Author: WSTNN

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in July 2022

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the strategy during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and some with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount, and the yield.

Company & Symbol Ex date Amount Yield
Dollar General Corporation (DG) 7/1/2022 0.55 0.95%
Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) 7/5/2022 0.27 2.79%
Campbell Soup Company (CPB) 7/6/2022 0.37 3.26%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) 7/8/2022 0.68 0.74%
Oracle Corporation (ORCL) 7/11/2022 0.32 1.89%
Foot Locker, Inc. (FL) 7/14/2022 0.40 5.57%
Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) 7/19/2022 1.20 2.49%
Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) 7/20/2022 0.47 2.54%
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (DNUT) 7/26/2022 0.035 1.09%
Signet Jewelers Limited (SIG) 7/28/2022 0.20 1.31%
Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) 7/29/2022 0.70 3.50%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found HERE . (If you have been to the page before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WSTNN.com HERE .

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links are on this page.

Looking for Short Squeeze Plays?

by Fred Fuld III

In case you haven’t noticed, the stock market has tanked recently, with most stocks dropping by a substantial amount. Some traders think we are due for a bounce, even if we are in a bear market (which I think we are).

If we are do for a bounce, what do you do?

Traders and investors can make money on the long side from short squeezes. One technique that stock traders utilize is buying short squeeze stocks, companies have been heavily shorted. Here is a more extensive explanation of  short squeezes.

When you short a stock, it means that your goal is to make money from a drop in the price of a stock. Technically, what happens is that you borrow shares of a stock, sell those shares, then buy back those shares at a hopefully lower price so that those shares can be returned. This all happens electronically, so you don’t actually see all the borrowing and returning of shares; it just shows up on your screen as a negative number of shares.

Short sellers can be profitable, but sometimes when the stock moves against them, and begins to rise, the short sellers jump in right away to buy shares to cover their positions, creating what is called a short squeeze. When a short squeeze takes place, it can cause the share prices to increase fast and furiously. Any good news can trigger the short squeeze.

Some traders utilize this situation by looking for stocks to buy that may have a potential short squeeze. Here is what a short squeeze trader should take into consideration:

Short Percentage of Float ~ The float is the number of freely tradable shares and the short percentage is the number of shares held short divided by the float. Amounts over 10% to 20% are considered high and potential short squeeze plays.

Short Ratio / Days to Cover / Short Interest Ratio -This is probably the most important metric when looking for short squeeze trades, no matter what you call it. This is the number of days it would take the short sellers to cover their position based on the average daily volume of shares traded. This is a significant ratio as it shows how “stuck” the short sellers are when they want to buy in their shares without driving up the price too much. Unfortunately for the shortsellers, the longer the number of days to cover, the bigger and longer the squeeze.

Short Percentage Increase ~ This is the percentage increase in in the number of short sellers from the previous month.

So what stocks are heavily shorted that may be worth a closer examination? Check out the following list, but be aware, that often some stocks are heavily shorted for a reason.

All these stocks have more than 30% of their float shorted, have days-to-cover greater than 6, and all are generating earnings with trailing and/or forward price to earnings ratios less than 15.

Company Symbol Short % of Float Days to Cover
Big 5 BGFV 38% 9
Big Lots BIG 34% 5.8
Conn’s CONN 42% 8.5
Camping World CWH 35% 9.1
Groupon GRPN 33% 6.2

Just keep in mind that just because a stock has good earnings ratios and are heavily shorted, doesn’t mean that the stock won’t continue to drop, especially in a bear market. Also, stocks that are significantly shorted may be shorted for a reason.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Why Cutting Back on Spending is the Stupidest Thing You Can Do During Rising Inflation

by Fred Fuld III

I’ve been seeing so-called experts on TV explaining about ways to survive during these inflationary times. They recommend such things as spending only the bare minimum when you go to the supermarket, buy just enough gas to get you through the next few days, and avoid going on vacation.

This is about the stupidest thing you could possibly due during a rising inflationary environment.

