Tasty Thanksgiving Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

Thanksgiving is November 28, less than a week away. There are a few stocks that can benefit from Thanksgiving. Here are several examples:

If you are looking for a turkey company (I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean it in a food way), Tyson Foods (TSN) sells Hillshire Brands turkeys. The stock has a trailing price to earnings ratio of 16 and pays a dividend yield of 1.9%. The annual dividend payout was recently increased by 12%.

Campbell Soup (CPB) sells Pepperidge Farm stuffing. Campbell has a trailing P/E of 67 and a forward P/E of 18 and has a yield of 3.0%.

ConAgra, Inc. (CAG) sells Marie Callender’s pumpkin pie. The stock trades at 20 times trailing earnings and 12 times forward earnings and yields 3.0%.

Kraft Heinz (KHC) sells Heinz Gravy and Stove Top Stuffing. It has a forward P/E of 12 and pays a generous yield of 5.15%.

Other Thanksgiving stocks  include Hormel (HRL) which sells the Jennie-O brand of turkeys, Constellation Brands (STZ) which produces Mondavi wine and many other wines, and Lifetime Brands (LCUT) which makes KitchenAid utensils.

So now it’s time to get stuffed and you get to talk turkey to all your relatives, and maybe even getting a dressing down from some of them. Time to make a little gravy with some Thanksgiving stocks.

Hoping you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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

Top Cannabis Tax Selling Stocks for a January Bounce

by Fred Fuld III

Many of the cannabis related stocks have been burned during the last year, which makes them possible tax sale opportunities.

A tax selling stock is a stock that is currently selling for a low price due to heavy year-end selling for tax purposes, but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to drop far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a significant bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of some marijuana stocks that have dropped by over 15% year-to-date, with five of then sinking by more than 50%.

Stock Symbol YTD Return
Aphria APHA -17%
Aurora Cannabis ACB -28%
Cannabis Sativa CBDS -78%
Canopy Growth CGC -28%
Cronos CRON -25%
Hexo HEXO -38%
Mentor Capital MNTR -60%
Sundial Growers SNDL -55%
Terrra Tech TRTC -59%
Tilray TLRY -69%

Hopefully some of these stocks will get high in January.

Disclosure: Author owns CBDS, CGC, MNTR, and has a long option position in ACB.

Top Tech Tax Selling Stocks – January Bounce?

by Fred Fuld III

During the last year, many of the technology stocks, especially the unicorns, have taken a dump, making them possible tax sale opportunities.

If you are wondering what a tax selling stock is, it is a stock that is currently selling for a low price due to heavy year-end selling for tax purposes, but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to drop far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a significant bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of tech stocks that have dropped by over 50% year-to-date. They all have market capitalizations over $300 million.

Company Symbol Market Cap
ANGI Homeservices Inc. ANGI 3.98B
Casa Systems, Inc. CASA 307.29M
Consolidated Communications Holdings CNSL 315.71M
DXC Technology Company DXC 8.03B
Endurance International Group Holdings EIGI 603.20M
Evolent Health, Inc. EVH 848.25M
Grubhub Inc. GRUB 3.31B
GTT Communications, Inc. GTT 439.58M
ORBCOMM Inc. ORBC 355.38M
Plantronics, Inc. PLT 989.00M
2U, Inc. TWOU 1.33B
Boingo Wireless, Inc. WIFI 552.24M

Hopefully, your portfolio can benefit from a tax bounce.

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

Top Marijuana Cannabis ETFs

by Fred Fuld III

If you think that marijuana is a growth industry and you aren’t sure which is the best cannabis stock to invest in, you have an alternative. Or maybe you are looking for an easy way to play the tax loss pot stocks.

The alternative is investing or trading a cannabis ETF, of which there are several.

The largest one by market cap and volume is the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ), which also happens to be the oldest, founded in 2015. The ETF has an expense ratio of 0.75% and pays a high yield (no pun intended) of 4.99%. Its two largest holdings are GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) and Cronos (CRON).

