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Sat. Aug. 29, 2009 D4L models, tools

D4L-PreScreen.xls Model – August 2009 Update

The D4L-PreScreen.xls model continues to be the most downloaded and used model in my toolbox. I have just completed an update on it. This update includes some minor tweaks and updates on interest rates used in the model. The changes are described below:

More on this topic (What's this?)

Comparing Models with Dividends Value – 12 Dividend Stocks (ModernGraham.com, 7/8/09)

Covestor Investment Management Goes Live (Stock Trading To Go, 7/22/09)

Covestor Model Douglas Estadt Returns 129.82% For Investors (Stock Trading To Go, 10/27/09)

Read more on Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC at Wikinvest

No Comments

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Sat. Dec. 27, 2008 D4L models, tools

Updated D4L-PreScreen.xls Model

By far, my most used and most downloaded model is the D4L-PreScreen.xls model. I have just completed an update on it. This update includes the normal year-end changes, plus some rework on the Projected Information section. The changes are described below:

More on this topic (What's this?)

Merriman's comments this past week (UnBiasedTrading (TM), 1/23/09)

Merriman's MMA comments for 12/29 week (UnBiasedTrading (TM), 12/27/08)

Raymond Merriman's turn dates 1/13 and 1/15-18 produced strong results - financial markets headin... (CHARTLINES (tm), 1/23/10)

Read more on Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC at Wikinvest

No Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________

Tue. Dec. 9, 2008 D4L tools

Dividend Investing vs. S&P Index Fund

Part of my kids’ college fund is invested in Vanguard’s S&P 500 Index Fund (VFINX). When I opened the October statement, I was mildly surprised to see the net asset value had fell below the September 1997 level when the account was first opened. Over the year I have become somewhat disenchanted with mutual funds, ETFs and CEFs due to their recent poor performance relative to my dividend investments.

5 Comments BAC, BBT, ED, JNJ, KO, PG, VFINX ________________________________________________________________________________________

Wed. May. 28, 2008 D4L tools

This Sword Has Two Edges!

Last Saturday in my article “You Can’t Beat the Herd by Following the Herd“, I promised to share a MSN Stock Screen that helped me identify some exceptional stocks, and got me into some trouble.

The D4L High Yield Stocks is a screen that I have used in the past to find some real jewels Note: You will likely not be able to view this screen unless you are using Internet Explorer. Here are the criteria used in this screen:

3 Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________

Sat. May. 24, 2008 D4L tools

You Can’t Beat the Herd by Following the Herd

“You can’t beat the herd by following the herd.” If you have read this blog for any period of time you have likely seen me use the above statement.

As noted in “Fishing in the Bathtub“, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats and Mergent’s Broad Dividend Achievers are two places I frequent when looking for potential dividend investments, as do most all dividend investors. But for my more risky higher-return dividend investments, I have to look elsewhere. One of these places is the MSN Stock Screener.

More on this topic (What's this?)

Ten Dividend Kings raising dividends for over 50 years (Dividend Growth Investor, 2/17/10)

Twelve Dividend Stocks Increasing Dividends (Dividend Growth Investor, 2/1/10)

Anticipating Dividend Increases (Buying Value, 3/7/10)

Tools To Calculate Investment Returns

The ability to track and calculate a total rate of return for your your portfolio, and subsets of it, is an important management tool. To calculate an annual and life-to-date rate of return for an individual stock, I will refer you to my article “The Winning Score – Part 2 of 2″. This same technique could be used for calculating a return on an entire portfolio, or subsets of it; however, it would be extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Besides, there are much better tools to do it such as the one I use, MSN’s Deluxe Portfolio at MoneyCentral (MSNDP).

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Ultra ETFs: Whether You’re Ultra-Long, Or Ultra-Short… Be Ultra-Careful (Investment U, 3/9/10)

The Top 50 ETFs For March, To Buy and To Sell (Shocked Investor, 3/1/10)

Are Commission-Free ETFs Really A Good Deal? (Index Universe, 2/26/10)

Read more on Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) at Wikinvest

4 Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________

Sat. Feb. 16, 2008 D4L admin, analysis, tools

Updating the MMA Rate

You may have noticed the Money Market Account (MMA) rate that I am using in my stock analyses has been dropping. It ended the year at 5.11% and is currently 4.61%. As noted in my Dividend Income vs. MMA post, I have historically used the highest rate of the MMAs that I personally own (realistic opportunity cost).

More on this topic (What's this?)

Raymond Merriman's turn dates 1/13 and 1/15-18 produced strong results - financial markets headin... (UnBiasedTrading (TM), 1/23/10)

Raymond Merriman's turn dates 1/13 and 1/15-18 produced strong results - financial markets headin... (CHARTLINES (tm), 1/23/10)

March's tempestuous movements started with more upside than many expected, but stay tuned: Raymon... (CHARTLINES (tm), 3/6/10)

Read more on Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC at Wikinvest

No Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________

Thu. Jan. 10, 2008 D4L tools

New Tool For The Toolbox

Jake at The Dividend Investing Blog has coded a New Dividend Tool. Jake described it as such:

Read more…

More on this topic (What's this?)

Ten Dividend Kings raising dividends for over 50 years (Dividend Growth Investor, 2/17/10)

The ten year dividend growth requirement (Dividend Growth Investor, 3/3/10)

Anticipating Dividend Increases (Buying Value, 3/7/10)

Read more on Dividends, Dividend Investing, Yahoo! at Wikinvest

3 Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________

Thu. Dec. 27, 2007 D4L models, tools

Dividends4Life Toolbox

Presented here are some models and tools you might find useful:

Excel Models:
D4L-Portfolio.xls (alt.1) is a subset of my Portfolio tab contained within one of my two financial spreadsheets. It illustrates several basic concepts as noted in these articles:

Read more…

5 Comments ________________________________________________________________________________________