The best thing you can do is the exact opposite. When you shop for groceries, stock up on as many non-perishable as you can, such as canned goods (soup, vegetables, fruit, seafood), peanut butter, dried fruit, protein bars, oatmeal, honey, syrup, salt, sugar, spices, and bottled water.

Why? Because prices will continue to rise. You might as well pay lower prices now and have plenty to last you for a long while, instead of buying a little now and paying higher prices a few weeks or months from now.

You may have seen a previous post, called The Amazon Inflation Rate is Running at 68% Per Year, which showed that in a recent one-year period, the average price increases from items I ordered through Amazon increased by 68%, and even if you excluded the outliers, the items that more than doubled in price, the overall average increase was still an outrageously high 38%!!!

Inflation cannot be stopped immediately. It is not a light switch that can be turned off at any moment. It is more like turning around a giant ship, which can take a long time.

So, the same situation exists with buying gas for your car. Fill it to the maximum that the gas station has set for your credit card. (I keep hearing about people saying the pump stopped at $100 or $120.) You might as well fill your tank now instead of waiting a week, and paying 25 cents a gallon more.

As for vacations, why wait? Prices for flying will continue to rise. Airlines use petroleum fuel for their jets, and since the price of oil has been rising significantly in price, the airlines have to pass that cost along to their customers, along with all the other costs related to running an airline.

Plus, if you were considering traveling overseas, there is an additional reason to take your vacation now. The U.S. dollar is very strong compared to other currencies, so your spending will go a long way in many European and Asian countries.

Therefore, you should have no guilt about spending your money now. As a matter of fact, you would be doing yourself a financial favor.

Top Stock Market Father’s Day Gifts

by Fred Fuld III

Father’s Day is less than a week away. If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to get a gift for your father who likes to invest or trade stocks.

The following may give you some great ideas to give as presents.

Bronze Bull and Bear Sculpture

The statue measures 10 inches wide by 9.5 inches high, and weighs 6 pounds. The state has a bronze finish with great detail.

 

Stock Market Wall Street Decision Maker Desk Paperweight

This is cool! A paperweight that you can spin to determine if you should buy, sell, hold, short, etc.

 

Wall Street Double Feature

Available in both Blu-Ray and DVD.

 

Stock Traders Almanac 2022

Stock Traders Almanac
Every stock trader should have this. Filled with great information.

 

Bull and Bear Cuff Links

Know anyone who still wears cuff links? This would make a perfect gift.

 

Investment Trivia Book

This book has all kinds of trivia about the stock market, venture capital, bitcoin, and much more!

Bull Market T-Shirt

Here’s a Great Gift for Less Than 20 Bucks!
“I MADE MY MONEY BY BEING A BULL”

 

Bear Market T-Shirt

For those friends of yours who made their fortune by shorting the market.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.

 

 

This page contains affiliate links.

Warren Buffett’s Portfolio Changes in Berkshire Hathaway

by Fred Fuld III

Warren Buffett has had a very long and successful career as a portfolio manager for Berkshire Hathaway. Many investors like to follow in his footsteps, at least in terms of buying the game long term investments that he is buying.

His Berkshire Hathaway stock has had an average annual return of around 20% since 1965. Not too shabby since the S&P 500 has only had a little over 10% average annual return over the same time frame.

So what has Warren Buffett been doing lately?

Warren Buffett Purchases

First, his buys. Buffett has purchased over 136 million shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) since the beginning of the year.

He also bought 104 million shares of HP Inc. (HPQ), and 55 million shares of Citigroup (C).

In addition, Buffett has added the following stocks to the Berkshire portfolio:

  • Celanese (CE)
  • Paramount Global (PARA)
  • McKesson (MCK)
  • Markel (MKL)
  • Ally Financial (ALLY)

Warren Buffett Sales

Buffett has also been liquidating some stocks in the Berkshire portfolio. These include:

  • Wells Fargo (WFC)
  • Abbvie (ABBV)
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)

To see the full portfolio of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, click HERE.

