Inflation: The Next Crisis, And How To Protect Your Investments

Over the last two decades, inflation has been largely a non-issue. Sure, there were times when inflation crept up a little over 5%, but even that is a far cry from 12% we saw in the late '70s. You may ask, why has inflation been tame as of late? I can tell you one thing, it is certainly not hawkish sentiment from the Fed. Over the last three years alone the Fed's balance sheet has more than tripled to over $2.8 trillion! Not to mention that the benchmark interest rate has been below 1% for four years and is currently at 0.25%.

So why have prices of goods not risen?

To read the complete article please go to Seeking Alpha

VIX Options, Explained

The VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) is a measure of the implied volatility in SP 500 options contracts, and investors are now able to trade this index by buying options on this index. One can only buy options on this index because there is no underlying security to purchase, as the VIX is just an index based on calculations. Keep in mind that these options are cash settled, and are European style in that you are not able to exercise them until the day of expiry. To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha

Blue Chip Names That Missed The Rally And Are Set To Make A Comeback

Back in October, few saw a rally coming; the consensus view on Wall Street was more along the lines of the world as we know it was ending and a prolonged double dip recession was on the horizon. The SP500 at 1400 seemed to be like wishful thinking rather than even a remote possibility. So as the rally began, many investors sat on the sidelines, remaining in cash as the SP 500 (SPY) rose over 27% from the lows seen on October 4th. Now 5 months later, Investors are much more confident in the market as some stability has been achieved in Europe and consumer sentiment is showing signs of improvement domestically. The question remains, what should investors that missed the rally do? To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha.

Hedge Fund Strategy: Catalysts

Most investors are mystified how top hedge funds can consistently beat the market year after year. Granted, hedge funds have access to some of the greatest minds in the world, the most advanced equipment money can buy, and greatly reduced transaction costs. Regardless of these advantages they do in fact employ genuine alpha creating strategies many individual investors can also follow. To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha http://seekingalpha.com/article/358001-hedge-fund-strategy-catalysts

When A Company Should And Shouldn't Pay Dividends

Currently interest rates, government bond yields, and borrowing rates are at all-time lows. This provides a puzzling choice for publicly traded corporations. Do they reward their investors with a dividend which could be a much needed stream of income, or keep the profits as cash reserves and reinvest it in the business? To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha http://seekingalpha.com/article/344681-when-a-company-should-and-shouldn-t-pay-dividends

More Dividend Arbitrage: Seadrill, Williams, Vale

In my previous article Implementing Dividend Arbitrage: Verizon Wireless I discussed a strategy known as dividend arbitrage. This strategy consists of selling options on high yield stocks to both reduce risk and increase yield. Dividend arbitrage investors do not concern themselves with making gains in appreciation of stock price, but rather gains are achieved by collecting regular dividend payments. To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha

http://seekingalpha.com/article/325712-more-dividend-arbitrage-seadrill-williams-vale

5 Stocks That Could Rise Along With Government Bond Yields

In 2011, two Quantitative Easing packages, a Federal Funds rate of 0%, and great uncertainty on the state of the global economy all came together to propel the 10-year Treasury yield to record lows. U.S government bonds were one of the few investments with big winners in 2011, with investors snapping up every maturity and further depressing the short end of the yield curve. To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha http://seekingalpha.com/article/318430-5-stocks-that-could-rise-along-with-government-bond-yields

Options Trades To Profit From Ford's Comeback

It is no surprise that American automakers are back with a vengeance. After almost 30 years of losing market share to their Japanese, German, and Korean rivals they are finally beginning to gain some of it back. American manufacturers -- in particular Ford Motor Company (F) -- are coming out with fresh, innovative designs with increased technology and build quality at many times more competitive prices than rivals Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) or Honda Motor Co. (HMC). To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha http://seekingalpha.com/article/317751-options-trades-to-profit-from-ford-s-comeback

Gold: A Commodity Or A Currency?

