I have read this little rhythm somewhere and I liked it. Some professionals from Wall Street and analysts say that May is typically a weak month when stocks fall. If I recall it correctly, last year it was actually April when stocks headed south. But I may be wrong.

Sometimes it is confusing listening to advice like this. We are bombarded by information like this every time and newbies can be quite confused. Once, I remember, I wanted to make a list of weak and strong months and coordinate my buying accordingly. Glad I didn’t have enough time to do so.

As I have changed my investing strategy I see this weak month as an opportunity. If it shows up as they say and stocks will head down I will be actually happy about it. Even though I will see a lot of my holdings in red numbers (which is psychologically very hard for me) I am repeating to myself, that this would be a great opportunity to buy. Even if the stocks head down, it won’t last forever and I can be buying cheaper than today.

So what I am doing during the period when stocks are growing? Waiting and saving. I save money to have enough to buy when the stocks fall so I can buy more. And when stocks start growing again I will sit, wait and save money. If I have saved more than a few dollars I am willing to invest into my mutual fund HSTIX, which I can be buying without commissions and it pays dividends. This fund serves me as a money storage. As soon as I see a buying opportunity I sell a portion of my holdings in the fund and use released money to buy.

Right now I am waiting for Kinder Morgan as my next buy. It yields 5.8%, its 5-year average dividend growth is 7.13% and it was increasing the dividend in 14 consecutive years. I want the price drop down, so I can buy cheaper.

You may have noticed that on the right sidebar I have a list of stocks of my interest. These are the stocks I am planning to add into my portfolio.

The list contains primarily dividend paying stocks, but time to time I add a speculative stock into the list. For example right now it is Old Dominion Freight Line, which showed momentum and rapid growth in price. If this strength continues I may add this stock into my portfolio.

In my Trading account, as I call it, I would allow circa 30% of the portfolio for more risky trades but the rest will be strictly dividend investing. Those 30% will be dedicated not only for speculative and growth stocks, but for option trading as well.

Right now I am preparing for options trading and studying and maybe later I will try one small trade with real money to see how it all works.

As far as today I am still in accumulation phase, however. I am satisfied with my results. Within a year I was able to save and invest 10k in my Roth IRA account and raise my savings in Trading account up to $4000. I am using margin to buy more dividend stocks, so I purchased stocks for $10,000.

I have read an article about leveraging an account with margin by buying stock “ahead” and then paying down the balance over time. The book Lifecycle Investing: A New, Safe, and Audacious Way to Improve the Performance of Your Retirement Portfolio by Ian Ayres, Barry Nalebuff, which writes about this strategy created a lot of controversy and negative feedback from investors as far as I could read on the Internet.

However I like the idea. It helps me to boost my investments. I believe that in combination with dividend investing I can purchase more stocks now, collect dividends and enjoy stocks appreciation. OK, I understand that margin is not for free. Currently I pay 9% for the loan from my broker. It is acceptable for me and as for now I am paying this loan down. I invested my own 3000 dollars and borrowed $7000. My monthly payment is 57 dollars. For me – manageable and acceptable. So I decided to give it a try and see if this strategy works for me.

Back to my watchlist. I added a page with watchlist in the sidebar, where you can see more details why I selected those stocks. It is not a rocket science and many dividend investors will recommend most of the stocks in the list.

What I am looking at when selecting the stock? As far as today I want to be investing aggressively, thus I am selecting stocks which pay higher dividends (high dividend yield) so I can reinvest back or accumulate to buy other stocks. Now I am OK with lower dividend growth, but I watch this item closely too. I am selecting stocks with high yield as well as higher dividend growth. I want to be in the middle range of the following:

• stocks with high yield and low dividend growth
• stocks with higher yield and higher dividend growth
• stocks with low yield and high dividend growth

Now I am buying primarily stocks from the second category as well as stocks from the first category. I am also adding riskier stocks with high yield, which do not or barely fit other criteria, such as dividend history (once it was AOD fund).

Next criteria I look at is how many years the company was increasing dividends (for example JNJ was increasing dividends for 48 consecutive years), when it started first paying the dividends and what industry and sector the company belongs to. That is not only because of my allocation, but also to see, why the company didn’t increase its dividends. For example banking and financial companies were slammed by the recession. That necessarily doesn’t mean that the company would be bad at all. For example Bank of Montreal was increasing the dividend since it started except a few moments in 2005 and obviously in 2008 – 2010 – during the crisis. I believe, banks will recover again and start paying dividends again. Thus it seems to me as a good opportunity to add some shares of this bank to my portfolio, mainly when it yields 4.2% and its growth is 8.57% (the company is in the second (middle) category as shown above.