Of course, if you really want to match the return of Berkshire Hathaway, you might as well buy the A shares (BRK-A) or the B shares (BRK-B) of the company.

Remember what Warren Buffett said:

“Don’t buy a stock unless you think it’s undervalued.”

 

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in June 2022

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the strategy during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and some with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount, and the yield.

Company Symbol Ex Div Date Payment Yield
Jack In The Box Inc. JACK 6/6/2022 0.44 2.60%
NVIDIA Corporation NVDA 6/8/2022 0.04 0.09%
Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY 6/13/2022 0.88 4.29%
DTE Energy Company DTE 6/16/2022 0.885 2.67%
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited CP 6/23/2022 0.148 0.82%
ConocoPhillips COP 6/27/2022 0.7 1.66%
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. KDP 6/30/2022 0.188 2.17%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found HERE . (If you have been to the page before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WSTNN.com HERE .

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links are on this page.

Statistics: Gold versus the Stock Market This Century

by Fred Fuld III

It may look like gold hasn’t been doing much of anything recently. Even for the last twelve months, gold has been relatively flat.

So what about long term. Can gold outperform the stock market over a long period of time?

Of course, it depends on the time frame, but let’s look at this century, beginning January 3, 2000 (the first business day of the year).

Based on that time frame, gold has far outperformed the various stock indices, including the S&P 500, the NASDAQ, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

As a matter of fact, gold has increased by 558% over that time, versus 329% for the S&P 500 as measured by the SPDR SPY ETF (SPY), which was only up 329%. This includes dividends for the SPY.

The statistics for the returns are below, which also include the Dow and the NASDAQ.

Gold versus Stocks This Century
Percentage increase in price from January 3, 2000 to the present
Dow Jones Industrial Average 190%
S&P 500 as measured by SPY 329%
NASDAQ as measured by QQQ 276%
Gold price per ounce 558%
* Adjusted for splits and dividend and/or capital gain distributions
Sources: Yahoo!Finance historical data, sdbullion.com

Is gold in your portfolio?

Hey Billionaires: If You Think That Taxes Should Be Raised for Billionaires, You Should …

by Fred Fuld III

The United States government has a huge amount of debt. As a matter of fact, the government debt now stands at more than $30,482,000,000,000.

One way to pay down that debt is through higher taxes. There are several billionaires that believe taxes on billionaires should be increased for themselves and other billionaires

Some of these wealthy individuals include:

  • Warren Buffett
  • Bill Gates
  • George Soros
  • Eli Broad
  • Michael Bloomberg
  • Mark Cuban

But what I can’t understand is that if the wealthy really believe this, what are they waiting for?

Billionaires that believe their taxes should be higher should go ahead and make more payments to the U.S. Government.

Nothing is stopping them. They can write a check out right now. Apparently, quite a few people have “donated” to the government.

There are actually a couple ways to make these payments to help reduce the national debt. Here is what they need to do:

They can go to Pay.gov, and pay online by credit card, debit card, PayPal, checking account, or savings account.

If they pay by credit card, I hope they have a nice high credit limit. Maybe they can earn points on their payments.

The other way is by writing a check, and make it payable to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and, in the memo section, notate that it is a gift to reduce the debt held by the public. The check should be mailed to:

Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

So what are these billionaires waiting for? Why don’t they put their money where their mouth is?

10 Ways to Make Money in a Bear market

by Fred Fuld III

Although the stock market has been rising for the last several days, some investors and traders believe that this rise is only temporary, and that we are in the beginning of a bear market. If you want to profit from downward markets and falling prices, there are many ways to do so.

Several techniques are available to make money in a bear market, some of which are speculative, and some not that risky. Even if you have a small account, there are ways to protect yourself, and even make money on the downside. Here are some of those strategies.

1. Sell a Vertical Call Option Spread

This strategy is a little complicated, but I listed it first, because it is one of the least risky, since your losses are limited, unlike most of the other strategies listed here. Also, I listed it at the beginning, because I use this trading technique all the time.

