Recently, my wife—who does not follow the financial world—asked me how a hedge fund works. She read about the immense loss suffered by Credit Suisse due to the Archegos hedge fund meltdown. She wanted to know if the losses would affect customers of the bank. The discussion started me thinking about how complicated our financial […]
Author: Tim Plaehn
Leverage: It’s Why Portfolios Blow Up
Last week, the forced unwinding of the Archegos Capital Management hedge fund put fears of a market collapse into investors’ minds. While it appears to have been an isolated case, the fund’s collapse vividly points out the dangers of using leverage to boost investment returns. Let’s discuss how excess leverage can turn declines in security […]
When Do You Sell Your Dividend Stocks?
When it comes to money, humans primarily react to the emotions of fear and greed. The effect of greed is to push investors to buy when prices are high, and fear triggers selling when investment prices are low. For most stock market investors, the goal is to buy low and sell high, yet the emotions […]
Stocks to Buy When the Bull Market Fizzles Out
Just over a year ago, the U.S. stock market bottomed out following a pandemic-triggered economic shutdown. From the trough, the major stock indexes marched steadily higher. In the 12 months following the bottom, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) gained 77%. The Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100 stock index, is up […]
How Bond Rates, Electric Vehicles, Bitcoin, and Tulips Will Affect Your Dividends
I spend my day reading financial news, and usually I have my TV tuned to one of the business networks in the background. I have been in and around the financial world formore than 30 years. I wake every day and tell myself: “We live in very interesting times.” One of the things making them […]
Business Development Companies Could Be Some of the Biggest Winners from Rate Hikes
With interest rates on the rise, there are worries that the value of high-yield investments will decline. For bonds and bond funds, that is definitely the case—bond prices go down when interest rates go up. Many investors know that truth; however, the rules that apply to one type of income investment are not universal across […]
What Our Dividend Investing Changes in 2020 Tell Us About 2021
This time last year, the WHO was about to label the novel coronavirus that was spreading across the globe a pandemic, and no one knew where it would lead, either for our health or the health of the economy. We were at the beginning of not only a deadly pandemic, but also a severe stock […]
Your Dividend Life Raft For Unsettled Markets
The first two months of 2021 were marked by heightened stock market volatility. I am sure you watched the GameStop stock price game, where billions were made and then lost. Shares of high-flying Tesla (TSLA) have lost 20% in a few short weeks. For investors who bought at $900, looking at a $700 share price […]
Three Dividend Strategies Working Together To Give You Reliable Income
As the editor/writer for three income-focused investment services here at Investors Alley, I interact a lot with the subscribers to my services. I receive a lot of positive feedback, probably because my somewhat unique investment strategies work. I also invest alongside my subscribers. I am an income-focused researcher and investor. I decided long ago it […]
How to Outperform 98.8% of the S&P 500 With Dividend Stocks
For 2020, the S&P 500 index returned 18.40%, so if you didn’t earn almost 20% in your stock portfolio, you might be wondering what happened. But just because the overall returns are high, it doesn’t mean all stocks are performing the same way. For example, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) managed to earn just […]