I am looking to buy, but not sure if I am going to bust a move.

I think some of the stocks that I am looking can go lower, like KRFT, BP and GSK.

The bad quarter that KRFT reported was bad. BP faces sanctions in Russia, and GSK has been bribing every hospital in the world.

Of course, when I think there is still a bottom to be found, the stocks go up, and when I think that stocks will go up, they generally crater pretty hard.

Yeah, needless to say, it was a good day for the bear funds! :bouncy:

$60,000 question is, what will tomorrow bring?

Who knows. This market has a lot of weirdness in it, from all the strange manipulations going on.

I picked up a small amount of shares in BP today to add to the small amount that I already own.

Michael W Smith

I hope you were able to pick up more shares of MPC. It is on fire, up 6 or 7 points.

Nope, at this point in time, the bulk of my investing consists of going into my 401K or my ROTH IRA.
I am having all dividends reinvested though.

That is cool. I saw that MPC hit $90 +/-.

I am waiting for a pull back on COP. I should have bought it when it was around $60!!!!

[QUOTE=clovis;7187955]That is cool. I saw that MPC hit $90 +/-.
QUOTE]

Did some checking through my records and found out I bought MRO (Marathon Oil Corporation) in sometime back in 2007. I have reinvesting dividends ever since.

In 2011, MRO decided to "spin off" a company - and thus MPC (Marathon Petroleum) was born. They gave me 1 share of MPC for every share of MRO I had. At that point, I had a made a small profit, but when MRO "spun off" MPC, MRO's stock price went down - and with MPC's stock price - pretty much came out to the price before the spin off and before the price went down.

Today, MRO is worth more than my initial investment.

And then I have all the MPC shares that were given to me - back when the price was $41.00. And reinvesting all dividends back into it. Today, the MPC stock is worth more than the MRO!! And remember, I only paid for the MRO and got the MPC stock for free! :bouncy:

[quote=Michael W. Smith;7188470]No matter how you got the stock, you are looking like a genius!

Congrats on the good fortune!!!

FYI: Saw on PBS/NBR broadcast last night that UnitedHealth currently has contracts w 4 states to implement the administrative side of the ACA/Obamacare, but has won the bid for 20 more states for Jan 1, 2015...just in case this helps someone!

A genius I am not. How I ended up with MRO is after getting a list of companies that you can buy stock directly through, I narrowed the list down - taking out the ones with fees or at least fees that were not feasible in my mind.

I then narrowed the list down more by what the company did and how it was doing.

I then started investing and all dividends have been reinvested. That was the plan all along - pick a good company, reinvest all dividends, and stick with it unless something changed with the company I didn't like anymore.

It's certainly fun to invest though and see ever increasing dividends.

I love dividends...I really do!!!

I bought LLY back in 2009, when the stock was cheap and the yield was high.

I am blessed. I have had at least 20% of my initial investment returned with dividends, and the stock has almost doubled in price since then.

Of course, as with any stock, the company could go belly up at any time, causing the stock to be worthless.

I am thankful and blessed. I really am. To the outside world, I look like a genius. I'll not tell them about some of my other picks, like EXC and WHZ, LOL.

I've got a stock to share with you. It is the only one I own right now.

It's a preferred stock - Magnum Hunter Resources Preferred C. Right now it is paying a dividend of 9.81% and pays monthly. The reason I like it is because it has a liquidation of $25 and the price has rarely dropped below $25. Right now it is a little over $26.

http://www.preferredstockchannel.com/symbol/mhr.prc/

Of course, me posting this almost guarantees it is going down, so maybe wait and watch.

So is it a gas and oil royalty trust?

I didn't have much time to study it, and am a bit confused. Can you explain the stock a little more?

From the link it says post call date, so does that mean they can grab back those shares anytime and if someone bought them for 26 something right now, they would only get 25 back if that happened>

That is what it looked like to me.

I think so. But if you bought at current price, your risk would be about 4% downside if they call the shares and you are getting almost 10% in interest. The good part is that puts a $25 floor on the stock. Anytime it does happen to drop under $25, I buy some more.

