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Last October, I told my Income Superstars subscribers it was a good time to consider diversifying their income portfolios with I-Bonds, and I also wrote about the investments in a few Money and Markets columns around the same time.
My reasoning was that I-Bonds represented a great deal for your ultra-conservative money — especially compared to other traditional alternatives like Certificates of Deposit (CDs).
About three months ago, I wrote a Money and Markets column that said I was going to start helping my dad generate more income from his dividend stocks by writing covered call options against them. And since we just closed out our first two positions using a special approach that I have not discussed here before, I wanted to give you an update on how things played out.
What are the implications for the U.S. dollar and investors’ portfolios if bond prices continue to fall, as they have of late? Within that context, should investors care whether the U.S. retains its status as a “reserve currency”? Should it effect the way investors think about their own cash reserves?
Until the end of last year, China had been a net seller of U.S.
Interest rates are the lifeblood of the capital markets and the real economy. Lower rates and easy money fuel asset bubbles and economic activity. Higher rates and tighter money pop bubbles and restrain growth. It’s as simple as that!
So this week’s bond market action bears extremely close watching! Interest rates have been in a deep slumber since the summer of 2011.
Nine new bond ETFs came to market in February, including the first sector bond ETFs and leveraged TIPS spread funds. Seven of the nine came from BlackRock’s iShares brand. The 2/16/12 launches included bond sectors, high quality corporates, mortgage-backed securities, and even an aggregate Treasury fund. ProShares introduced a +3x/-3x pair of 10-year TIPS spread ETFs on 2/9/12.
1) iShares Financials Sector Bond Fund (MONY) has 65 holdings, an expense ratio of 0.
The holiday shopping season is now behind us, but that doesn’t mean investors should ignore retailers now.
In fact, I just made a new recommendation in this space for my dad’s retirement portfolio … on top of a few other choice store stocks that are ALREADY in both his income portfolio as well as my long-standing Dividend Superstars list.
State Street Global Advisors rolled out two fixed income ETFs on December 1. SPDR Barclays Capital Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF (FLRN) and SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Treasury ETF (SST) help round out the SPDR bond fund offerings, but don’t offer anything new or innovative.
Potential double-top forming at the long-term significant resistance level at its late 2008 high
First let’s make sure we understand the basics of bonds.
Bonds are a form of debt. When a company or a government needs to borrow money it can borrow from banks and pay interest on the loan, or it can borrow from investors by issuing bonds and paying interest on the bonds.
Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) introduced the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) on 10/20/11. With an expense ratio of just 0.17%, the new ETF becomes the lowest cost U.S. listed dividend fund. Schwab’s online customers can also buy and sell it commission-free.
According to the underlying index fact sheet (pdf), the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index came into existence only two months ago.
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Recent News
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Natural Resource-Related Stocks Show Promise: Frank Barbera
The Gold Report: Europe is in the headlines daily: more leftists coming to power, regional banks suffering, renewed recession appearing to take hold. What is your take on Europe?
Frank Barbera: In the headlines, Europe looks like quite the mess. Imagine being a Greek who saved over a lifetime now facing the possibility of devaluation or Greece leaving the euro. If Greece pulls out of the euro and devalues, most of the people will see their life savings collapse in terms of purchasing power.
In my view, there is a pretty good chance that would spark a contagion. When people in Spain or Italy see Greece pull out and return to a devalued drachma, there will be . . . → Read More: Natural Resource-Related Stocks Show Promise: Frank Barbera
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Natural Resource-Related Stocks Show Promise: Frank Barbera
The Gold Report: Europe is in the headlines daily: more leftists coming to power, regional banks suffering, renewed recession appearing to take hold. What is your take on Europe?
Frank Barbera: In the headlines, Europe looks like quite the mess. Imagine being a Greek who saved over a lifetime now facing the possibility of devaluation or Greece leaving the euro. If Greece pulls out of the euro and devalues, most of the people will see their life savings collapse in terms of purchasing power.
In my view, there is a pretty good chance that would spark a contagion. When people in Spain or Italy see Greece pull out and return to a devalued drachma, there will be . . . → Read More: Natural Resource-Related Stocks Show Promise: Frank Barbera
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Dr. Frankenstein’s Europe
"Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race."
– The musings of Dr. Frankenstein about his creation of a monster, in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein
And later the monster answers:
"Shall each man," cried he, "find a wife for his . . . → Read More: Dr. Frankenstein’s Europe
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The People Have Spoken and Precious Metals Will Soar: Leonard Melman
TGR: It seems that economists can plan and recommend, and politicians can negotiate and maneuver, and pundits can analyze and predict all they want, yet when the people don’t want to play along, it can all mean nothing. Of course, we’re talking about the elections in France and Greece. What’s going on?
Leonard Melman: What’s going on is that the monetary authorities in Europe have decided that austerity is the only way out of the financial dilemma, which I find kind of amusing, because it is their Keynesian activities that created those policies in the first place. Their decision now is that austerity, which is cutting back government programs, is the only thing that will work. The problem is . . . → Read More: The People Have Spoken and Precious Metals Will Soar: Leonard Melman
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Are JPMorgan Chase ETNs Safe?
I don’t know about you, but here in Texas I can barely drive a mile without passing a JPMorgan Chase (JPM) branch. They’re even inside the grocery stores.
Simply being everywhere doesn’t make a bank safe, of course. As we learned last week, traders in London just cost JPMorgan $2 BILLION and possibly more! Fitch Ratings downgraded its credit rating one notch to A-plus, and it looks like Moody’s may cut the bank, too.
Weiss Ratings, ahead of the curve as usual, cut JPMorgan Chase to “D” on September 30, 2010. And on October 22, 2010, they issued a special news release advising subscribers that among U.S. banks, JPMorgan was carrying the largest . . . → Read More: Are JPMorgan Chase ETNs Safe?
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