Global Challenges Remain, But We Forge Ahead

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With the new QE program in Europe, terrorist running wild in the Mideast and oil prices at a level not seen for 6 years we simply move forward with out investing. We have learned to not overreact to all of these individual events as life moves forward as does the marketplace and there is no place for one putting their head in the sand and hoping for less turmoil. This is the world we live in today.

After an absense of 4 years (except for 1 short article in 2013) we have returned to write a few articles on Seeking Alpha. It is not our intent to write often on there as it is time consuming and we have more than enough on our plates. We returned because of a note we received from Seeking Alpha requesting that we consider writing again for them. It is tough to write on there and complete against some of the hyped up stuff we read on there–our boring little income investor writeups are not the fodder for millions of eyeballs.

We have been very pleased with our personal and Model Portfolios so far in 2015. While common shares held have been less than stellar performers they have been balanced with exchange traded debt issues and REITs. The 2015 Model Portfolio – Blended Income will lag until next month as a new portfolio means that shares were not held last month when many of the issues went ex-dividend so we miss a months worth of dividends. On the other hand the 2014 Model Portfolio – Blended Income continues on and realizes a full compliment of dividend and interest payments, although many won’t be collected until the end of this month.

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The models (2014 and 2015) are up nicely since the 1st of the month–the 2014 Model is up 1.29% and the 2015 Model is up .43% (and it started with a negative as we ‘charge’ the model brokerage fees on the purchases and it is not receiving many dividends as mentioned above). The ultra conservative 2014/2015 Short/Medium duration is up 2.64% since 10/13/2014–wow!! We will take these returns any day–thank you falling interest rates. The S&P 500 is still off 1/10% for 2015–but total bonds are up 1.40%—the rest of the year will NOT be so easy.

We watch for more issues to come to market like the CHS preferred from a week or 2 ago and the Harvest Capital Credit 7% notes from last week–both issues were bought by us and both issues are up about 3% since issue–for the CHS issue it is the power of ‘buying wholesale’ on the OTC grey market. We pass on many perpetual preferreds that are issued–but on occasion we find some good issues coming to market.

Investors should hang on as we head through this week as the global events will present never ending challenges for all of us.

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Tim McPartland

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Tim McPartland
Tim McPartland is a private investor with over 45 years of investing experience. His analysis, research and writing is devoted to the hunt for income producing securities of all types, but in particular specializing in preferred stocks, exchange traded debt and Master Limited Partnerships.
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