Ever heard of Dave Ramsey? If not, let me introduce you. Ever since 1992, Ramsey has been helping people get out of debt, start saving, and ensure secure retirement planning.
Ramsey owns a company, The Lampo Group, which focuses on financial counseling. He has written several best-selling books that have likely helped millions of people. He has his own radio show, and he has appeared on the Motley Fool Money podcasts from time to time.
One of my favorite quotes from Ramsey, which sums up much of our collective financial folly, is: "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like."�
If you don't get the point I'm trying to make, it's that on the whole, Ramsey has done a lot of good for a lot of people. But there's one part of his plan -- which has gotten a lot of attention lately -- that could leave a lot of investors in an unexpected bind when retirement time comes around.
Sound behavioral advice for investing
I'll get to what I think Ramsey's biggest mistake is in a minute. But it's also important to note that much of the behavioral advice he offers when it comes to investing is spot-on.
Best Healthcare Technology Stocks To Own Right Now: IB Securities Joint Stock Co (VIX)
IB Securities Joint Stock Company, formerly XuanThanh Securities Joint Stock Company is a Vietnam-based company engaged in the provision of investment services. It provides securities brokerage services through multiple forms, such as VOpen, VSHM, VTrade, VPhone, VMobile and VSMS. The Company is also involved in securities trading, as well as the provision of investment advice, custody services and underwriting services. In addition, it provides financial services for corporate events, such as corporate restructurings, equitizations, stock listings, share auctions, mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings and bond offerings. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Holly LaFon]
This material is not authorized for distribution unless preceded or accompanied by a currentprospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money. All indices referenced are unmanaged and capitalization weighted. The Russell Investment Group is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks, and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. Russellåº is a trademark of Russell Investment Group. The Russell 2000 Index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted index of domestic small-cap stocks. It measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell 1000 Index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted index of domestic large-cap stocks. It measures the performance of the 1,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The S&P 500 is an index of U.S. large-cap stocks selected by Standard & Poor's based on market size, liquidity, and industry grouping, among other factors. The Nasdaq Composite is an index of the more than 3,000 common equities listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The Russell Microcap Index includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, along with the next smallest eligible securities as determined by Russell. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes approximately 800 of the smallest securities in the Russell 1000 Index. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) measures market expectations of near-term volatility conveyed by S&P 500 stock index option prices. The performance of an index does not represent exactly any particular investment, as you cannot invest directly in an index.
- [By Lawrence G. McMillan]
All of the major volatility indexes that we follow (VIX) � (XX:VXO) �(VXST) are trading at subdued levels. One might consider them to be ��verbought��at their currently low levels, but in reality as long as VIX remains below 16, it isn�� a retardant to higher stock prices.
- [By Nick Taborek]
The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX), or VIX, fell 1.2 percent today to 11.84. The equity volatility gauge reached its 2013 peak in June and has since fallen 42 percent.
Hot Financial Stocks For 2014: WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund (DFE)
WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Fund is a non-diversified fund. It seeks investment results that closely correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Index.
The WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of the small-capitalization segment of the European dividend-paying market. The Index is comprised of the companies that compose the bottom 25% of the market capitalization of the WisdomTree Europe Dividend Index.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Matthew McCall]
The European equity rebound continues and within the region the small cap stocks have been quietly performing very well. The WisdomTree Europe Small Cap Dividend ETF (NYSE: DFE) focuses on small cap stocks that pay high dividends.
