The market began to seriously price in the potential of Greece
leaving the Euro Zone earlier in the day, but by the afternoon
bargain hunters pushed their way through and took the averages way
off the earlier lows.
Looking at some of the headline movers, earnings plays PetSmart
(
PETM
) and Guess? (
GES
) bucked the early nervousness by gaining on their positive
results. Non-dividend tech titan Dell Inc. (
DELL
) could not muster such a comeback following that company's
results. Dell continues to be a dividend payer holdout, despite a
sizable cash position.
Speaking of tech, Hewlett-Packard (
HPQ
) will be reporting results after the bell this evening, and
industry watchers believe we may hear more about the company's
cost-cutting initiatives (job cuts) during the earnings call
(Update: It appears the report is out and it looks like 27K job
cuts). Shares of Blackrock (
BLK
) rose sharply following news of the company's secondary offering
to help it buy its share stake back from Barclay's Bank.
The Markets Can Look Very Different, Depending on Your
Perspective
As we were taking a dip back down today earlier today, traders
who were positioned poorly were paying the price. In contrast,
long-term investors who continue to concentrate on quality
dividend-paying stocks are probably hoping to free up more capital
to buy more shares at better prices.
Unlike most market watchers, we here at Dividend.com worry more
about market melt-ups than melt-downs. The sure-fire way to
underperform as an investor is by buying assets that are already
expensive (and eventually selling them at lower prices because the
pain of the share price drop is too hard to take). If you stick to
your discipline, your portfolio returns will be solid over the long
term - and having dividend payouts along the way will always lessen
the short-term worries. As I mentioned earlier this week, if an
individual stock breaks away from a good-performing market, that's
when I want to take a closer look, but when the overall market is
in a downdraft, then there is little need to panic about an
individual stock.
Investing Success Doesn't Follow a "Normal" Pattern
Most of us began imagining our future lives from an early age.
If I get good grades, I will make honor roll. If I make honor roll,
my parents will be proud. If I make them proud, maybe they'll buy
me a car when I turn 16. If I have a car, I can get a job. When I
get a job I'll make money and be able to buy whatever I want. This
mindset continues throughout our lives and branches into many
directions.
If you do well in your professional life, you get promoted. In
turn, you make more money. With more money, you can buy your first
house. And so on. In investing, we assume this same pattern will
follow suit. We buy a stock and expect it to go up immediately. But
how often does that really happen? This point is where people run
into trouble.
Remember, investing is not a daily scoreboard. You can assume
your actions (buying stocks) are guaranteed to succeed simply
because that's what's "supposed" to happen. The reality is much of
what you carefully research and buy for your portfolio should be
fine over the course of time (especially if you are highlighting
quality dividend stocks in your buying). In the pursuit of results,
we will all experience blemishes in our lifetime. They don't
highlight this fact in the manual of life. Sometimes, you just have
to adjust your perspective of what is "normal."
An Important Note Regarding the Best Dividend Stocks List
We want to make sure everyone understands that the stocks on our
Best Dividend Stocks List
are the names we currently like for new investor capital,
regardless of what date the stock was first recommended on. If and
when a stock is removed from the list, we will clearly state
whether the stock should be sold (which is rare but occasionally
will happen), or simply held in one's account until we see a better
entry point or catalyst.
And here's one last thing to remember about what we do here at
Dividend.com: it's not just the names that we recommend that can
help you build wealth, but also the things we try to steer you away
from that are just as important. Forget about speculative or penny
stocks, chasing unprofitable IPOs, and listening to the manic
talking heads in the business media!
Our
Beat The Markets with Dividend Stocks
eBook Has Arrived!
We just debuted our brand new 275-page eBook, exclusively on
Dividend.com! In this digital-only book, we look ahead to 2012 and
the main factors that could affect dividend investors. A $39.95
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Beat The Markets with Dividend Stocks
contains a full economic forecast for 2012, including in-depth
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A Dividend Capture Strategy for Active Investors
We now offer complete U.S. dividend data for all
Dividend.com Premium
members, so anyone that focuses on "Dividend Capture" trading
strategies should have plenty of good stuff to research each day.
Just check our enhanced
Ex-Dividend Calendar
, which is the best in the business, to search for upcoming
payouts.
Speaking of dividend capture, Dividend.com Premium members can
also access a 9-page report we published on the essential elements
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out here on the
Premium homepage
.
Dividend.com's Very Own National TV Commercial Has Debuted
Our first-ever television commercial! has started running on
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link yet,
you can check out our commercial here
.
Thanks for reading everybody. I'll see you tomorrow!
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.