ETFs Paying 8% Plus Dividend Yields

There are currently more than a handful Exchange Traded Funds that are paying more than an 8% dividend yield. And yes, you are reading that correctly, more than an 8% dividend yield. There are at least four ETF’s currently paying dividend yields above 8%, while a few others are paying yields even higher.

Furthermore, these ETF’s are investing what is surprisingly a wide range of different investments, meaning even if you’re not a fan of REITS or MLP’s, there is still may be an ETF, that’s paying a healthy yield, out there waiting for you. So, let’s take a look at a few of the different options.

First, we have what most would expect out of a high dividend-yielding ETF, an MLP ETF. The VanEck Vectors High Income MLP ETF (YMLP) is currently yielding 8.18% and has an expense ratio of just 0.82%. The fund has 18 holdings, all of which are MLP’s structured as C-corporations. Also, the weighted average market cap is only $1.36 billion, and the funds top nine holdings all fall in line at 7% to just over 8% fund weighting. Year to date the fund is up 18%, but only 2% over the last month and 3.85% over the previous year.

Another typical high dividend-paying investment is a REIT or Real-Estate-Investment-Trust. And you can imagine when one ETF owns 27 different REIT’s, the dividend gets a little juiced. One such ETF is the VanEck Vectors Mortgage REIT Income ETF (MORT) which has a yield of 7.4% but has an expense ratio of just 0.41%. MORT has 27 holdings with a weighted average market cap of $5.13 billion and has a year-to-date performance of 10.93% while being up just 1.55% over the last month and 11.61% over the last 12 months. MORT invests in mortgage REIT’s which are REIT’s that own mortgages or mortgage back securities. The risk with these investments is that we see outsized mortgage loan default rates, such as what we saw during the last recession. Continue reading "ETFs Paying 8% Plus Dividend Yields"

Options: Two Ways to Play Dividends

As with trading any financial product, there are many strategies to choose from. One strategy isn't necessarily better than another and many times the strategy that works best for you simply depends on your trading style.

Today's guest blog post is from Elizabeth Harrow of Schaeffer's Research and she is sharing 2 different options strategies that revolve around playing dividends. Enjoy the post below and leave a comment on the blog. If you like this article and wish to receive 6 months free Option recommendations, please click HERE.

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As you may or may not be aware, dividends are one of the many factors that influence an option's price. Because dividends don't have as big an impact as other variables, such as time decay and implied volatility, they're generally not a topic that I dedicate a lot of time and analysis to. However, every option trader worth his or her respective salt should know that dividends create trading opportunities (even if only so that he or she can break out this tidbit at particularly boring cocktail parties). So, in today's column, we're going to take a look at two common ways to trade around dividends.

Dividend arbitrage

First up is dividend arbitrage, which uses a combination of stock and in-the-money puts to capitalize on dividend-related price changes. Continue reading "Options: Two Ways to Play Dividends"