Author: WSTNN

How to Invest in CRISPR

Did you happen to see 60 Minutes last weekend? There was a segment all about CRISPR. As a matter of fact, a while ago, I predicted that there would eventually be a feature  about CRISPR on 60 Minutes.

The acronym CRISPR means “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”. What this means in very simple terms is that it is a technique for editing and splicing DNA much more quickly, simply, and less expensively than previously done in the past. It is a revolutionary technique that could potentially cure any genetic disease.

According to the free list of CRISPR stocks here at WSTNN.com, there are several publicly traded companies that have jumped on the CRISPR bandwagon, both big and small. Obviously, the CRISPR technology industry is at its very early stages, so there are risks involved with some of the purer plays, none of which are currently generating earnings. Here are some of the pure plays.






Editas Medicine (EDIT) is a Cambridge, Massachusetts based genome editing company, focusing on treating patients with genetically defined diseases through the development of a proprietary genome editing platform based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The company, which sports a market cap of a bit over $1.48 billion, and has $146 million in cash, but carries a significant amount of debt.

Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) is another pure play CRISPR stock, and is currently collaborating with Novartis (NVS). Intellia is developing in vivo projects which target liver diseases, including transthyretin amyloidosis, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, hepatitis B virus, and inborn errors of metabolism; and ex vivo relating to chimeric antigen receptor T cell and hematopoietic stem cell product candidates. The stock has a market cap of $937 million, cash of $341 million, and has no long term debt.

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) is a Swiss company which is developing transformative gene-based medicines for the treatment of serious human diseases using its regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein-9 (CRISPR/Cas9). It has a market cap of $2.28 billion, cash of $239 million, and is debt free.

CRISPR is a narrow niche of the biotechnology industry, but it may become the fastest growing and most significant of all the biotech businesses. To see a list of over a dozen CRISPR companies, go to the WSTNN.com link here.

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

How to See Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Meeting Even If You Aren’t a Shareholder

Have you ever wanted to attend the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the company headed by Warren Buffett? Well now there is a way you can see the meeting, even if you aren’t a shareholder.

The Berkshire Hathaway 2018 Annual Shareholders Meeting will be held on Saturday, May 5th, through Yahoo Finance, which is the exclusive online host.

The meeting can be viewed in either English or Mandarin.

The live stream will begin at 6:45am PT, 8:45am CT, and 9:45am ET.

It’s Not a Dead Body in Your Trunk, It’s an Amazon Package

If you haven’t heard yet, Amazon (AMZN) has come up with a new service called Amazon Key, which allows you to have your package deliveries right to your car or truck. This is just one of several new ways that Amazon has come up with to benefit its customers.

It doesn’t matter where you are parked, it could be home or work, but for Prime members, the packages can be placed in the trunk of your car. Of course, you get real time notification. And it’s probably a safer place to put it than leaving it outside your front door.

If you have a Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, or Volvo vehicle from 2015 or later, with a connected car service, you are probably eligible. The service is presently available in certain cities.

To set it up, all you need to do is download the Amazon Key App. The cost is free. More info is available at the Amazon website.

Have You Considered Investing in Domain Hacks?

What is a domain hack, you might ask? First, as you may already know, a domain name is the name of a website, such as google.com, wikipedia.org, or att.net. The letters to the right of the dot are called top level domains [TLDs], not just com, org, and net, but also the country codes, such as .ca for Canada and .mx for Mexico.

Now let’s talk about the hacks. A hack involves combining letters to then left of the dot with a top level domain to the right to make a word.

For example, dub.ai combines the letters “dub” with “.ai”, the TLD for Anguilla, and ends up spelling Dubai.

Currently, Sedo, the major domain buying and selling site, is holding an auction of domain hacks.

There are several business and finance related domain hacks that are up for sale, such as meeti.ng (.ng is the TLD for Nigeria) and de.al (.al is the TLD for Albania).

Here are some others:

freewi.fi

antivir.us

ti.ps

go.al

cloudcomputi.ng

technic.al

gambli.ng

upsal.es

hybridca.rs

financi.al

aphrodisi.ac

biddi.ng

websit.es

manufacture.rs

royalti.es

economi.es

onlinecasi.no

residenti.al

retir.es

technologic.al

capit.al

selli.ng

salari.es

 

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in May 2018

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the process 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 only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique 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 yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the quarterly dividend amount, and annual yield.

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) 5/3/2018 0.39
Citigroup Inc. (C) 5/4/2018 0.32
Intel Corporation (INTC) 5/4/2018 0.3
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (CAKE) 5/9/2018 0.29
International Business Machines (IBM) 5/9/2018 1.57
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) 5/10/2018 0.525
Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) 5/11/2018 0.82
Target Corporation (TGT) 5/15/2018 0.62
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) 5/16/2018 1.32
Visa Inc. (V) 5/17/2018 0.21
Aflac Incorporated (AFL) 5/22/2018 0.26
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) 5/30/2018 0.8
Bank of America Corporation (BAC) 5/31/2018 0.12
Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) 5/31/2018 2

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found here at wstnn.com. (If you have been to the website 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 HERE or WStNN.com. Most of the lists are free.

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.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

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.

 

Is Your Living Trust Renting Your Safe Deposit Box? If Not, Maybe You Should Consider It

by Fred Fuld III

First, I am not an attorney. Second, I am not giving legal advice. What I am doing is giving you suggestions on what you should discuss with your estate attorney.

If you are reading this article, you most likely already know what a revocable living trust is, so I don’t need to mention anything regarding these trusts. Plus much of this information on living trusts can be found on numerous websites.

