Free Investing

Dobromir Stoyanov submits:As a dividend growth investor, two of the best dividend lists for further research that I have focused on have been the S&P Dividend Aristocrats and the Dividend Achievers Indexes. The first list focuses on stocks which have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years in row, while the second list focuses on stocks which have consistently raised distributions for over one decade. The Dividend Aristocrats index has supposedly outperformed the stock market over the past five years. In my research I have uncovered many dividend stocks however which have raised dividends for more than 25 years in a row, yet they are not included in the Dividend Aristocrats Index. I discussed this in dividend conspiracies.The limitations behind the dividend aristocrat’s index are that first a company has to be included in the S&P 500 before it qualifies. In addition to that, S&P requires minimum market capitalization of $3 billion and an average daily trading volume of $5 million. This means that even if a company has managed to raise annual dividends for 25 years in a row, it might not be included in the elite dividend index if it has a low market capitalization or that it is relatively illiquid. As a dividend investor, the last two criteria are irrelevant to me.Complete Story »

Trader Mark submits:The market has turned very choppy as we encounter many multiple cross winds on the charts. You have 1100 as a line in the sand, with S&P 1093/1094 being the exponential 50-/200-day moving averages below... but 1113, the 200 day simple moving average above... and then a Fibonacci level up there at 1128, and June intraday highs of 1130. It's not like it was 3-4 weeks ago when there was 'easy money' to be made in grand moves up and down. Hence I'm staying smaller and puttering around the edges waiting for easier intermediate term trades.While the index is relatively benign there is some serious damage going on in quite a few names; my watchlists have some gaping wounds showing in them. I'm going to start with a sleepy stock, Colgate (CL) which usually is going to move 6-7% in a year, spitting out dividends and boring you to death. Not today... it appears a couple of company's in the "consumer NON discretionary" are raising fears of pricing pressure. Translation = deflation potential among America's consumers as weak incomes are causing trade downs and trade "outs". What Colgate usually does in 4-5 months it is doing in one session alone. This would be akin to a high beta name like Baidu moving 35% in a session. (Click to enlarge)Complete Story »

Gabriel Kaplan submits:It has been brought to my attention that the Top 50 list of Household & Personal Care Product Companies is out there (click here). The interesting part is that for over 30 years P&G (PG) has topped that list. In this industry, you might expect new companies to form and challenge the old ones since fashion changes rather quickly, but that is not how things work in this part of the business world. Contenders are soon gobbled up into a bigger company that has the resources to distribute that product in a global manner. This is similar to how the beer industry works. I always thought Corona (a beer I drink) and Arm & Hammer (a toothpaste I use) had something in common.Complete Story »

Market Folly submits:We're pleased to present the second quarter 2010 commentary from East Coast Asset Management. The letter, penned by Chief Investment Officer Christopher Begg, touches on a number of intriguing and hotly debated topics, including inflation. Some of you will recall that we featured some past commentary from East Coast where the hedge fund examined the deflation-reflation continuum. East Coast is decisively in the inflationist camp. It believes that central banks armed with printing presses can only lead to one outcome. Its portfolio is positioned to mitigate the effects of any tail risk events such as hyperinflation, a bond bubble, a spike in interest rates, paper currency debasement, and a double dip recession. You'll recall that Baupost Group's Seth Klarman has also protected his portfolio from tail risk events as a form of cheap insurance. Complete Story »

Market Folly submits:We're pleased to present the second quarter 2010 commentary from East Coast Asset Management. The letter, penned by Chief Investment Officer Christopher Begg, touches on a number of intriguing and hotly debated topics, including inflation. Some of you will recall that we featured some past commentary from East Coast where the hedge fund examined the deflation-reflation continuum. East Coast is decisively in the inflationist camp. It believes that central banks armed with printing presses can only lead to one outcome. Its portfolio is positioned to mitigate the effects of any tail risk events such as hyperinflation, a bond bubble, a spike in interest rates, paper currency debasement, and a double dip recession. You'll recall that Baupost Group's Seth Klarman has also protected his portfolio from tail risk events as a form of cheap insurance. Complete Story »

Market Folly submits:(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund filings.)Next up is Chris Shumway's hedge fund Shumway Capital Partners. Prior to founding his firm, Shumway was previously one of Julian Robertson's right-hand men at legendary hedge fund Tiger Management. As such, he joins the other successful Tiger Cubs and is included in the Tiger Cub portfolio created with Alphaclone for hedge fund replication. Shumway Capital Partners focuses on intensive fundamental research to drive their long/short equity strategy. Back in 2009, Shumway was listed in Barron's top 100 hedge funds for 2009 with a rolling 3-year annualized return of 28%. However, 2010 has proven difficult for the firm as its Sakkonet Fund was down 10% in May after it had gained 4.3% through April. Shumway received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.Complete Story »

Miriam Metzinger submits: Stocks discussed on the lightning round session of Jim Cramer's Mad Money TV Program, Monday, February 8.Bullish Calls:Nike (NKE): "I think that Nike is very cheap, I do not have visibility into the quarter… I do think that Nike can be bought on a scale down…. remember, this is not a good market… but Nike is a high quality name… there was a very good report that Goldman Sachs put out recently which said a lot of good things about Nike… I think that Goldman is right and Nike is right."Complete Story »

Jett Winter submits: For the week ending December 11, 2009 Nuance Communications (NUAN) lead all sentiment gainers with a stunning 11.35 increase in their Piqqem sentiment index. Colgate-Palmolive (CL) came in with a close second at an impressive 11.30 increase in sentiment, and Teva (TEVA) saw its sentiment increase by 7.95 pts. Change in sentiment provides a timing mechanism to understand underlying changes in a security potentially ahead of a price move. For example, a large increase in sentiment should be seen as positive even if the underlying stock has a low absolute sentiment, while a large decrease in sentiment should be seen as negative even if the underlying security has a high absolute sentiment.Complete Story »

Value Expectations submits: In a recent Article by John Tamny, Forbes: To Fix The Global Economy, Fix The Dollar, the effects of a weakening dollar on the U.S. Economy were nicely summarizedWhen money loses value, it's the equivalent of governments raising the rate at which we pay income taxes. But with taxes, we can at least see how much the government is removing from each paycheck.Complete Story »

Dividends4Life submits: With the recent decline in the U.S. dollar, investors are thinking more about international diversification. This can be accomplished by many different means, such as buying a foreign stock, buying an ADR of a foreign company or investing in an international fund. However, one method that is often overlooked is buying a large U.S. multi-national company. Complete Story »