The other cannabis related ETF that pays a yield is the AdvisorShares Vice ETF (ACT), however, marijuana stocks make up a limited amount of the portfolio as it also invests in alcohol and tobacco companies. It pays a yield of 1.56%.

A purer play is the AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (YOLO), which was founded this year. Its largest holding is Village Farms International (VFF) and the second largest is Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR).

The following is a list of all the major cannabis ETFs.

Fund Name Symbol Expense Ratio Yield Founded Largest Holding 2nd Largest Holding
AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF YOLO 0.74% 2019 VFF IIPR
AdvisorShares Vice ETF ACT 0.99% 1.56% 2017 TMO ABT
Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF CNBS 0.75% 2019 GWPH CGC
Cambria Cannabis ETF TOKE 0.42% 2019 MEDIF GWPH
ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ 0.75% 4.99% 2015 GWPH CRON
Global X Cannabis ETF POTX 0.50% 2019 GWPH APHA
The Cannabis ETF THCX 0.70% 2019 MEDIF GWPH

Let’s hope your portfolio gets high with one of these ETFs.

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

Top IPO Tax Selling Stocks for a Possible Bounce in January

by Fred Fuld III

In case you haven’t noticed, many of the IPO stocks during the last year have turned out to be turkeys, making them possible tax sale opportunities.

If you are wondering what a tax selling stock is, it is a stock that is currently selling for a low price due to heavy year-end selling for tax purposes, but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to tank far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a significant bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of some that have dropped by over 20% year-to-date. They all have market capitalizations over $500 million.

Stock Symbol Price Drop YTD
Chewy CHWY -29.5%
Fiverr FVRR -43.3%
Levi Strauss LEVI -20.5%
Lyft LYFT -47.1%
SmileDirectClub SDC -29.8%
Uber Technologies UBER -24.2%

Maybe someone’s tax losses can be your tax stock gains.

Disclosure: Author owns FVRR

Stocks Going Ex Dividend November 2019

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 many with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount.

Intel Corporation (INTC) 11/6/2019 0.315
E*TRADE Financial Corporation (ETFC) 11/7/2019 0.14
Target Corporation (TGT) 11/19/2019 0.66
Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) 11/29/2019 2.40

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 HERE . 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.

Let’s Say You’re Dead: Give Your Heirs a Break

by Fred Fuld III

Most people who think about estate planning are aware of and have probably set up wills and living trusts, and possibly medical advance directives and durable powers of attorney.

However, because so much is done online, your heirs may not be aware of all your cyber accounts. Are they aware that you have PayPal (PYPL)? Do you have any savings accounts with an online bank? What about online brokerage accounts where you have opted out of paper deliveries?

There are a lot of issues to consider beyond the will and trust. Here are just some of the tasks that you should consider to make things easier for your heirs with regards to online accounts.

Keep Track of All Your Online Accounts

The first place to start is identifying all the online accounts that you have along with logins and passwords. Some people like to type out a list on a Word document or text document. I personally don’t like that idea, unless the file is well protected and encrypted. Otherwise, if your computer is hacked, the hacker will have access to everything.

Others just write down a list of all those logins and passwords on a piece of paper. I have a friend who’s list is currently three pages long. I don’t like this practice either as it takes a long time to search through, since it is not alphabetized, and find the particular website that you are looking for.

I personally like using an Email and Website Password Logbook. These journals have alphabetized pages, so that all the accounts that begin with A are in the first section, all the Bs in the second section, and so forth. That way, I don’t have to look all over the place to find the password I want.

Since everything is handwritten on a hard copy, it can’t be hacked. (Just don’t lose it.) It is also a central repository for all your online accounts, which will make it simpler for your heirs to find everything.

Requirements for Account Liquidation Upon Death

It might be helpful to make your heirs aware of the requirements to liquidate online monetary accounts and stock brokerage accounts. For example, the requirements for PayPal are:

  • A cover sheet from the Requestor (or a person who is duly appointed or authorized to administer the estate of the deceased customer) identifying the account by the primary email address and request to have PayPal account closed
  • A copy of the death certificate for the account holder
  • A copy of a government issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license, passport or state-issued ID) of the Requestor
  • Legal documentation or a copy of the will that identifies the executor of the estate
  • State issued documentation if a living will is not present

Most online bank and brokerage accounts will require similar documents.