Hot Financial Stocks For 2014: Special Opportunities Fund Inc.(SPE)
Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. is a close-ended fund of funds launched and managed by Brooklyn Capital Management LLC. It invests in close-ended funds investing in public equity and fixed income markets. The fund employs a combination of value, opportunistic and special situations strategies to make its investments. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P 500 Index. The fund was previously known as Insured Municipal Income Fund, Inc. Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. was formed on February 18, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Whopper Investments]
For example, his Special Opportunity Fund (SPE) needed more capital to effectively implement its activist strategy after he took over. Unfortunately, most of the ways to raise capital are expensive and seriously dilute shareholder value. For example, a common stock offering, the most common way a closed end fund would raise capital, has to be priced at a discount and an investment bank needs to be paid to organize and sell it. Obviously, paying to issue shares at a discount is a disaster for long term shareholder value, so he instead pursued a rights offering for convertible preferred stock, which allowed the company to raise money without the expense of an investment bank while allowing shareholders the opportunity to increase their holdings in the fund without paying a commission. From the prospectus,
Hot Financial Stocks For 2014: First Bancorp (FBP)
First Bancorp is a bank holding company. The Company is a service provider of financial services and products with operations in Puerto Rico, the United States and the United States and British Virgin Islands. The Company has six segments: Consumer (Retail) Banking; Commercial and Corporate Banking; Mortgage Banking; Treasury and Investments; United States Operations, and Virgin Islands Operations. The Company specializes in commercial banking, residential mortgage loan originations, finance leases, personal loans, small loans, auto loans, insurance agency and broker-dealer activities. As of December 31, 2011, it controlled two wholly owned subsidiaries: FirstBank and FirstBank Insurance Agency, Inc. (FirstBank Insurance Agency). FirstBank is a Puerto Rico-chartered commercial bank and FirstBank Insurance Agency is a Puerto Rico-chartered insurance agency. On February 16, 2011, FirstBank sold an asset portfolio consisting of performing and non-performing construction, commercial mortgage and C&I loans. The Company�� total investment securities portfolio as of December 31, 2011 amounted to $2 billion. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had a total deposit of $9.9 billion. Effective May 31, 2011, the Company purchased FirstBank-branded consumer credit card portfolio from FIA Card Services, N.A. and an affiliate.
Consumer (Retail) Banking
The Consumer (Retail) Banking segment consists of the Company�� consumer lending and deposit-taking activities conducted mainly through FirstBank�� branch network and loan centers in Puerto Rico. Loans to consumers include auto, boat and personal loans and lines of credit. Deposit products include interest bearing and non-interest bearing checking and savings accounts, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and retail certificates of deposit. Retail deposits gathered through each branch of FirstBank�� retail network serve as one of the funding sources for the lending and investment activities. Credit card accounts are issued under Firs! tBank�� name through an alliance with a financial institution, which bears the credit risk.
Commercial and Corporate Banking
The Commercial and Corporate Banking segment consists of the Company�� lending and other services across a spectrum of industries ranging from small businesses to large corporate clients. FirstBank has developed expertise in industries, including healthcare, tourism, financial institutions, food and beverage, income-producing real estate and the public sector. The Commercial and Corporate Banking segment offers commercial loans, including commercial real estate and construction loans, and other products, such as cash management and business management services. A substantial portion of this portfolio is secured by the underlying value of the real estate collateral and the personal guarantees of the borrowers. The segment also includes the Company�� broker-dealer activities, which are primarily concentrated in bonds underwriting and financial advisory services provided to government entities in Puerto Rico.
Mortgage Banking
The Mortgage Banking segment conducts its operations mainly through FirstBank and its mortgage origination subsidiary, First Mortgage. These operations consist of the origination, sale and servicing of a variety of residential mortgage loan products. Originations are sourced through different channels, such as FirstBank branches, mortgage bankers and in association with new project developers. First Mortgage focuses on originating residential real estate loans, some of which conform to Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Administration (VA) and Rural Development (RD) standards. The Mortgage Banking segment also acquires and sells mortgages in the secondary markets. Most of the Company�� residential mortgage loan portfolio consists of fixed-rate, fully amortizing, full documentation loans.
Treasury and Investments
The Treasury and Investments segment is responsib! le for th! e Corporation�� treasury and investment management functions. The treasury function, which includes funding and liquidity management, sells funds to the Commercial and Corporate Banking segment, the Mortgage Banking segment, and the Consumer (Retail) Banking segment to finance their respective lending activities and purchases funds gathered by those segments and from the United States Operations segment. Funds not gathered by the different business units are obtained by the Treasury Division through wholesale channels, such as brokered deposits, advances from the FHLB and, repurchase agreements with investment securities, among others.
United States Operations
The United States Operations segment consists of all banking activities conducted by FirstBank in the United States mainland. FirstBank provides a range of banking services to individual and corporate customers primarily in southern Florida through its ten branches. The United States Operations segment offers an array of both retail and commercial banking products and services. Consumer banking products include checking, savings and money market accounts, retail certificates of deposit (CDs), Internet banking services, residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, automobile loans and credit cards through an alliance with a nationally recognized financial institution, which bears the credit risk. Deposits gathered through FirstBank�� branches in the United States also serve as a funding sources for lending and investment activities in Puerto Rico. The commercial banking services include checking, savings and money market accounts, CDs, Internet banking services, cash management services, remote data capture and automated clearing house (ACH), transactions. Loan products include the traditional commercial and industrial and commercial real estate products, such as lines of credit, term loans and construction loans.