Let’s take a look at my list of the stocks I am planning to add (it can change over time obviously) into my portfolio:

(If the table below doesn’t show up, hit reload in your browser. I do not know why sometimes it is not loading, but reloading the page helps).

View the entire spreadsheet here.

You can also find the same list on the right sidebar under Pages link.

There are plenty of benefits to owning stocks that pay their dividends monthly. According to the Excel list that was just updated by WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 200 different companies that pay dividends monthly, many of which have high yields. Technically, these stocks are real estate investment trusts, oil income trusts, closed end bond funds, and closed end income stock funds, which pay dividends every month. Advantages to receiving monthly dividends as opposed to quarterly or annual dividend stocks are that the invested capital is returned faster, compounding takes place quicker, and there is usually less price volatility of the investment. Also, many of monthly dividend investments pay dividends that are tax free.

An example is the MFS Multimarket Income Trust (MMT) which pays a yield of 7.80%. The stock trades at a 9.2% to net asset value. The company, which has been around since 1987, has a management fee of 0.82%.

Gas Natural Inc. (EGAS), formerly known as Energy, Inc., is a distributor of natural gas in Montana, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Maine. It was founded in 1909. The stock pays a yield of 4.6% and carries a price to earnings ratio of 12.7.

Baytex Energy (BTE) is an investment trust which generates income from petroleum and natural gas properties. It generates a yield of 4.2%, and has been paying monthly since 2006. The company trades at 22.4 times forward earnings.

Realty Income Corp. (O), with the great single letter stock ticker symbol, yields 5.0%. This real estate investment trust which specializes in commercial retail real estate, has been around since 1969. The stock trades at 16.7 times forward earnings.

Calamos Convertible & High Income (CHY) has a decent yield of 6.9%. However, the management fee is a bit on the high side at 1.13%. This CEF, founded in 2003, invests in high yield fixed income securities and convertible securities.

Provident Energy Trust (PVX) is a Canadian income trust which generates a yield of 6.1% through the marketing of natural gas liquids. It was founded in 1993. Canada’s new legislation which taxes trust income goes into effect this year. This would tax the trusts at the corporate level in addition to the shareholder level. However, many analysts believe that this taxation is build into the price of these Canadian trusts.

Use caution choosing these investments. Avoid the ones with high management fees, watch out for the ones with limited liquidity and which trade very few shares on a daily basis, and if you invest in the municipal bond closed end funds, make sure you know the consequences of the Alternative Minimum Tax. You also want to find the ones that trade at a discount to net asset value, and avoid the ones using excessive leverage.

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After going ex-dividend Monday, shares of American Capital Agency Corp (AGNC) were falling further after hours on news the company will be offering 27,000,000 shares of stock. Underwriters will have the possibility to sell an additional 4,050,000 shares to cover any overallotments. Investors who have held AGNC for a few quarters should have seen this coming since it is the 4th large equity offering since September. However, looking at the market response to previous offerings, investors might want to participate in this secondary.

While shareholders should never like being diluted, it makes sense for AGNC to keep issuing shares to expand its holdings of securities given that shares trade at a premium to book value, which was last reported being $24.24 on February 8th. The fact that shares continue to march higher, even with the dilution, is a testament to the strength of the company’s management American Capital (ACAS), and the 19% yield. If you purchased shares on the September offering at $26, you will have received one $1.40 dividend already, and will be due the next $1.40 dividend April 27th. That amounts to $2.80 in dividends, as well as about $2.50 in stock appreciation, depending on where the new offering prices, for a total return of $5.30, or 21.5% .

I do not expect the stock to run much above the $33-$35 range given the book value on the shares. However, the company has consistently paid the current $1.40 dividend for 7 quarters and has paid out $14.66 since its formation. The incredibly high yield makes AGNC a winner, and these equity offerings have proved to be opportunities to get shares at a discount. The weakness on the open Tuesday will be an opportunity to get a great yielding stock on a dip, and gain access to this massive dividend yield.

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Even high-quality blue-chip stocks have been thrown overboard in the panic of the past six days.

Shares in some of the world’s strongest and most profitable names have been knocked down 5%, 10% or in a few cases even more in the global selloff.

Nobody knows what’s going to happen next in Japan. And nobody can say for certain what it will mean for the global economy.

