Investors occasionally use a stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' which is the technique of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets.br /br /If you are interested in a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/buying-dividends-top-7-stocks-going-ex.html"buying dividends/a, there are many stocks in many different industries to choose from. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks.br /br /All of the following stocks yield over 2%. br /br /Avery Dennison Corporation (AVY) goes ex-dividend on 12/1/2008 . The stock has a yield of 6.55% .br /Callaway Golf Company (ELY) goes ex-dividend on 12/1/2008 . The ...

With the markets in turmoil and sinking like a stone, nobody wants to try and catch a falling knife -- even if the knife is sterling silver.  The silver lining in every bear market is that it creates true bargains.  You need to have a shopping list prepared and scoop up some of these babies that are being tossed out with the bath water.  I ran a quick screen to try and identify some of these.  Here were my criteria: the stock had to be selling for less than 8x this years consensus earnings estimates, and less than 7x next years.  It had to have a current market cap of greater than $1 billion.  Since I do not trust the books of most financial companies, I eliminated all firms from that sector.  I also eliminated all firms that had a negative (4 or 5) score on the ...

Maverick CapitalMaverick Capital Management Holdings AnalysisThis post is being written as part of HedgeFundBlogger.com's Investment Securities Tool which analyzes the holdings of hedge fund managers.Lee Ainslie started Maverick Capital back in 1993 with $38 million. Nowadays, the fund is worth $10 billion. Ainslie, like many of the other fund managers I've profiled, has a background rooted in learning from legendary great Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. So, due to the fact that these proteges learned from the best and have had great success running their own hedge funds, I continually try to find a reason not to follow these funds. And, needless to say I'm never successful. Some contacts over at Maverick have explained that their hedge fund strategy is straight up stock picking, both long and short. They made ...