Virgin Islands Operations
The Virgin Islands Operations seg! ment cons! ists of all banking activities conducted by FirstBank in the United States and British Virgin Islands, including retail and commercial banking services, with a total of fourteen branches serving the United States Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, and the British Virgin Islands of Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The Virgin Islands Operations segment is driven by its consumer, commercial lending and deposit-taking activities.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul Ausick]
First Bancorp (NYSE: FBP) is another Puerto Rican bank that gets the nod. The bank�� asset divestitures are behind it and, like M&T, it is fundamentally sound. Sterne Agee�� price target on the stock is $11.00, and the stock closed on Friday at $5.81 in a 52-week range of $4.27 to $8.70. The potential upside for this small cap bank is nearly 90%. The bank�� forward multiple according to the analysts is 10.8 and the consensus forward P/E from Thomson Reuters is 11.17. Sterne Agee�� EPS estimate for 2014 is $0.52.
- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Monday
Earnings Releases Expected: UGI Corporation (NYSE: UGI), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), First Bancorp. (NYSE: FBP) Economic Releases Expected: �Indian services PMI, Spanish services PMI, Italian services PMI, German services PMI, eurozone services PMI, British services PMI, German CPI, US ISM non-manufacturing PMITuesday
- [By CRWE]
First BanCorp (NYSE:FBP), the bank holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico, expects to report its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012, after the market closes on Wednesday, October 31, 2012.
Hot Financial Stocks For 2014: Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc (IMH)
Impac Mortgage Holdings, Inc. (IMH), incorporated in August 1995, operations include the mortgage and real estate fee-based business activities conducted by its subsidiaries: Integrated Real Estate Service Corporation (IRES), IMH Assets Corp. (IMH Assets) and Impac Funding Corporation (IFC). The Company�� operations include the mortgage and real estate fee-based business activities conducted by IRES and the long-term mortgage portfolio (residual interests in securitizations reflected as net trust assets and liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets. The mortgage lending activities include the origination, funding, selling and servicing of loans. The Company is focusing on originating loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and government sponsored loans eligible for Ginnie Mae securities issuance.
Mortgage and real estate services
The Company created IRES to provide solutions to the mortgage and real estate markets. IRES performs services for investors, portfolio managers, servicers and individual borrowers, including mortgage lending services, portfolio monitoring and real estate services, surveillance and recovery services. The platform includes the mortgage lending operations, the portfolio loss mitigation and real estate services and formerly the title and escrow operations. The mortgage lending activities include the origination, funding, selling and servicing of loans. The Company is focusing on originating loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and government sponsored loans eligible for Ginnie Mae securities issuance.
Master Servicing
In the ordinary course of business, the Company sells mortgage loans to the secondary market. The Company retains servicing on certain loans sold and earns servicing fees generally between 0.25% and 0.44% per annum of the monthly outstanding principal balance of the loans serviced. The Company has hired a nationally recognized residential sub-servicer to sub-service! the servicing portfolio. Although the Company uses a sub-servicer to provide primary servicing and certain default servicing functions, the Company's default management team, experienced in loss mitigation and real estate recovery, monitors and surveys the performance of the mortgage servicing portfolio. Incurring the cost of both a sub-servicer and an internal default management team reduces net servicing income, but it is an important investment used to minimize delinquencies and minimize repurchase risk. As of December 31, 2011, the total unpaid principal balance of mortgage loans serviced was $605.4 million.
Long-Term Mortgage Portfolio
The long-term mortgage portfolio consists of the residual interest in securitizations represented on the consolidated balance sheet as the difference between trust assets and trust liabilities. The long-term mortgage portfolio includes adjustable rate and fixed rate Alt-A single-family residential mortgages and commercial (primarily multifamily residential loans) mortgages that were acquired and originated by the Company. Alt-A mortgages are primarily first lien mortgages made to borrowers whose credit is within typical Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, but have loan characteristics that make them non-conforming under those guidelines. Commercial mortgages in the long-term mortgage portfolio are adjustable rate mortgages with initial fixed interest rate periods of two-, three-, five-, seven- and 10-years that subsequently convert to adjustable rate mortgages (hybrid ARMs).
