Recent Purchases: A focus towards dividends

Hi Everyone and welcome back to the TraderSpectacle!!!

Its been awhile since I have posted (I know) but I have been doing lots of reading and thinking about finances and money in general.

Ill start from the top ... you should read the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  Its one of the few books written by a tv-talking head which ACTUALLY makes sense.  Money is a tool and needs to be treated with the same respect of any other tool (hammer, car, gun, etc ...) in order to achieve a successful life.

So ... what does this entail ... well for one thing I am saving A LOT more of my paycheck.  I make anywhere from $1200 to $1600 a month.  I have cut back my expenses and now throw anywhere from $300-700 a month into my brokerage account (I like to invest my savings and this way its harder for me to spend it - 2 week waiting period for a check kills impulse buys!).

I also made 2 stock purchases today!  I purchased 100 shares of AT&T (T) and 100 shares of First Commonwealth Financial (FCF).  I purchased both stocks for the same reason ... DIVIDENDS!!!  Please make sure you reinvest your dividends!

T released a $0.43 dividend per share ... 100 shares turns into $43!  And the dividend is paid quarterly!
FCF is releasing a dividend on 7/27 and its expected to be between $0.08 and $0.10 which is nice since it closed today @ $5.83!  FCF also has a quarterly dividend.

What are you all invested in? why?

ITs a NEW Year!!

Hi Everyone and welcome back to the TraderSpectacle!

Last year was definitely an interesting year in terms of trading!  I made an 11.75% return sticking mostly with video game stocks and ETFs that follow commodites (Gold and Silver)!  My biggest money maker was TBT which is an 200% inverse on 10-year Treasury bonds!  I will go into more detail in a bit but I wanted to say hi and wish the best of luck trading in the new year!  Please follow, comment, and give any advice you have to give.  If you are interested in writing an article for the TraderSpectacle please email me at traderspectacle@gmail.com

Wallstreet, Bank Stocks don't even Blink at Newest Foreclosure Scandal

Thank you Dan Wilchins of Reuters!

Now as we all know ... our current economic conditions are the product of the credit-default swap / housing crisis.  So its with a bit of surprise that this headline grabbed my attention.

Foreclosure mess doesn't dent bank stocks

Really? So a political hot potato that is all state attorney generals launching a joint investigation of the practices banks used to evict people from their homes isn't a big deal?  I guess with so many of them going on, whats a few mistakes?

I am not trying to slam the banks for this ... I'm just surprised wall street doesn't care or even interested about it.

Case in point:

Bill Fitzpatrick, an analyst at Optique Capital Management was quoted saying, "this (the joint investigation) may push out mortgage foreclosures until later in the future, but I don't see how it affects the fundamental profit outlook of the banks,"

Case in point:

Analysts at Barclays Capital said that to the extent there's a problem, it's likely procedural.  "We suspect most disputes are about court documents, not necessarily whether the borrower defaulted," wrote a team of analysts led by Jason Goldberg.

The article goes further ... it points to how JPM stock has risen 2.3% and how its managment seems fairly confident that, "...pretty comfortable" that at the end of the process its foreclosures were proper."

I mentioned that this is a hot potato, democratic lawmakers are already calling for widespread foreclosure halts.  If the banks get caught engaging in fraudulent activity especially during the bailouts than it will be interesting to see the fines, penalties, and possible jail terms.Either way the analyst's at Barclay's are right when they said, "It could take some time to clear up this issue."

US is actively working on engineering a cheaper dollar

Thats what Axel Merk was quoted saying in a recent article by Tom Lauricella in the WSJ.

The full quote is:

"The U.S is saying, 'These bad Brazilians, these bad Japanese,'" for wanting their currencies to fall, said Axel Merk, chief investment officer at Merk Investments. "But it's the U.S. that is actively working on engineering a cheaper dollar."

This is interesting to keep in mind considering my previous post which can be read here.  Nonetheless Lauricella goes further by quoting Steven Englander

Steven Englander, currency strategist at Citigroup, says that while U.S. officials would want to avoid a dollar drop that destabilizes the stock or bond markets, "if the dollar dropped 1% a month for the next 12 months … they wouldn't think that is a bad outcome."

 1%! Really! Dont get me wrong ... 1% isnt always insignificant but compared to the whole picture, would anyone consider 1% a true threat?    

Some traders have been saying the dollar's recent decline was looking overdone. Since early June it has fallen 13% against a broad basket of currencies known as the U.S. dollar index. But bearish sentiment on the dollar was revived Tuesday afternoon. While the markets were already expecting the Fed to ease policy through purchases of U.S. Treasurys, the Fed was shown to be considering other steps to have a bigger impact.

I believe this "bearish sentiment" is more than backed up and will continue into the foreseeable future.

Gulf Drilling Ban Is Lifted

Thank you Stephen Power and Ann Zimmerman as well as the Wall Street Journal. 

The Obama administration Tuesday lifted its controversial moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but said it could take weeks for companies to win regulatory approval to go back to work there.

 Lifting the ban, put in place shortly after the April 20 explosion of a drilling rig contracted by BP PLC led to a massive spill, marks another milestone in the administration's effort to return to normal in the Gulf. It comes more than six weeks earlier than expected, ahead of congressional elections shaping up as a rout for Democrats.

 Well Fellow Traders ... What do you think this concept of normalcy returning to the Gulf mean for BP and other oil companies?