A couple of years ago I started looking at preferred stocks thinking they would be less volatile. With the $25 buyback, this one looked like it would be most stable and the company (MHR) also seemed to be a well run company in the oil/gas industry. I owned MHR for a while, but I don't have the stomach for volatility. The MHR Preferred C suits my needs for a high dividend/low volatility stock.

I believe preferred just means we can't vote.

It is an interesting investment.

So, if I read it correctly, it is a stock, and not an issuance of debt.

It appears that it may be traded as a pink sheet. Are they listed at this time?

There is risk. If you read page S-16 of the prospectus, they have an out of not paying dividends. Of course, there is risk with all stocks and divs.

Here's a primer on preferred stocks.http://www.investopedia.com/articles...erredstock.asp

It's listed on NYSE. The problem is different brokers list it differently. For example, Ameritrade lists it as MHR-C and Fidelity lists it as MHRPRC. What I usually do is use the stock lookup and type in mhr and then find the preferred c stock listing.

I am starting to eye MCD, but there could be a further drop, according to my crystal ball.

Also, I want to go on the official record to say that I LOVE DIVIDENDS!!!!!!!!

I LOVE THEM!!!!
I LOVE THEM!!!

i love dividends too
 

I have been looking at the beat up sectors for possible great dividend stocks. retail and mining has be hit hard. there seems to be something to research. anyone looking at these sectors? What so you think the most beat up sectors are currently?

I have been also watching gsk galaxo smith kline.

lately it has been hard to find bargains.

Yes, GSK is getting beat up pretty bad.

I own some shares of GSK, and would like to add more. Seems that GSK has tried to bribe everyone in the world, which has hurt their share price. My bet is that all this will be forgotten in a few years, and the stock price will bounce back.

I also like BP, but it is a gamble at this point, for obvious reasons.

As for mining stocks, I am a little scared of coal. If you look at Arch Coal, be careful...the dividend only pays once a year.

You might look at BGS. It is a food company with a nice dividend. It is closer to its 52 week low. I am watching for another drop in the stock.

I usually buy dividend stocks that pay monthly. I don't know if they are any safer, but I feel safer with them. The stock price is usually a little more stable.

Care to share your favorite div payers, Moon?

I've looked at quite a few monthly div payers, but haven't found any that I like well enough to buy. Most of what I've seen are low yielding.

I don't mind phk for the monthly money

Anyone watching the market after the decline?

I am seeing better prices, but no real bargains, IMO.

What stocks are you looking at? Are you waiting for the Dow to drop even more?

Hey guys, not a great day/week so far for the market ... I've been trading for awhile (with Lightspeed) but pretty much have gone to cash except for a few dividend stocks. Many feel a correction is ahead.

Like Moon, I like some monthlies too. Beside PHK, a few monthly MLPs, BDCs, etc you might watch to ride back up:

PHK, PSEC, FSC, ARR, LINE, LNCO, YYY, CEFL, QRE, VNR, BBEP, and ARP.


I usually watch the ex-dividend dates here:

http://www.dividend.com/dividend-sto...nn-energy-llc/

and the charts at yahoo:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=L...=LINE;range=my

Good luck out there ... Pop

Is anyone taking this plunge as a buy? It does feel a little like the crash several years ago. Ie close eyes and pray. :) I will say I really hate rollercoasters, really makes my stomach hurt.

Some out there think it will be worse then '08. You mentioned sectors a few posts back ... days like this one I look for what sector is going up when everything else is diving and what some of those charts looked like in '08 for an indicator when to re-enter. The midstream guys mostly had a good day and many carry a good dividend (some monthly):

http://www.finviz.com/screener.ashx?...ilgaspipelines


But looking back to '08 in a few charts, Sunoco may not fall far, and APL may plunge some more, wish I knew:


http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=sxl


http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=A...l=APL;range=my


I generally just focus on a few technicals, nothing particularly brainy or complicated (not that anyone else should).

Pop

Nearing the end of the year, and I still have IRA's to fill up.

