July News is in so far. On 7/6/10 I purchased EOS, FSC and PFE $8.00 each company. On 7/13/10 I purchased ED, IBM, BPT at $8.00 each. My june statement has arrived. Equities and stock for June $351.11 value at may end was $261.44. Dividends for the month Jumped to $2.25 from .79 cents the period before.
My top three holdings for June were GE 1.594 Shares $22.99, 2nd IGD 1.9271 shares $20.06, and #3 is AOD 3.7947 shares $18.78. Top 3 dividends in June were AOD .44 cents , FRO .25 cents, DO Special Dividend .13 cents Regular Dividend .01 cent. Total of 12 buys for June. Total 33 dividends collected in June.
Well thatis it for now cheers all.
A blog talking about investing in a basket of dividend paying etfs. To generate a long term flow of passive income. Follow me as I grow to learn the world of Dividends and Investing.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Top-Yielding Monthly Dividend Stocks
Many market-players seek shelter from volatility in dividend-paying stocks, which offer investors a stream of steady income that can ease the pain of wild gyrations in the markets. And stocks that pay monthly dividends provide regular, consistent income to investors with usually less volatility than quarterly-paying dividend stocks.
The key to owning stocks that pay monthly dividends rather than quarterly or annual dividend stocks is that your invested capital comes back to you and your money compounds much more quickly.
Lots of investors are looking for monthly dividend payments to supplement their income during retirement. Other preretirement investors love to buy stocks that pay them cash on a monthly basis to help offset their high-risk investments. No matter what type of investor you are, dividend-paying stocks can go a long way toward creating wealth.
Dividend-paying stocks can also help an investor sleep better at night, because they're usually deemed to be safer investments than stocks that don't pay dividends, The number of stocks that now pay a monthly dividend tops over 250, including real estate investment trusts, oil income trusts, closed-end funds and other investment vehicles that own a portfolio of income-producing assets and distribute cash generated by these assets every month to investors.
Let's take a look at four monthly dividend-paying securities that look promising.
If you're bullish on the future for oil and natural gas, you might want to take a look at the Enerplus Resources Fund(ERF). This stock is an energy trust that controls operating subsidiaries to acquire, exploit and operate crude oil and natural gas assets. The company currently controls properties in red hot Marcellus Shale region in the northeastern U.S. Many industry insiders think the Marcellus Shale could be one of the most promising natural gas resources in the Appalachian Basin.
Enerplus Resources has the fifth-highest dividend yield of oil and gas production stocks, at 9.4%. The stock has near-term support around $20 a share and resistance at around $24.
If you think the real estate market is near a bottom, you should take a look at closed-end management investment company LMP Real Estate Income Fund(RIT), which invests in securities related to the real estate industry, tied to sectors such as office, health care, apartments, shopping centers and regional malls. Its current dividend yield is 8.7% This stock is trading near the 200-day moving average of $8.20 a share, which could offer a great entry point if you like the prospects of real estate here. If the 200-day doesn't hold, look for the next area of support to come in at around $7.75. The stock also has some overhead resistance at around $9 to $9.50.
Another name investors should take a look at is the MFS Multimarket Income Trust(MMT), a closed-end fund that maintains a portfolio of investments in high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, emerging market debt securities, U.S. government securities and international investment-grade debt securities. Considering how foreign debt markets have been rattled of late, this trust could offer a great opportunity to get in at depressed prices. The MFS Multimarket Income Trust has direct exposure to some of the PIIG nations, such as Ireland, Italy and Spain. The current dividend yield of the MFS Multimarket Income Trust is 8.2%. The stock is trading near the 50-day moving average of $6.46, and overhead resistance can be found at $6.60 to $6.70.
One last monthly-paying security to consider is the Calamos Convertible Opportunity & Income Fund(CHI), which is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The fund seeks total returns through a combination of capital appreciation and current income by investing in a diversified portfolio of convertible securities and below-investment-grade high-yield fixed-income securities.
Calamos Convertible Opportunity & Income has offered a steady distribution since inception; it has a strong historical performance and is run by an experienced management team. Some of the securities it currently holds are common stock in Freeport McMoRan(FCX), corporate bonds in Vail Resorts(MTN) and convertible preferred stock in Bank of America(BAC). Corporate bonds make up 56% of the funds asset allocation, and energy is the heaviest-weighted sector. Its current dividend yield is 9.4%.
Disclosure NONE
The key to owning stocks that pay monthly dividends rather than quarterly or annual dividend stocks is that your invested capital comes back to you and your money compounds much more quickly.