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another stock that insiders are active in here is Impac Mortgage (IMH), which offers residential mortgage services in the U.S. Insiders are buying this stock into big time weakness, since shares are off by 27.4% so far in 2013.
Impac Mortgage has a market cap of $89 million and an enterprise value of $6.05 billion. This stock trades at a premium valuation, with a forward price-to-earnings of 124.10. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $14.15 million and its total debt is a whopping $5.98 billion.
A beneficial owner just bought 77,863 shares, or about $782,000 worth of stock, at $10 to $10.05 per share.
From a technical perspective, IMH is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock has been trending sideways in a consolidation pattern for the last month, with shares moving between $9.80 on the downside and $10.90 on the upside. A high-volume move above the upper-end of its sideways trading chart pattern soon could trigger a big breakout trade for shares of IMH.
If you're bullish on IMH, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some key near-term support at $9.80 and then once it breaks out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $10.50 to $10.90 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average volume of 29,759 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then IMH will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $11.88 to $11.95. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give IMH a chance to tag $14.
Hot Financial Stocks For 2014: PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP)
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (the Fund) is a separate series of PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Trust (the Trust). The Fund�� subsidiary is DB US Dollar Index Bullish Master Fund (the Master Fund), a separate series of DB US Dollar Index Bullish Master Trust (the Master Trust). The Fund offers common units of beneficial interest (the Shares) only to certain eligible financial institutions (the Authorized Participants) in one or more blocks of 200,000 Shares, called a Basket. The proceeds from the offering of Shares are invested in the Master Fund.
The Master Fund invests in futures contracts (the DX Contracts) with a view to tracking the changes, whether positive or negative, in the level of the Deutsche Bank US Dollar Index (USDX) Futures Index - Excess Return (Long Index) (referred to as the Long Index or the Index), over time. The Fund earns interest income from the United States Treasury obligations and other high credit quality short-term, fixed-income securities. The Index is calculated to reflect the changes in market value over time, whether positive or negative, of long positions in DX Contracts. DX Contracts are traded through the currency markets of ICE Futures U.S. under the symbol DX. The changes in market value over time, whether positive or negative, of the DX Contracts are related to the changes, whether positive or negative, in the level of the U.S. Dollar Index (the USDX). The Index provides a general indication of the international value of the United States dollar relative to the six major world currencies (the Index Currencies), which comprise the USDX, including Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona and Swiss Franc.
The Fund, through its Master Fund, establishes long positions in DX Contracts with a view to tracking the changes, whether positive or negative, in the level of the Index. The performance of the Fund also is intended to reflect the excess, if any, of its Master Fund�� interest income from its hol! dings of the United States Treasury obligations and other high credit quality short-term, fixed-income securities over the expenses of the Fund and the Master Fund. DB Commodity Services LLC serves as the managing owner, commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor of the Fund and the Master Fund. DB Commodity Services LLC is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG. The Bank of New York Mellon serves as the administrator of the Fund and the Master Fund.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Luke Jacobi]
The U.S. dollar was higher on the day, on news that the government shutdown is coming to an end. Near the close of equity trading, the PowerShares ETF (NYSE: UUP) that tracks the performance of the dollar versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.18 percent to $21.70.
- [By Luke Jacobi]
The U.S. dollar made a modest gain today. Near the close, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.05 percent to $21.70.
- [By Chris Ciovacco]
Global trade has an enormous impact on both the financial markets and worldwide economy. Therefore, when the currency that serves as the guidepost for valuing assets drops 1%, it impacts investor decisions across all asset classes. Thursday's tone was set in the currency pits as the U.S. Dollar Index (UUP) dropped more than 1%, which is a big move for a currency (see upper right corner in chart below). This week UUP was also turned back at a logical point of resistance (see line A), which provided further support for a weak-dollar friendly allocation.
- [By Luke Jacobi]
The dollar rocketed higher Friday, recovering some of the week�� early losses. The PowerShares ETF (NYSE: UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.42 percent to 21.60. The index is down 0.55 percent on the week.
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