I think I know where I'm putting the money for mine and my wife's IRA. But my 16 year old son just got a job this year, and I told him I would match anything he made this year and open an IRA for him. (You can NEVER start too early to save for retirement!)

I'm considering either WTR or VZ for him.

Looking for some feedback.

I am thinking about just buying SSO which is an ETF based on 2 x S&P 500. From it's low in 2009 of about 20, it is now 120 or 600% increase over 6 years.

S&P from 2001 - 2013 (increase of about 87% over 13 years which includes losses in 2001-2002 and 2008).

S&P 500 (actual rate not 2 x rate)
2013 32.39%
2012 16.00%
2011 2.11%
2010 15.06%
2009 26.46%
2008 -37.00%
2007 5.49%
2006 15.79%
2005 4.91%
2004 10.88%
2003 28.68%
2002 -22.10%
2001 -11.89%

What do you think? I'm thinking as long as we are in an up market, this is something I don't have to watch every day and should be relatively safe and probably provide double digit returns.

Ha! Up market? I must pick contrary stocks.

Mon

That was my point. Only 3 of the last 13 years have been negative for S&P. My stock picking is terrible and even though I have been using an advising service, my gains are no where near the gains in S&P.

Shhh . . . . . do you hear that? CHAAAAA CHIIIING!!!!!

I'm doing great right now. I just found that one of longer holdings HE - Hawaii Electric is being bought out by Next Era! Stock is up over $4.00 today - it has mostly sat around in the mid $20.00's with some dips over the years. The buyout is worth $33.50 per share.

Once the deal is done - I will get so many shares of Next Era plus a bonus dividend of $.50 / share. The deal won't probably be done until sometime late next year, so in the meantime, my dividends continue to buy more shares.

A bonus is HE also owns a bank which is NOT part of the deal. The bank portion is being spun off, so I get free shares of it.

Below are the dates I've bought in at and share price:

07/2/07 $23.70 / share
08/15/07 $21.16 / share
10/15/07 $22.67 / share
01/30/08 $22.13 / share
03/31/08 $23.57 / share
06/30/08 $25.08 / share
09/30/08 $28.69 / share
09/03/09 $17.54 / share
02/01/10 $19.96 / share

Wooooo Hooooo!!!!!!

Anyone liking any of the oil or energy stocks? The ride is wild today. Bp and RDS have been on the watch list. The dividends will be great if they don't have to cut them due to lack of cash on hand. The crystal ball is rather hazy currently.

I figured shipping would be doing better with the low prices but they have never recovered from 09.

Communications are also being hit. T and vz are on sale. There seem to be some good stocking stuffers out there.

I'm not sure what to think of oil stocks.

From what I'm reading, there seems to be an oil glut right now and OPEC has decided to fight it - not by reducing production to raise prices - but to continue producing as usual in the hope the low oil prices puts some producers out of business.

I do own oil stocks, but I'm keeping the ones I have - but I don't think I'll be adding to them at this point.

With OPEC not reducing production, that will at least give everyone a break at the gas pump.

I'm not sure what to make of the oil stocks either.

My guess is that OPEC will continue to try to crush the other producers, at least for a few months. If you are going to try to destroy another business, a short dip isn't going to do it. IMO, it needs to be a prolonged 'hurt', if you will, to really run them out of cash and to decimate their cash flow.

I think that it is time to add more oil stocks to my position, but I am not sure which stock to pick.

I like COP. It has hit a new 52 week low, IIRC.

I like BP, but they still have the estimated $10 billion hit looming over them. BP themselves have said that the div may be in play when that fine is levied.

I like RDS/A, but the Dutch government takes 15% of every div that comes in. It isn't that much, but it gets under my skin, KWIM?

It isn't like I am making a huge investment that will move the market, LOL, but I would like to make the best investment that I can.

Thoughts, anyone?

What oil stocks do you like?

October 31 Exxon Mobil closed at $96.71.
Today it closed at $86.41.
In the past 52 weeks, it reached a high of $104.76 on July 29th.

I think now may at least be a good time to finish filling up your IRA's for the year. I did just send in money to finish off my IRA for the year.

I'll have to get more money to finish filling my wife's.