Lots of investors are looking for monthly dividend payments to supplement their income during retirement. Other preretirement investors love to buy stocks that pay them cash on a monthly basis to help offset their high-risk investments. No matter what type of investor you are, dividend-paying stocks can go a long way toward creating wealth.
Dividend-paying stocks can also help an investor sleep better at night, because they're usually deemed to be safer investments than stocks that don't pay dividends, The number of stocks that now pay a monthly dividend tops over 250, including real estate investment trusts, oil income trusts, closed-end funds and other investment vehicles that own a portfolio of income-producing assets and distribute cash generated by these assets every month to investors.
Let's take a look at four monthly dividend-paying securities that look promising.
If you're bullish on the future for oil and natural gas, you might want to take a look at the Enerplus Resources Fund(ERF). This stock is an energy trust that controls operating subsidiaries to acquire, exploit and operate crude oil and natural gas assets. The company currently controls properties in red hot Marcellus Shale region in the northeastern U.S. Many industry insiders think the Marcellus Shale could be one of the most promising natural gas resources in the Appalachian Basin.
Enerplus Resources has the fifth-highest dividend yield of oil and gas production stocks, at 9.4%. The stock has near-term support around $20 a share and resistance at around $24.
If you think the real estate market is near a bottom, you should take a look at closed-end management investment company LMP Real Estate Income Fund(RIT), which invests in securities related to the real estate industry, tied to sectors such as office, health care, apartments, shopping centers and regional malls. Its current dividend yield is 8.7% This stock is trading near the 200-day moving average of $8.20 a share, which could offer a great entry point if you like the prospects of real estate here. If the 200-day doesn't hold, look for the next area of support to come in at around $7.75. The stock also has some overhead resistance at around $9 to $9.50.
Another name investors should take a look at is the MFS Multimarket Income Trust(MMT), a closed-end fund that maintains a portfolio of investments in high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, emerging market debt securities, U.S. government securities and international investment-grade debt securities. Considering how foreign debt markets have been rattled of late, this trust could offer a great opportunity to get in at depressed prices. The MFS Multimarket Income Trust has direct exposure to some of the PIIG nations, such as Ireland, Italy and Spain. The current dividend yield of the MFS Multimarket Income Trust is 8.2%. The stock is trading near the 50-day moving average of $6.46, and overhead resistance can be found at $6.60 to $6.70.
One last monthly-paying security to consider is the Calamos Convertible Opportunity & Income Fund(CHI), which is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The fund seeks total returns through a combination of capital appreciation and current income by investing in a diversified portfolio of convertible securities and below-investment-grade high-yield fixed-income securities.
Calamos Convertible Opportunity & Income has offered a steady distribution since inception; it has a strong historical performance and is run by an experienced management team. Some of the securities it currently holds are common stock in Freeport McMoRan(FCX), corporate bonds in Vail Resorts(MTN) and convertible preferred stock in Bank of America(BAC). Corporate bonds make up 56% of the funds asset allocation, and energy is the heaviest-weighted sector. Its current dividend yield is 9.4%.
Disclosure NONE
When 'Cheap' ETFs Aren't Really Cheap
It seems like a no-brainer: All things being equal, you pick the exchange-traded fund with the cheapest fees. But, it turns out choosing an ETF based on the lowest annual expense could end up costing you more.
ETFs, of course, hold a basket of stocks or other investments and track an index. Many investors buy them assuming that all they’ll pay is the annual fee. But a growing number of pros are warning that some ETFs have hidden costs for trading them, which vary based on the ETF’s volume. In general, the more active the ETF, the cheaper it is to trade. “The bigger, the better,” says Jim Holtzman, a Pittsburgh-based adviser who has sought better ETF deals.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index fund (EEM: 37.75, +0.16, +0.42%) has $35 billion in assets and is nearly three times more expensive than its rival ETF, the $20.5 billion Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO: 38.30, +0.08, +0.20%). But traders flock to the older iShares product because it has almost six times the average daily trading volume. “EEM is essentially where the fast money is,” says Bradley Kay, associate director of European ETF research at Morningstar. A Vanguard spokesperson says its ETFs’ trading costs are the same as or very close to those of its rivals. A big difference in trading volume can also be seen in two ETFs tracking the same index of inflation-protected bonds, iShares Barclays TIPS Bond (TIP: 105.82, -0.20, -0.18%) and SPDR Barclays Capital TIPS (IPE: 52.27, -0.12, -0.22%). The expense ratio of the iShares product is slightly higher than that of its competitor. But experts say iShares trades 18 times more often in part because each trade is cheaper.
While trading costs are important, Kay says investors who plan to buy and hold an ETF should go with the one that has the lowest expense ratio.
