2010 — overachieving compared to 2004

The S&P 500 has already reached levels this year that weren’t reached until December 2004 in the tech stock crash recovery.   The volume levels are underwhelming, but on almost every other front the bulls are celebrating.  It doesn’t hurt that business continue to report very good numbers.   It is hard to get a good doom and gloom mood going with folks like Intel …

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Dividend capture with covered calls—too hot, too cold, or just right!

If you have general questions about dividends see Top 10 questions about dividends. One strategy for capturing dividends is to buy the stock/ETF and then sell calls against that security as a hedge—a covered call.  The value of the short calls moves in the opposite direction of the stock/ETF, providing a hedge.   There are three major variables with this strategy: 1. How many days before …

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Comparing ETF index funds to mutual funds

Advantages of ETF index funds over mutual funds index funds: Management  fees are usually lower.  For example for inflation protected bonds the Schwab mutual fund SWRSX has a .5% expense ratio and the iShares Barclay equivalent TIP has an expense ratio of .2%. Instead of trades executing at the end of the day they can be bought or sold at any time the market is …

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