Listen to Ben Inker. He’s the head of asset allocation at fund shop GMO. “However horrific the human cost,” he wrote this week, “economically, most disasters are hard to spot in the data. GDP does not necessarily fall, and if it does, the bounce-back is usually quite rapid.”

And, as he added, the events of the next few months, even years, don’t actually matter that much to the true value of the stock market anyhow.

There are no guarantees. But if you’ve been struggling to find decent places to invest, and you’ve been waiting for better prices, the following stocks are worth a look:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. : Yes, it has its troubles. Like falling same-store sales here in the U.S., and too many customers living on food stamps. But it’s still an incredible retailer. This stock is back to levels seen three years ago. As recently as January it was at $58. Today it’s just $51.That’s a paltry 12 times forecast earnings, and the dividend yield is 2.8%.
• Coca-Cola Co. : Last week it was nearly $66. Today it’s tumbled all the way down to $61. And for the world’s biggest brand name that’s cheap, on 12 times forecast earnings, with a 3% yield.
• Procter & Gamble Co. : The classic widow and orphan stock. The Crest, Tide and Gillette behemoth, $67 recently, has been marked down to $60. Reasonable on fifteen times forecast earnings, with a healthy 3.2% yield.
• Johnson & Johnson : The health-care giant has had a rough few months, and has been hit by product recalls. The stock has tumbled to $58, from a peak of $66 in the fall. On 12 times forecasts, with a yield of 3.7%, it has priced in a fair amount of gloom already.
• Microsoft Corp. : I hate most of their software, and recently wasted hours grappling with a Windows Mobile product, but I can’t deny the stock is cheap. It’s down to just $25, from nearly $30 recently. Just 10 times forecast earnings, yielding 2.6%.
• Merck and Co. Inc. : It’s at $31, from nearly $34 recently. As with most of the big pharmaceutical companies, investors face the usual trade-off between slow growth and awesome cashflow. But at 8 times forecasts, and with a fat dividend yield of 4.9%, this stock has already priced a lot of that in.
• Vodafone Group PLC : This British firm is the world’s largest mobile-network operator, and owns a 45% stake in Verizon Wireless here in the U.S. The stock is down to $27, from nearly $30 recently. A bargain at 10 times forecast earnings, with a yield of 4.8%.
• Diageo PLC : The world’s biggest drinks company — brands include Guinness beer, Smirnoff vodka, Captain Morgan rum and a whole range of Scotch whiskys. It’s now $72, down from nearly $81 recently. Reasonable on 14 times forecast earnings, yielding 3.5%.
• Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. : Here’s one Japanese stock even a grandmother might want to think about. Japan’s Ma Bell has U.S.-listed depositary receipts. They’re $22, from $25 recently. Now on 10 times forecasts, yielding a remarkable — for Japan — 2.8%.
• GlaxoSmithKline PLC : Another cashflow-rich, slow-growth pharmaceutical giant. London-based Glaxo is now $37, down from $39 recently. But it’s cheap, on just 8 times forecast earnings, yielding a huge 5.6%.

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The primary goal isn’t to make as much money as possible or “beat the market.” Instead, it’s to create a portfolio of investments that will allow you to meet specific obligations — no matter what happens in the markets. This may seem like a distinction without a difference. But it requires a fundamentally different mindset and approach than investing to maximize returns.

It even has a name: liability-driven investing.

“You’re not investing to maximize returns…you’re maximizing the chance of being able to meet future income needs,” says Christopher Jones, chief investment officer at Financial Engines, which provides asset-allocation services to 401(k) plans.

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Actuant Corp. has strung together seven earnings surprises as both the top and bottom lines continue to improve. In addition, a recent acquisition led to a buying frenzy. Those factors have lead to nice upward estimate revisions, pushing shares to a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy).

Actuant is an industrial company that operates in more than 30 countries through a variety of markets. The company offers hydraulic and electrical tools, as well as other related products and services.

Another Surprise
I originally featured Actuant back in October and since then the company has posted yet another earnings surprise, making it seven in a row. The announcement came on December 16 and included EPS of 36 cents, nearly double the 19 cents from a year ago. Analysts were looking for 34 cents.

Revenues for the period were up 34%, to $87.4 million. If you strip out acquisitions, and other adjustments, you still have core growth of roughly 14%. Solid top and bottom line growth? Sounds good to me.

Raising Guidance
One aspect that can go toe-to-toe with EPS when it comes to quarterly reports is ATU’s outlook. In this release the CEO for Actuant raised the outlook thanks to encouraging trends and other favorable variables.

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