Fixed income? I'll fix your income!

Members present:

Brian, Bickford, Danak

We started talking about the next buy and Brian would like us to look into some fixed income investments. 

                     Fixed income refers to any type of investment that is not equity, which obligates the  

                     borrower/issuer to make payments on a fixed schedule, even if the number of the payments 

                     may be variable (as always, from Wikipedia).

So basically, we are talking about things like bonds, with a guaranteed return. Why is it guaranteed, you ask? Because they said so. That is why you want to buy AAA-rated bonds, because the "guarantee" gets closer to being true. 

This is what ishares has available, by the way.

Also, Brian had found an interesting Wired article about the clean tech bubble, and the basic gist is that clean tech was a great idea, that is, until natural gas became so cheap. Too bad about the potential environmental repercussions of things like Fracking. It is an interesting article since it goes down various sectors of green-tech, and it takes  a look at the hopes, reality, and future viability of each. It is definitely worth a read. Also, the writer of the article had nice things to say about Tesla, and the potential promise of their sedan. That said, it will still be about $50K and that can get you a little more muscle if you are okay with chomping on dinosaur bones for a little while longer.

As with all things, cost is going to be the factor that drives any innovation. Right now, the cost of electricity isn't high enough for solar/wind/etc. to be worth it. The same goes with petrol, which makes electricity (and definitely hydrogen) not quite there yet.  

Bickford wanted to talk about ETFs as well:

Apparently ETFs are becoming rather popular. The idea that we could get our hands on a variety of stocks in one purchase was appealing to this group, so I guess we jumped on that trend. However, there are some complaints leveled against ETFs, because when one buys or sells an ETF, an entire sector is being traded. The argument is that it removes liquidity*, because all the stocks in the fund are being moved together. Then there are others who respond that there is not really enough money in ETFs to make a big difference, since comparatively much much more money is in individual stocks.

*There was a brief discussion about why this might be a bad thing, and Bickford mentioned something about this lack of liquidity potentially causing the value of a stock to be based on artificial means, but then again, aren't the markets sort of based on emotion too? Where are our robot overlords when you need them?

And now, the charts:

SPY: $10 above the 200DMA. We bought it at $119, and it is now $136!

AT&T: Dividends some time at the beginning of April?
We should hear some time at the end of March about what it will be.  

EWZ: Back up to $70 (nearly), which is almost our purchase price.
What a long, strange trip it's been. Hang in there, Brazil!

For next week:

*Dividends: research during the meeting. 

*Determine the volatility of our portfolio. 

Profit!