Dow's Losing Streak Hits Seven
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked off a string of ignominious markers on Friday. Among them: the longest losing streak since the dark days of the financial crisis.
Worries about the economy fed into the currency markets, where the dollar slipped against the euro. The euro ended Friday afternoon at $1.2550, up from $1.2386 a week earlier.
Disclosure none
The Dow slipped 46.05 points, or 0.5%, to 9686.48, its seventh straight decline and longest losing streak since the eight-day fall ended Oct. 10, 2008.
The benchmark tumbled 4.5% for the week, its worst weekly percentage drop since the week of the May 6 "flash crash."
The weekly percentage drop also represented the worst performance for any week leading up to the July 4th weekend since 1896. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq put in similarly bleak performances.
The declines came on relatively muted volume ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend. Just over 4 billion shares had traded hands in New York Stock Exchange Composite volume, well shy of the 2010 daily average of 5.4 billion shares.
All in all, it was not a great week for stocks. Worries have been mainly driven be renewed anxiety about the U.S. economy. Those fears were kept alive Friday by a report showing the first drop in U.S. nonfarm payrolls so far this year.
"The only thing that would have been surprising is if it had been a good number," said strategist Stephen Wood of Russell Investments in New York.
Consumer-discretionary companies led the market's decline as investors worried about how the drop in payrolls might hurt already weak consumer and business spending.
Worries about the economy fed into the currency markets, where the dollar slipped against the euro. The euro ended Friday afternoon at $1.2550, up from $1.2386 a week earlier.
Treasurys fell, but gained on the week as concerns percolated about a second half slowdown in the U.S. Crude-oil futures fell for a fifth consecutive day, capping their steepest weekly decline since early May.
Disclosure none
Van Eck Plans First Ever Minor Metals ETF
One section of the ETF world that has seen rapid expansion over the past year has been commodity producing equity ETFs. As investors have embraced ETFs as a means of establishing exposure to natural resource prices, many are beginning to realize that a host of commodities are thinly-traded, and therefore not suitable for “pure play” futures-based or physically-backed ETFs. Due to this, investors have seen the introduction of several funds offering exposure to commodities through stocks of companies engaged in their production and extraction, including ETFs that target copper miners, platinum mining companies, and even timber producers.
One interesting new idea is being developed from Van Eck is to target companies that are engaged in the mining and production of so called ‘minor metals’ such as titanium and cobalt. While these metals are very thinly traded, they remain absolutely vital to a host of current and emerging technologies. In a filing with the SEC, Van Eck identifies several key technologies that utilize these commodities, including cellular phones, high performance batteries, flat screen televisions, and green energy technology such as wind, solar and geothermal. These metals are critical to the future of hybrid and electric cars, high-tech military applications including radar, missile guidance systems, navigation and night vision, and superconductors and fiber-optic communication systems.
As these technologies have grown in importance to every day life, demand for these metals has surged, sending some prices sharply higher. Additionally, political and environmental issues are likely to be front-and-center for many of the equities in this fund, especially due to recent mining tax proposals out of Australia as well as increasing government scrutiny over hazardous industries such as mining. Even more crucially for the equities in the proposed fund is a recent plan from China that seeks to ban exports of certain minerals–a development that could be devastating since China produces just over 90% of the world’s rare Earth metals. However, it could help to spur more investment in the industry and send prices higher.
The fund will track the Minor Metals Index and will hold 30 securities in total, and would be the thirtieth ETF from Van Eck. This new addition would also bring the total number of ETFs in the Commodity Producers Equities ETFdb Category up to 20 in total and offer investors exposure to a slice of the commodity market to which most do not currently have access. The expense ratio and symbol remain a mystery.
Disclosure: None
One interesting new idea is being developed from Van Eck is to target companies that are engaged in the mining and production of so called ‘minor metals’ such as titanium and cobalt. While these metals are very thinly traded, they remain absolutely vital to a host of current and emerging technologies. In a filing with the SEC, Van Eck identifies several key technologies that utilize these commodities, including cellular phones, high performance batteries, flat screen televisions, and green energy technology such as wind, solar and geothermal. These metals are critical to the future of hybrid and electric cars, high-tech military applications including radar, missile guidance systems, navigation and night vision, and superconductors and fiber-optic communication systems.
As these technologies have grown in importance to every day life, demand for these metals has surged, sending some prices sharply higher. Additionally, political and environmental issues are likely to be front-and-center for many of the equities in this fund, especially due to recent mining tax proposals out of Australia as well as increasing government scrutiny over hazardous industries such as mining. Even more crucially for the equities in the proposed fund is a recent plan from China that seeks to ban exports of certain minerals–a development that could be devastating since China produces just over 90% of the world’s rare Earth metals. However, it could help to spur more investment in the industry and send prices higher.