If you are familiar with options, then selling a vertical call spread is a great way to make money when a stock drops while protecting yourself if the stock goes up. (This happens to be my favorite strategy.)

This involves shorting an out of the money call option and buying a further out of the money call option at the same time. If the stock drops or stays the same, you make money from the short call which exceeds the loss on the long call. If the stock goes up to the strike price of the short call, you still make a profit. It is only when the stock rises above the strike price of the short call that you begin losing money.

To make it simple, here is an example:

Stock is at 50

Sell (short)  one call with a strike price of 51 for 3 (an option that is trading at 3 means $300)

Buy one call with a strike price of 52 for 1 ($100)

If the stock drops to 45, the 51 call drops to $0 and you make $300 because you shorted it, and the 52 call drops to $0 losing $100 because you own or were long it, netting you a profit of $200.

If the stock rises from 50 to 100, you lose $4900 on the 51 call that you shorted, but you make $4800 on the one that you bought, so you only lose $100.

Generally, you want to use options that expire in 40 to 60 days, and close out your position in 15 to 25 days.

Disadvantages of the selling a vertical call spread
  • Your profit is limited
  • You need approval from your broker to do option spreads
  • Both legs of the spread need to be placed simultaneously (easy to do with most trading platforms)
  • May need to wait 25 or 30 days to see a profit

2. Shorting Stocks

This is one of the most speculative ways of making money in a bear market. In simple terms, you make money when the stock goes down and you lose money when the stock goes up. What technically happens is that you borrow the shares and immediately sell them (this all is done electronically through your brokerage firm) and since you owe those shares, you eventually have to buy them back at some price, hopefully a lower price, in order to return those shares. The difference between your sale price and eventual purchase price is your profit (or loss, if you buy back at a higher price).

Can you make a lot of money shorting stocks in a bear market? Yes. Is it speculative? Very. Can you lose a lot? Most definitely. This is why it is so risky. When you short a stock, the lowest point it can drop to is zero. Whereas, if the stock goes up, the amount it can rise is unlimited. Let’s say you short 100 shares of a stock at $20 a share. If you put up funds equal to 100% of the value of the shorted amount, and the stock drops to zero, you’ve made a 100% return. However, suppose the stock goes from 20 to 100, you end up losing 400% of your money with lots of margin calls along the way. This is called a short squeeze. But even on a short term basis, an investor can lose money very fast.

Unfortunately for those who do their trading in retirement accounts, such as IRAs, shorting stocks is not allowed.

So in summery, do I think you should short stocks? Absolutely not, unless you are a professional trader. The risk is almost infinite. If you understand options real well, hedged short selling might be OK (see the next strategy), as long as you are an advanced trader, and know what you’re doing.

3. Hedged Short Selling

Hedged short selling is a strategy whereby you short a stock and at the same time, you buy a close-to-the-money call option. That way, if the stock shoots up, you are protected with the call option. If the stock drops, you will lose what you paid for the option, but you will make money on your short stock position.

Example: you short 100 shares of a stock that is currently trading at 50 (so you short $5000 in stock), and you buy a call option with a strike price of 52 for 1 ($100).

The stock goes to 40. You make $1000 from the stock dropping from 50 to 40, and you lose the $100 you paid for the call option, with a net profit of $900.

The stock stays the same at 50. You don’t make any money on the short sale fo the stock and you lose $100 on the call option for a net loss of $100.

The stock goes up to 60. You lose $1000 on the short stock, but the value of the call option will increase from 1 to 10 ($100 to $1000), netting $900 on the difference, for an overall loss of $100.

In other words, in the example above, you can only lose $100, if the stock stays the same or goes up, but if the stock drops, the profit can be substantial.

Actually, to be more accurate, if the stock goes to 51 and stays there, you will lose $100 on the short stock sale and $100 on the call option, for a total maximum loss of $200. Even still, it may be worth the small loss in case you are wrong about a bear market.