Over the last 10 years gold has been on a seemingly unstoppable rally. The effects are everywhere, in cities across the country strip malls have been invaded by a swarm of “we buy gold” stores, the infamous Tupperware parties of suburbia have been replaced by gold buying parities, and a whole new crop of illiterate investors are buying gold. We have seen a resurgence of the gold bugs who have come out of the wood work to preach metal to all who will listen. To read the full article please go to Seeking Alpha. http://seekingalpha.com/article/317412-gold-a-commodity-or-a-currency

Implementing Dividend Arbitrage: Verizon Wireless

My favorite trade for low interest environments like those found today is dividend arbitrage. Dividend arbitrage is the process of buying fundamentally sound high yielding stocks and selling deep in the money covered calls. Selling deep in the money calls effectively doubles the amount of shares you can purchase, meaning 2x the dividends, without the use of leverage, and virtually eliminates your possibility for loss. In this post I will show you how you can implement dividend arbitrage on Verizon Wireless (VZ) common stock..... To read complete article please go to Seeking Alpha. http://seekingalpha.com/article/317047-implementing-dividend-arbitrage-verizon-wireless

New Articles

I would like to thank all of my readers for their continued support. I have recently moved most of my articles to Seeking Alpha. It allows me to reach a broader audience while at the same time express my opinion the way I see fit. From now I on I will be solely posting on Seeking Alpha. Here is a link my profile which included my newly published articles. http://seekingalpha.com/author/angad-guglani/articles

Global Indices

I normally devote most focus on domestic markets but while checking the performance of global indices (Link to the BBC article I read) yesterday I was somewhat surprised by the extremely poor performance of the Indian stock market (BSE SENSEX). The index as a whole is down 24.6%, making it one of the worst preforming markets of 2011. An even more alarming fact is that the INR (Indian Rupee) has become 17.5% weaker against the dollar in 2011. Making the real rate of return of the SENSEX -42.1% a quite astonishing move downwards. In 2011 Indian companies earned 1003 points on the SENSEX, which is 7% of the index value. Since most companies in the SENSEX do not pay dividends (Yield of 1.2%) a majority of these earnings were retained and improved shareholder equity by 5.8%. Therefore as its stands today the SENSEX is a jaw-dropping 47.9% lower than at the beginning of the year.

Remember cheaper does not always mean better, nor does it mean that the SENSEX will recover in 2012, but it is certainly something investors should keep in mind. One of the most accredited experts on valuation Aswath Domodaran (Link to his blog) has said that situations such as these provide opportunity. His rational being that there are fundamentally sound companies traded on the SENSEX that obtain a majority of their revenues globally and are therefore largely protected from the general state of the Indian economy. The stock of these companies however is exposed to the wrath of the general SENSEX index. Meaning that the stocks of these companies goes down with the SENSEX which reflects the state of the Indian economy, when in fact these stock are for the most part independent of the Indian economy and are exposed much more on the global economy. Over the next few months I will try to identify some of these companies and may take positions in them.

Welcome To Op Ex Derivatives

There is no question that investors in today's markets are partaking in some of the most volitile markets in the last century. With the advent of high frequency trading and other computer based trading systems financial markets are facing unprecedented volume. The fact is much of this volatility and increased risk erodes initial capital, and even professional investors that have brilliant minds and extrodinary tools at their disposal are unable to beat the broad market indices.

There is hope for the individual investor in the form of derivatives. If used correctly derivatives help pass of the risk prevalent in equity investments to another party while locking in gains for the investor. In this blog I will seek to find strategies and trades that allow the individual investor to use derivatives the their advantage in the never ending pursuit of beating the market.
Through my years of investing experience, I have found passive derivative strategies to be the most successful long term. This includes writing covered calls, buying puts for protection purposes, and occasionally trading in put and call spreads. This blog will focus on these strategies. Investors should always keep in mind that 75% of options go un-exercised at the date of their expiry.