Not many people know this, but if you really want to diversify—deftly balancing and rebalancing to maximize (and protect) your gains, you need to invest in closed-end funds (CEFs). Doing this with CEFs, which yield around 8% on average, gives you two key advantages: First, you get a much bigger income stream. That’s great on its own. But if you’re reinvesting your income, you get an even bigger edge because you can easily redirect your dividends from one CEF to another in a different sector. You just can’t do this with an index fund. Let’s dig into how that works…

Key News Asian equities were largely higher on light volumes and little news as Hong Kong and Mainland China outperformed. Australia and the Philippines were closed for Christmas, while Hong Kong and Singapore had half days. Reuters reported that China will issue RMB 3 trillion of special purpose bonds versus expectations of RMB 1 trillion. The article further states, “The proceeds will be targeted at boosting consumption via subsidy programs…” The news from “sources” finally gives foreign investors what they want: consumption stimulus! It is important to note that the article was published after Hong Kong closed! What drove the…

Aiming to channel MicroStrategy money into buying more Bitcoin, Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy (MSTR) has revealed ambitious financial ambitions to raise its share count by an eye-watering $10 Billion shares. This is an exponential increase rather than a simple change; the suggested shares exceed the current float by more than thirty times. The stakes are great and bring major risk and dilution into the picture. MicroStrategy’s future rests on the erratic Bitcoin market, hence the result mostly depends on the performance of Bitcoin possibly launching the business to unheard-of heights or sending it into disaster. Saylors Bitcoin gamble at Microstratgy…

2024 by any measure has been an extremely rewarding year for U.S. stock investors. Also, it has been a year dominated with big investment themes including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the growing demand for electrical power in the U.S., the reassertion of Bitcoin and Crypto, the increasing usage of GLP-1 drugs and the rebuilding of U.S. infrastructure. As the year comes to an end, we want to look ahead to some of the possible major investment themes for 2025. These themes are from the research work by William O’Neil + Co.’s experienced equity analysts. Some of the themes are new and…

In trading on Monday, shares of Western Union were yielding above the 9% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $0.94), with the stock changing hands as low as $10.39 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market’s total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the iShares Russell 3000 ETF (IWV) back on 5/31/2000 — you would have paid $78.27 per share. Fast forward to 5/31/2012 and each share was worth $77.79 on that date, a loss of $0.48…

When the growth stock mania has ended and investors begin avoiding the large cap tech and social media names like Nvidia, Tesla and Palantir, some of that money may find its way back into value stocks. From a strict contrarian standpoint, it’s probably a good idea to begin thinking now about the eventual likelihood of that scenario. Low price-earnings ratios are the first, best indicators for selection of value. Other significant factors include the ability to pay a dividend and the lack of debt. A lower than book value price is nice but not always present, especially given the basic…

Key News Asian equities rebounded following Friday’s weaker US inflation data on light holiday week volumes and little news. Seinfeld’s George Costanza would be proud that, on Festivus Day, Hong Kong and Mainland China underperformers outperformed while outperformers underperformed, i.e. the value factor outpaced the growth factor. In Hong Kong, Exhibit A would be Tencent which fell-1.45% and Meituan, which fell -1.89%. Meanwhile, banks were the top-performing subsector. It was not all bad news for growth stocks. Alibaba gained +1.12% and Baidu gained +3.17% on reports the company’s AI is still in the running to operate China’s iPhones. Tencent’s WeChat…

Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30. Start slideshow: 10 Oversold Stocks You Should Know About » In trading on Monday, shares of Sunoco entered into oversold territory, hitting an RSI reading of 29.9, after changing…

In a groundbreaking announcement, Google unveiled its latest quantum computing chip, Willow, showcasing performance capabilities that vastly outstrip current hardware and potentially reshaping the competitive landscape for chip manufacturers. The Willow quantum chip, developed by Google’s Quantum AI team, has demonstrated an astonishing leap in computational power. According to Google’s Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven, Willow completed a benchmarking test in just five minutes – a task that would take today’s most advanced supercomputers an unfathomable 10 septillion years to solve. This mind-boggling performance not only pushes the boundaries of what we thought possible in computing but also raises profound…

The market is expensive, investors wail. There are no cheap stocks anymore. That’s not quite true. Yes, the stock market is expensive, with stocks selling at about 24 times earnings. A normal multiple, historically, is about 15. But there are still some cheap stocks around. To find them, you have to avoid the “Magnificent Seven” investors’ darlings, and look outside the technology sector. You have to poke into out-of-favor sectors and industries, notably energy, banks and homebuilders. As of December 20, there were about seven dozen large-company stocks selling for less than 15 times earnings, five dozen of which had…