Disadvantages of the hedged short selling
  • You need approval from your broker to short stock and buy options
  • Both positions should be placed simultaneously (easy to do with most trading platforms)

4. Short (Bearish) ETFs

The Exchange Traded Fund known as the Bearish ETF or Short ETF is another option. What these ETFs do is provide a return opposite to the return of the index, sector, or industry that it is tracking.

For example, the Short Dow30 ProShares (DOG) provides a return that is the inverse of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. If the Dow goes down 2%, the DOG is expected to up 2%. The Short QQQ ProShares (PSQ) ETF gives a return that is the inverse of the NASDAQ 100 Index.

The nice thing about these short ETFs is that your losses are limited. Also, if you are long individual stocks that you don’t want to sell, these can be good for protecting your overall portfolio on the downside.

5. Leveraged Bearish ETFs

If you like volatility, you will love the leveraged bearish ETFs. What these ETFs do is provide double, and in some cases triple the inverse return of indices.Some examples include the UltraShort Consumer Services ProShares (SCC) and the ProShares UltraShort S&P S&P 500 (SDS).

In addition there are several triple leveraged bearish ETFs. Direxion Daily MCSI Real Estate Bear 3X Shares (DRV), Direxion Daily Energy Bear 2X Shares (ERY), and ProShares UltraPro Short Russell 2000 (SRTY) are just a few of the many leveraged bearish ETFs.

The volatility of these ETFs is substantial, and so are the wide bid and asked spreads that I’ve seen occasionally.

The advantage of these trading vehicles is that they are a way of shorting on margin, with a limit on the downside. The disadvantage is that the losses can be quick and large, especially with the triple leverage short ETFs.

6. Bear Funds

It may be hard to believe, but there are actually a large number of bearish mutual funds for the long term bearish investors. These include the Grizzly Short Fund (GRZZX), the PIMCO StocksPlus TR Short Strategy Institutional Fund (PSTIX), and the ProFunds Bear Investors Fund (BRPIX). These funds have minimum investments ranging from $1,000 to $5,000,000.

7. Puts

First, a little about option pricing.  Puts and calls are priced on a per share basis, so a put at $1 would cost $100 for a 100 share option, or a call at $3.50 would cost $350.

A put is the option to put your stock to someone at a particular price within a certain period of time. In other words, if you own a stock that is trading at 22 and you buy a put at a dollar which gives you the right to put your stock to someone at $20 per share within three months, there are a couple of things that could happen. The stock could tank to $14 a share and you could put your stock at 20, or just resell the put for 6 (the difference between 14 and 20) and collecting the profit. You would be far better off than just doing nothing. And if the stock goes up or stays about the same, you are just out your $100 for the option. Puts can be useful for experienced traders.

8. Cash

There is one other way to make money in a bear market. Sell everything, and keep your money in cash, with the safest way being a T-bill money market fund, that only owns T-bills. (Money market funds that invest in repos are supposed to be just as safe, but I consider them slightly more risky than T-bills.) The advantages are that you can’t lose money and you can receive an income from the investment.

The alternative cash investment is putting your money in a bank certificate of deposit or savings account. Your money is safe up to the FDIC limits, but the interest rate will be very low.

9. Anti ETFs

The Anti-ETF is a new investment vehicle that has cropped up recently. The goal of these ETFs is to provide the reverse return of another popular actively managed exchange traded fund, as opposed to the bearish ETF which attempt to track the inverse of an index, like the ProShares Short S&P500 ETF (SH).

The most popular is the Tuttle Capital Short Innovation ETF (SARK), which has a goal of achieving the inverse of the return of the popular ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) managed by Cathie Wood.

10. Series I Bonds

If you think the bear market will last for a year or more, Series I bonds are the way to go. These bonds never drop in value and currently pay 9.62%. Plus, they are backed by the U.S. Government. For more information on these bonds, check out the article Series I Bonds Now Paying over 9%.

There are obviously additional risks involved with shorting stock and options, which you need to delve into with your broker before utilizing those strategies. If we are in a bear market, hopefully you can protect your portfolio and make some money on the downside.

Author does not own any of the above mentioned securities.