Facebook Accounts After Death

Social media accounts have special requirements in the event of death. As an example, Facebook (FB) has two options upon the death of the accountholder.  You can either have your account permanently deleted, which you can setup now while you are still alive, or you can have a Memorialized Account and it can be controlled by a legacy contact. Your legacy contact can be identified now also.

Twitter Accounts After Death

Twitter (TWTR) allows the removal of the account of a deceased person or an incapacitated person, with the submission of appropriate documents.

LinkedIn Accounts After Death

LinkedIn has an online form that can be filled out in order to remove the profile of someone who has passed away.

Instagram Accounts After Death

Instagram has similar options to Facebook. The account can be memorialized or it can be removed. For removal, they request the following:

  • The deceased person’s birth certificate
  • The deceased person’s death certificate
  • Proof of authority under local law that you are the lawful representative of the deceased person, or his/her estate

For other social media accounts, check out their Help link.

Email Accounts After Death

In terms of the deceased emails, this can be a delicate issue. You probably want your heirs to have access to your email accounts, especially those connected to bank and brokerage accounts, and accounts that are exclusively phone app based.

If there are any emails that you are uncomfortable with your heirs seeing, they should obviously be deleted, now.

Then there is the issue of if and who to contact about your passing. A friend of mine who I hadn’t contacted for a couple months had passed away shortly after I last called him. I received no email notification about his passing or the memorial service, even though I was on his email contact list. I only found out about it a month and a half later after reaching one of his relatives when I discovered my friend’s phone was disconnected.

Therefore, it would be helpful to provide a list of who you want contacted upon your death, along with emails, and possibly phone numbers.

You probably don’t want your heirs to do a mass email of all contacts, including the plumber you emailed two years ago, all the email newsletters that you subscribe to, the restaurant that you made an online reservation with, and so forth. So some filtering will be necessary.

Online Bank Accounts and Bills After Death

If you receive many of your bills by email, your heirs will need access to both your email account and your online bank account. Many bank customers have set up their account to autopay various bills.

Heirs need to review all bills, contact the bank right away, make sure that important bills, such as mortgage payments, are continued to be paid, and determine which other accounts may need to be cancelled, such as cable TV bills.

Online Stock Brokerage Accounts After Death

Remember that some brokerage accounts may be exclusively app based, such as Robinhood or WeBull. Most brokerage account liquidations will have similar requirements for submitting documents, however, the big issue is the sale of the stocks and bonds in the portfolio; in other words, when and how it is that done, or can the existing stocks be kept and transferred to the heirs. I suggest that you contact your own broker to get the details on the requirements and policies, if you want that info available for your heirs.

Your Cell Phone After Death

If you use dual-factor identification, access to your cell phone will be necessary. But even if you don’t, you will probably want your heirs to have access to it. Important phone calls may come in for a while, and heirs may need to access some of your finance related apps.

In your central password holding resource, don’t forget to include your cell phone’s passcode. I use this Password Logbook which sells for less than $7 on Amazon (AMZN).

Living Trusts

If you haven’t already, talk to an attorney about setting up a living trust and transferring your online bank accounts and your online brokerage accounts into the trust.

Anyone who has dealt with the death of a parent or other close relative knows the hassles involved. If you want to help out your heirs, it is a good idea to be proactive, especially when it comes to online accounts.

 

 

Disclosure: Author owns PYPL, AMZN, and TWTR. Affiliated links.

Highest Yielding Lowest PE Utility Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

Many investors are looking for high income and are finding it hard to find, especially with the average interest rate on savings accounts is less than one tenth of one percent, according to the FDIC.

One alternative is utility stocks. Utilities are a way of receiving income from dividends along with capital gains potential. There are a few that actually pay yields in excess of 4% and have price to earnings ratio of less than 15.

PPL Corporation (PPL) is an electric and natural gas utility that serves the UK, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The stock trades at 13.1 times trailing earnings and 12.7 times forward earnings. It pays a dividend yield of 5.2%.

