Month: December 2019

I’m really pleased with the number of folks reviewing, and I think copying the spreadsheet I posted last Friday (I have no way of knowing how many copies are made).

So far, while my instructions on copying and renaming the spreadsheet, are NOT being followed by many I think it is most likely that some do not understand the in’s and out’s of working with Google Sheets. I will publish a new set of instructions soon so that maybe more folks will be able to understand them.

Also there have lots of comments–too many for me to respond to all of them, but I am going to read them closer and see what “tips” are there for me to utilize.

I know for sure that a couple folks offered formulas for the Yield to Worst column. The formula I use doesn’t factor in the “accrued” dividends or interest and thus makes the number a little worse than it really is. I will be working on this in the week ahead.

Also some others have offered suggestions which I will be looking at.

Don’t forget that while a sortable sheet is nice all the issues are sorted in various manners on this page here.

Below you will find a link to a Google Sheet.

We have added cumulative/non cumulative as well as qualified/non-qualified to the sheet since we last gave you a peek at this sheet.

We are calling this sheet Version 12132019–obviously because that is todays date. There are 672 issues on the sheet and should include most all $25/share preferreds and baby bonds as well as some miscellaneous. There are some convertibles not here, nor illiquids as we can’t get reliable quotes on some of these issues.

TO USE THIS SHEET YOU NEED TO HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT SO THAT WHEN YOU OPEN THE LINK BELOW IT WILL TRANSFER TO YOUR ACCOUNT.

YOU MUST THEN RENAME THE SHEET.

IF YOU DO NOT COPY AND RENAME YOU WILL BE USING THE MAIN MASTER SHEET. UNFORTUNATELY IF A BUNCH OF FOLKS DO THIS YOU WILL FIGHTING EACH OTHER (I.E. YOU DO A SORT–THEN SOMEONE ELSE DOES A DIFFERENT SORT–THEN A 3RD PERSON DOES ANOTHER–ALL AT THE SAME TIME–YOU WILL BE SEEING RESULTS OF OTHER FOLKS).

I am already working on the next VERSION, which I should have in a month. This means that a few new issues will be missing as I add a number of them every week (and I delete called issues).

Be aware that this spreadsheet has 3 separate sheets. I have ‘hidden’ 2 of them. The one showing is where you do the filtering parameters. If you want to make your own changes, after you copy the sheet, you can do so by going to View, Hidden Sheets, Alpha. The Alpha page is where you can make changes. I would strongly suggest not changing the sheet titled ‘list’.

If you try to make changes on the filter sheet it will break–just ‘undo’ to fix it.

Unless you are familiar with scripting etc and you fool around and break it bad–no problem, just come back and get a new copy.

Here is the sheet. Have fun.

As some of you may have read, or maybe I am the only one watching, the FED has announced giant sized REPO moves for the balance of the year.

I have been watching since September and the FED has done overnight repurchase agreements in the $50 to $75 billion area mostly–tossing in $15-$25 billion in 14 day repurchases agreements every 2 weeks.

Of course this is to provide liquidity to the banking system after a ‘blow out’ overnight lending rate spike of near 10% on September 15th.

Now we are 90 days later and the FED has announced they will be taking the the overnight operation to at least $150 billion. Yikes!!

I am of the thought now that this is all out on the table we will likely avert major issue—BUT there is a chance of a misstep–in particular in light of the fact that no one really seems to fully understand the market workings (certainly I don’t under stand it).

The point being is that we could see disruptions in the next 3 weeks–through the end of the year and no one should be surprised it something “breaks”.

The FED Statement of operations for the next month can be read here.

It is always disappointing to me to see the silliness of the marketplace in reaction to potential deals–such as trade deals.

We don’t do politics, at all, on the website, but for once I would like to see both stocks and bonds trade on fundamentals.

We have so-called ‘trade deals’ which move the markets and we have a FED that is being controlled by short term market movements. Then we have algorithms moving the market based on whatever key words are in the news

Early this morning we had a quiet market–both interest rates and stocks were off just a bit–nice and quiet just like we prefer. Then a tweet and a meeting at the Whitehouse on China sends market sharply higher. Stocks up 1% and interest rates up 7 basis points (9 basis points higher from earlier levels) on the day.

Now in the end it doesn’t matter too much to me–holding what I hold there isn’t much movement, but I do worry about movements in markets getting out of control–irrational exuberance–as these things eventually (who knows when) come home to roost with movements in the opposite direction.

Oh well I guess I should get used to it–it certainly seems like the new norm.