Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Preferred stock investing

I wouldn't have thought there was anything exciting about investing in preferred stock, but it turns out I've been wrong. I'm reading PREFERRED STOCK INVESTING by Doug K Le Du. I haven't finished, but it's clear he's outlining a clever way to take advantage of the ups and downs of preferred stock prices that result from interest-rate changes.

Figure out the interest rate trend, combine with his knowledge of how preferred stocks work, be very selective in your buying of these stocks (he gives 10 strict criteria, and only one to three such preferred stocks are newly issued every month), buy them cheap (using a smart method I'd never heard of), and then hold them until they reach their maximum value.

While I don't believe he can predict interest rate rises and falls, you can figure out the overall trend -- enough to use this system to make a profit.

I also like how one of his principles is reducing work. I think far too many financial/investing writers want readers to do tremendous amounts of research, read annual reports and so on.

My one possible objection is that his system does include selling for capital gains. However, finding new preferred stocks to "ride" on their way up, and using a smart system to get predictable capital gains is so different from common stocks that I am inclined to think this may be worth it. I'll reserve judgment until I've finished reading the book.

You can get it at: preferred stock investing.




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