Home

After a really rocky open with a circuit breaker shutting the market down after 6 or 7 minutes of trading markets have calmed–for now. Of course there is no real predicting the end of the day trading–way up or way down? Maybe just a whimper into the…

We know there are people that are very scared at this time–whether they are conservative investors or not. No matter how great the bargains are in the market, folks that are laying awake at night because of fear of their ‘stash’ disappearing must do s…

I guess if we wanted a setback in stock prices we should be happy–but certainly we would all have been happy with 1% daily down moves instead of the 6-7% lower opening we are apt to see today. I guess more worrisome are the plunging interest rates–th…

Last week we had quite the wild ride in stock prices with the S&P500 starting the week at 2974 and closing the week at 2972–this was a Friday close 20 points above the week ago close. Of course prices moved in a range of 4% or so during the week….

With an ‘all out’ oil war at hand and no good news on the Covid-19 corona virus it looks like Monday could be a really rock start for the week. At 5 pm central time the DJIA futures are off around 980 points. West Texas Intermediate crude oil is tradin…

As the wide swings have been occurring in all marketplaces–stocks and bonds I have just nibbled here and there–not getting carried away. I bought a position in the new First Citizens Bancshares 5.375% preferred (now trading on the OTC Grey market und…

Just a quick note that the VEREIT 6.70% perpetual (VER-F) is on sale. I added just now to my current position @ $25.10. Due your due diligence.

North Carolina banker First Citizens Bancshares (FCNCA) has priced their new issue of non cumulative preferred stock. The pricing is at 5.375%–higher than I anticipated. The issue is rated Baa3 (investment grade). Interestingly this issue has just a 1…

I have tried to do some buying on investment grade issues this week and until today had little luck. But now we are seeing some issues moving larger volumes which is giving one a chance. I had a GTC order in on the 5.25% Ellsworth Growth and Income CEF…

Equity markets remain pretty wild as everyone trys to figure out the longer term effects of the corona virus. For us income investors it means a little more time to try to find some bargains. It seems everyone is trying to play the same game–maximize…

We are awaiting the pricing on the new preferred issue from First Citizens Bancshares (FCNCA) as it was not priced yesterday–which mcg noted in yesterdays comments. It will have a permanent ticker of FCNCP when it does trade on the permanent exchange….

As pointed out by readers in the last couple of days there have been a couple partial calls of baby bonds by 2 BDCs. Capital Southwest Corp (CSWC) today has announced a call of 1.4 million shares (just under 50% of shares/bonds outstanding) of their 5….