-year low and crude recently breaking above $100, the stage could be set for a rebound. One of my favorite ways to cash in on the energy trade is with offshore drillers. I’m bullish on the offshore drilling industry because that’s where most of the new oil is being found. In the past decade, more than 40% of all newly discovered oil was found in ultra-deep water, bypassing both onshore and near-shore discoveries. Big finds in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts… Read More

I am usually not much fun at parties or other social situations.  I’m not dour or unfriendly by any means, but most consider my interests and passions uninteresting at best and mind-numbingly boring at worst. Rather than keeping up with the Kardashians or Kanye West, I prefer to read magazines… Read More

Risk equals reward, right? This has been an investment concept for more than a century. The notion implies that every asset class delivers gains that account for their volatility and risk. Bonds (which have default risk) generate modestly better returns than cash, large-cap stocks have delivered better returns than bonds over the long haul, and small-cap stocks,… Read More

Risk equals reward, right? This has been an investment concept for more than a century. The notion implies that every asset class delivers gains that account for their volatility and risk. Bonds (which have default risk) generate modestly better returns than cash, large-cap stocks have delivered better returns than bonds over the long haul, and small-cap stocks, the riskiest asset class of all, are expected to generate the best returns of all, at least for investors who can stomach the wild swings. But is the adage really true? Are you really compensated for risk with better returns? The answer may surprise you. To see whether you are taking on too much risk in search of rewards, let’s turn to Stanford University professor William Sharpe, who devised a handy measure of risk-adjusted returns back in the 1960s. His “Sharpe ratio” is used… Read More

After a volatile few months, interest rates appear to be settling back into a tight trading range, For example, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury has hovered between 2.5% and 2.7% for more than a month now, after a stunning surge in May… Read More