Many people save their estate paperwork in their safe deposit boxes, including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and so forth. Other items that may be in the boxes such as jewelry, coins, stamps, gold, silver, collectibles, and cash.

Don’t Let Your Safe Deposit Box Get Drilled Without Your Knowledge

One issue you should be aware of. Apparently, banks have started drilling boxes and removing contents of boxes rented by customers without the customer’s knowledge, for which the banks claim that they din’t have all the account information of their customers (primarily the Social Security number). However, according to a report by CBS SF Bay Area last year, several of these customers had proof, as shown on the original rental agreements, that the bank did have the Social Security numbers. Clients claimed that the banks lost and damaged many thousand of dollars of property because of this.

It may be a good idea to inventory everything in your safe box, and even take pictures of what is in in, and keep those records outside the box.

Can and Should You Put Your Safe Deposit Box Rental in Your Living Trust?

So what about the living trust issue? If everything in the safe deposit box is supposed to be part of the trust, it is probably a good idea to rent the safe deposit box in the name of your living trust. Consult your attorney, as laws differ from state to state.

As a matter fo fact, the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys recommends to their members that they discuss with their clients the benefits of transferring the rental of a safe deposit box to a living trust.

Your biggest problem in doing this is whether or not your bank will allow you to do this, as some banks don’t want to go through the hassle. You will, of course, need to bring in your Certification of Trust to make the change.

If your bank doesn’t want to allow this rental registration, you can ask your attorney to contact the bank on your behalf, or find another bank.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I want to reemphasize the fact that you must talk to your attorney about the advantages and disadvantages of making this change, and the best way  to proceed with the bank. Your attorney may even have alternative banks that he or she could recommend, if your bank is problematic.

Special Note: If you are wondering how I came up with the idea for this article, there was a short scene in the Bosch TV Show on Amazon (AMZN) that referred to it which I saw when I was watching one of the episodes last night.

 

How to Check if your Facebook Data was used by Cambridge Analytica

I won’t review the information about Facebook (FB) and Cambridge Analytica, as the news is all over the place. However, many users of Facebook want to find out if their Facebook data was used by Cambridge Analytica, and are awaiting for notification on their Facebook page.

No need to wait. Go to the following link with will bring you to Facebook’s Help Page on the incident, where you can find out if your info was shared.

https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476

If you are not logged in to Facebook, it will give you a message asking you to log in first.

If you are logged in, you will get a screen that looks like the following:

Facebook Data Help

The bottom box will show you whether or not your data was shared.

Business & Investment Books Now on Sale

It’s time for our periodic list of Amazon Kindle books on sale in the genres of business, investing, and entrepreneurship. If you have any interest in them, you should probably order them right away, as these sales may only last for a few days.

 

Get Smart!
By Brian Tracy
Learn how to think like the world’s most successful people, access your untapped mental ability, and realize your true potential.
$1.99 Retail: $11.99

 

The Essentials of Persuasive Public Speaking
By Sims Wyeth
Develop great communication skills, conquer nerves and command attention.
$1.99 $8.64

 

Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules
By Jeremy C. Miller
The strategy that led to Warren Buffett’s spectacular success. 
$2.99  Retail: $3.49

 

A Random Walk Down Wall Street
By Burton G. Malkiel
How to make Wall Street work for you.
$2.99  Retail: $9.18

 

Leadership Lessons
By Will Peters
Warren Buffett, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs made an impact on the world. Learn the essential principles of leadership that generated their success. $1.99  Retail: $9.99

 

Your Secret Data that GOOGLE Has On You: How to Find It

Last week I ran an article called Your Secret Data that Facebook Has On You: How to Find It. It covered the steps you need to go through to find all the information that Facebook (FB) has on you, plus Facebook advertisers .

There is also a way to find out the information that Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) has on you.

First, go to https://takeout.google.com

[Please note: this is part of the Google web site. It is not an outside service.]

You will get a screen that looks like the following:

It continues on with a long list including Photos, Groups, Hangouts, Maps, YouTube, and so on. I suggest that you select all of them. (They should all be selected by default.

When you click Next, you will come to the following screen:

Make yours selections or leave the defaults, then click Create Archive.

Google will send you an email when your data report is complete. The email will have a link which will allow you to download the report. It may take an hour or longer for Google to produce the report (and could be much, much longer if you have a lot of data).

Don’t be surprised by what you see.

 

Stocks Going Ex Dividend During April

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the process 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 only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique 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 yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the quarterly dividend amount, and annual yield.

Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) 4/3/2018 0.19
Guess?, Inc. (GES) 4/3/2018 0.225
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) 4/4/2018 0.33
American Express Company (AXP) 4/5/2018 0.35
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) 4/5/2018 0.15
Dollar General Corporation (DG) 4/9/2018 0.29
Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) 4/9/2018 0.63
General Mills, Inc. (GIS) 4/9/2018 0.49
Intuit Inc. (INTU) 4/9/2018 0.39
Gap, Inc. (The) (GPS) 4/10/2018 0.243
Aetna Inc. (AET) 4/11/2018 0.5
Freeport-McMoran, Inc. (FCX) 4/12/2018 0.05
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) 4/12/2018 0.93
Oracle Corporation (ORCL) 4/16/2018 0.19
Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) 4/19/2018 0.42
Foot Locker, Inc. (FL) 4/19/2018 0.345
CVS Health Corporation (CVS) 4/20/2018 0.5
Scholastic Corporation (SCHL) 4/27/2018 0.15
Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) 4/30/2018 0.63

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found here at wstnn.com. (If you have been to the website 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 HERE or WStNN.com. Most of the lists are free.

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.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

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.