Southern Company (SO) is an Atlanta, Georgia based electric utility that also distributes natural gas. The trailing P/E ratio is 14.4 and the forward P/E is 19.2. The yield is 4.1%.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa based Interstate Power and Light Company (IPLDP) is a gas and electricity provider that pays a dividend yield of 4.9%. The PE is 1.3.

Maybe one of these electric utilities will spark your portfolio.

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

Top Books for Stock Traders

If you want to hone your stock trading skills, you may want to read the advice of some of the experts. Here is a list of some of the top books relating to trading stocks and options. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, as Amazon lists over 10,000 books relating to stock trading. At least, these will give you a start.

Trade Like Warren Buffett
by James Altucher
Most people don’t realize that not only is Warren Buffett an investor, but he is also a trader, and a successful one at that.

High-Probability Trade Setups: A Chartists Guide to Real-Time Trading
by Timothy Knight
How to use technical approaches to find the best stock trade setups.

Think & Trade Like a Champion: The Secrets, Rules & Blunt Truths of a Stock Market Wizard
by Mark Minervini
The book covers personal trading rules and the secret techniques that made the author one of America’s most successful stock traders.

Stock Trader’s Almanac 2020 (Almanac Investor Series)
by Jeffrey A. Hirsch
Every stock trader should have this resource. It will be available on November 19.

Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline, and a Winning Attitude
by Mark Douglas
Learn the reasons for lack of consistency and how to overcome the ingrained mental habits that cost money.

Wall Street News Network Day Trading Journal: Notebook Diary Log for your Stock, ETF, and Option Trades
by Wall Street News Network
A journal with over 100 pages of specially designed fill-in-the-blank pages to track all your stock, ETF, and option trades, whether they are long or short trades. Fields include: Date, Symbol, Company, Transaction Recommended By, Why decision was made to do this transaction, Buy or Short, # of Shares, Price/share, Commission, Subtotal of opening transactions, Total opening transaction, and much more.

Wall Street News Network Stock Trading Journal: Notebook Diary Log for tracking your stocks, options, and ETFs tradesby Wall Street News Network
A logbook for tracking your stock trades and investments, priced at less than $7.

Option Volatility and Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques, 2nd Edition
by Sheldon Natenberg
An extensive guide to trading stock options.

Swing Trading with Options: How to Trade Big Trends for Big Profits
by Ivaylo Ivanov
Using stock momentum to generate profits on options over a three to six month time period.

Penny Stock Trading Journal: Notebook Diary Tracker of Your Penny Stock Transactions
by Borsa Valori
A five star rated book designed for you to keep track of your penny stock trades and transactions.

 

 

 

Top REIT Short Squeeze Stocks

by Fred Fuld III

There has been a significant amount of concern among investors regarding real estate investment trusts, more commonly referred to as REITs, especially the ones involved in the commercial and retail sectors. The concern comes from the explosion of online purchasing by consumers. Why go to a storefront when you can buy items from the comfort of your own home? However, this concern may be overblown, which could provide some trading opportunities.

If REITs are heavily shorted, the potential gains can be significant. When stocks rise quickly, no matter what the reason, short sellers scramble to cover their positions by buying shares, and causing the price of the stock to move up even more.

So how can you 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, hoping that good news will come out. Here is a more extensive explanation of what a short squeeze is.

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 take advantage of 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.

Here is one example from the list below. Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (SKT) is a stock that is heavily shorted. As a matter fo fact, 49% of the float is shorted. Plus, the short interest ratio is 18. That means it would take the short sellers eighteen days to cover their positions, based on the number of shares that trade each day on average.

So what REITs 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 significant short metrics, however they all pay dividends.

Stock Symbol % of Float Days to Cover
CBL & Associates CBL 26.50% 16.5
Innovative Industrial Properties IIPR 28.20% 5.8
Pennsylvania REIT PEI 65.20% 21.1
Tanger Factory Outlet Centers SKT 48.90% 18
Seritage Growth Properties SRG 33.40% 53.7

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