Investment Times Daily

How can I get good at R? This has come up enough times for me to outline my thoughts on the subject. That way I can simply forward people to this post the next time the question comes up.

The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index is an unmanaged index that tracks the performace of 500 widely held, large-capitalization U.S. stocks. Indices are not managed and do not incur fees or expenses. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

The S&P 500 Top 50 consists of 50 of the largest companies from the S&P 500, reflecting U.S. mega-cap performance. Index constituents are weighted by …

If you like big dividends and discounted prices, Stag Industrial (NYSE:STAG) may have recently caught your eye. Its shares have fallen 12% since August 1st, and its dividend yield (paid monthly) has risen to 6.3% (annually). And despite Stag’s unique risk exposures (i.e.

By definition, dividend kings are the most elite group of dividend growth companies. Many investors are familiar with the dividend aristocrats which are companies with at least 25 consecutive years of dividend increases. To date, the list shows a little bit more than 50 businesses.

Diversification matters, because it protects investors from the proverbial bad apple that can take a serious bite out of your dividend income at the worst possible time.

In a previous article titled, My Dividend Retirement Plan, I outlined the concept of the dividend crossover point. This happens when your dividend income exceeds expenses for the first time. The dream of every dividend investor is to achieve this point of financial independence.

Less than six months ago municipal closed end funds (CEFs) were showing signs they were overheating. All 176 municipal bond CEFs were trading at 2 standard deviations above their average 52 weeks premium/discount to NAV.

Every month, I give a breakdown of the regional FED surveys like the Empire State Manufacturing Survey. I do this because they add valuable information to the big economical puzzle. In addition to that, they are leading the ISM index.

In today’s market environment with assets being generally highly priced and expected returns low, I look more and more at often overlooked high yield equity alternatives which can provide a higher predictability of future returns.