The fund will track the Minor Metals Index and will hold 30 securities in total, and would be the thirtieth ETF from Van Eck. This new addition would also bring the total number of ETFs in the Commodity Producers Equities ETFdb Category up to 20 in total and offer investors exposure to a slice of the commodity market to which most do not currently have access. The expense ratio and symbol remain a mystery.
Disclosure: None
The Second Quarter's Best and Worst Commodities
Quick! Name the best-performing single-commodity exchange-traded product (ETP) of the second quarter.
No, it's not a gold trust; the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD) came in third. It's actually the exchange-traded note tracking coffee's price, the iPath DJ-UBS Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JO).
Surprised?
Well, the second quarter was full of surprises for commodity investors. Unfortunately, most of them were unpleasant.
Of 17 single-commodity or narrowly focused products, only four turned a profit. The winners netted an average 12.1 percent gain, while the average loser gave up 9.9 percent.
We sought out the most liquid single-commodity ETPs to see how well they tracked the spot market over the last three months. When we couldn't find single-commodity ETPs to represent a sector of the futures market, we used the narrowest instruments; that is, two or three commodities wide.
Overall, ETPs—based upon their last sale prices—did a fair job of tracking spot market commodities. The average apparent return for the 17 ETPs was -4.7 percent, while the contemporaneous mean return for the underlying spot commodities was -2.7 percent.
But let's run the numbers asset by asset.
Precious Metals
In a normal futures market, carrying charges—financing costs, storage charges and insurance fees—build up along the futures term structure to make contracts for deferred delivery more expensive than futures for near-term delivery. This condition, often referred to as contango, is expected when there's ample supply of a storable commodity.
An inverted market, on the other hand, exists when deferred deliveries are priced below nearby ones. A dearth of storable supply is usually the culprit.
Normal markets are costly for holders of ETPs based upon long-only futures indexes. In order to maintain exposure to the commodity, futures positions must be rolled forward as contracts approach expiry. In a normal market, that means higher-priced contracts will be purchased with the proceeds from lower-priced futures sales. This incremental loss—or negative roll yield—eats into returns.
That said, the slight disparity in the palladium trust's return vs. spot is a liquidity artifact. The last sale prices reported on the tape don't necessarily reflect the current markets for ETPs. The less actively an ETP trades, the greater the discrepancy between the last sale price and the current bid/offer spread.
This should be kept in mind when considering the apparent returns of light-volume exchange-traded notes.
Base Metals
Energy
Softs
Grains
The Final Tally
In the first quarter, 75 percent of single-commodity and narrowly focused ETPs were winners. The platinum and palladium products were the top performers, along with the livestock ETN. But in the second quarter, the situation reversed: Losers outnumbered winners by better than 3-to-1. Coffee led the way in the second quarter, followed by natural gas.
The worst performers in the year's second stanza were the industrial metals—lead, copper and nickel. In the first quarter, sugar, natural gas and grains brought up the rear.
While there's been jockeying for best and worst honors, gold and silver take the prize for consistency in the first half.
Disclosure I am Long GLD n SLV shares
No, it's not a gold trust; the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD) came in third. It's actually the exchange-traded note tracking coffee's price, the iPath DJ-UBS Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JO).
Surprised?
Well, the second quarter was full of surprises for commodity investors. Unfortunately, most of them were unpleasant.
Of 17 single-commodity or narrowly focused products, only four turned a profit. The winners netted an average 12.1 percent gain, while the average loser gave up 9.9 percent.
We sought out the most liquid single-commodity ETPs to see how well they tracked the spot market over the last three months. When we couldn't find single-commodity ETPs to represent a sector of the futures market, we used the narrowest instruments; that is, two or three commodities wide.
Overall, ETPs—based upon their last sale prices—did a fair job of tracking spot market commodities. The average apparent return for the 17 ETPs was -4.7 percent, while the contemporaneous mean return for the underlying spot commodities was -2.7 percent.
But let's run the numbers asset by asset.
Precious Metals
Commodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| CMX Gold | 11.7% | Normal | TST | 11.7% | 8.1% | |
| CMX Silver | 6.2% | Normal | TST | 6.2% | 5.5% | |
| NYMX Platinum | -8.0% | Normal | ETN | -7.2% | -4.6% | |
| NYMX Palladium | -8.0% | Normal | TST | -7.5% | -6.8% |
Key: TST = Grantor Trust; ETN = Exchange-Traded Note
Gold and silver grantor trusts topped the precious metals group in the second quarter, partly because the trusts hold metal and aren't based upon a futures index. Of course, the underlying commodities increased over the period, but the product didn't get in the way of the gain's realization.In a normal futures market, carrying charges—financing costs, storage charges and insurance fees—build up along the futures term structure to make contracts for deferred delivery more expensive than futures for near-term delivery. This condition, often referred to as contango, is expected when there's ample supply of a storable commodity.
An inverted market, on the other hand, exists when deferred deliveries are priced below nearby ones. A dearth of storable supply is usually the culprit.
Normal markets are costly for holders of ETPs based upon long-only futures indexes. In order to maintain exposure to the commodity, futures positions must be rolled forward as contracts approach expiry. In a normal market, that means higher-priced contracts will be purchased with the proceeds from lower-priced futures sales. This incremental loss—or negative roll yield—eats into returns.
That said, the slight disparity in the palladium trust's return vs. spot is a liquidity artifact. The last sale prices reported on the tape don't necessarily reflect the current markets for ETPs. The less actively an ETP trades, the greater the discrepancy between the last sale price and the current bid/offer spread.
This should be kept in mind when considering the apparent returns of light-volume exchange-traded notes.
Base Metals
Commodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| CMX Copper | -18.0% | Normal | ETN | -19.1% | -11.4% | |
| LME Lead | -18.6% | Normal | ETN | -18.9% | -18.5% | |
| LME Nickel | -19.1% | Normal | ETN | -23.5% | -8.2% |
Key: ETN = Exchange-Traded Note
The market for industrial metals was weak in the second quarter, reflecting the slackened demand for durable goods and housing. The apparent spread between the ETP returns and the spot market is, again, due to timing and contango.Energy
Commodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| NYMX Crude Oil | -9.6% | Normal | ETF | -9.8% | -9.8% | |
| NYMX Gasoline | -10.3% | Inverted/Normal | ETF | -5.8% | -5.8% | |
| NYMX Heating Oil | -2.9% | Normal | ETF | -6.0% | -6.0% | |
| NYMX Natural Gas | 19.8% | Normal | ETF | 12.2% | -8.7% |
Key: ETF = Exchange-Traded Fund
Natural gas turned in the standout performance in the energy category, though deep contango in the futures term structure ate up a lot of the spot market gain. Carrying charges seemed to have also reduced the returns for the heating oil and crude oil exchange-trade funds. The large disparity between the gasoline ETF's return and its spot market is due to gasoline's unstable term structure over the second quarter.Softs
Commodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| ICE Coffee | 21.5% | Normal/Inverted | ETN | -18.5% | 17.1% | |
| ICE Cocoa | -0.4% | Normal | ETN | -1.2% | -4.9% | |
| ICE Cotton | -5.1% | Inverted/Normal | ETN | -3.0% | -0.2% | |
| ICE Sugar | -3.3% | Inverted/Normal | ETN | -7.0% | -23.4% |
Key: ETN = Exchange-Traded Note
Among the softs, coffee was the clear winner. Still, soft ETNs are lightly traded, so the differences between the products' apparent returns and their underlying markets can seem large.Grains
Commodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| CBOT Corn, Wheat, Soybeans | 0.7%* | Normal/Inverted | ETN | -0.7% | -6.1% |
Key: ETN = Exchange-Traded Note
*Spot returns are composites weighted by the constituent commodities' ETP allocations
Grains—in particular, corn and wheat—jumped on the last day of the quarter following U.S. Department of Agriculture reports of lighter-than-expected plantings.
LivestockCommodity | Spot Gain/ (Loss) | Futures Term Structure | ETP Ticker | ETP Type | ETP Gain/ Loss | +/- 200-Day Average |
| CME Live Cattle, Lean Hogs | -0.3%* | Normal/Inverted | ETN | -3.4% | -0.8% |
Key: ETN = Exchange-Traded Note
*Spot returns are composites weighted by the constituent commodities' ETP allocations
While grain prices broke to the upside, livestock prices spent most of the quarter backing off from the parabolic run-ups of the previous year.The Final Tally
In the first quarter, 75 percent of single-commodity and narrowly focused ETPs were winners. The platinum and palladium products were the top performers, along with the livestock ETN. But in the second quarter, the situation reversed: Losers outnumbered winners by better than 3-to-1. Coffee led the way in the second quarter, followed by natural gas.
The worst performers in the year's second stanza were the industrial metals—lead, copper and nickel. In the first quarter, sugar, natural gas and grains brought up the rear.
While there's been jockeying for best and worst honors, gold and silver take the prize for consistency in the first half.
Disclosure I am Long GLD n SLV shares
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