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[quote=bearishgurl]
It appears the month(s) it lost 80% of value correlates with the time frame of the highest amount of foreclosures all over the nation.

Could it be that the fund invested in subprime mortgages and/or residential mortgage-backed securities that were worthless? If so, does it still invest in residential mortgages today?

[/quote]

This fund invests in preferred stocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_stock) which is a somewhat different animal from normally what people refer to as (common) stocks. The attraction of investing in a preferred stock is usually that the dividend yield is higher than one can achieve in normal stock. Unfortunately, preferred stock usually does not appreciate as much as common stock either …

In theory the preferred is somewhat protected on the downside than regular stock because of its dividend. Unfortunately that is only true as long as the issuer company does not go bankrupt. In bankruptcy both can fall to 0. This is what happened in 2008 because most common issuers of preferred stock were banks (think Lehman, Merrill, Bear Sterns). When they went bankrupt their preferred fell close to 0.

There are additional complexities in investing in a “closed end fund” (CEF) like JHP above and beyond the fact that they invest in preferreds. These CEFs often employ leverage with borrowed money. And the money they borrow for investing is often borrowed on very short term facilities. So when $hit hits the fan like in 2008, their assets fall in value, loans come due and they may have to sell assets at the bottom of the market to delever their portfolio. (Did I say that the market for preferred stock is very small and thinly traded?)

Then there is a third level of complexity because this is an closed ended fund that trades on stock exchange. Depending on its popularity, it can trade above or bellow its net asset value (NAV). I have seens popular CEFs trade 10-20% over NAV when markets are booming and trade 10-20% bellow NAV when times are bad. That is pure loss for the investor if his timing is bad.

So that is how one can fall 80% in one year. Hopefully they learnt something from that period …

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[quote=bearishgurl]birmingplumb, I recently received this tip from a fellow “boomer” as a “safer” income investment:

http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-price/?symbol=JHP

I’ve never been good at picking investments. Any more well-versed Piggs care to comment here?[/quote]

Does a “safer” investment drop 80% in ~ 1 year?

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=JHP+Interactive#symbol=jhp;range=5y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

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[quote=flu]

I have friends who work with their kids all the time, and naturally they are high achievers. I have my own time/resources limitations right now, so there’s only so much I can do….That’s the fact of life…There’s no such thing as an even playing field…deal with it…

[/quote]

flu,

French recognize this injustice and are working to level the playing field between parents who work with their children and parents who don’t 🙂

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/10/15/french-president-pushing-homework-ban-as-part-of-ed-reforms/

[quote]
French President François Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system.

And the reason he wants to ban homework?

He doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t. It’s an issue that goes well beyond France, and has been part of the reason that some Americans oppose homework too.
[/quote]

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INTC earnings disappoint…

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/intel-ibm-results-set-for-release-after-hours-2012-10-16?siteid=yhoof2

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[quote=AN] Then there’s the coveted San Dieguito. SDUSD’s top 4 average out higher than SDUH 4 HS. What’s also funny is, MMHS, which is #6 in SDUSD scores better than 2 out of the 4 HS in SDUH.[/quote]

My theory is that opening up of Canyon Crest has resulted into lowering of APIs of all the other HS of SDUH. Now there might be a new dynamic where all the high scoring student body in SDUH could be herding themselves into Canyon Crest, thereby resulting to very high API for Canyon Crest; but lower API for TPHS.

To some extent this dynamic plays into SDUSD also. Because of Choice and seminar and so on, I see many motivated parents moving their kids into Scripps Ranch schools (and eventually buying here when they realize that dropping off kids every day is such a waste of time.) This results into higher API for Scripps Ranch and lower API for say Mira Mesa.

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If you are living in the city of San Diego then you need to get a city inspector to come in and inspect that the water heater is strapped properly. Naturally there is a fee ($60?) for that! It may be a component of the bill…

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[quote=flu]oops!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/zynga-report-3q-net-loss-211524347.html%5B/quote%5D

You beat me on reporting this again flu! Are you just sitting there all day watching ZNGA ticker to note when ZNGA dump happens, so that you can post it to this thread ???

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I sold INTC around this level last year thinking that it was done going up… So what do I know 🙂

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From the Onion:

1) Florida To Experiment With New 600-Lever Voting Machines

http://www.theonion.com/articles/florida-to-experiment-with-new-600lever-voting-mac,29699/

2)Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gallup-poll-rural-whites-prefer-ahmadinejad-to-oba,29677/

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[quote=ucodegen]]You can also set up Firefox to clean out all cookies when you close or exit Firefox. Some websites need cookies to function.. this allows these to function, then when you close Firefox.. the cookies disappear. Also helps with reducing being ‘tracked’ by websites. To really do it right though, you need to blow/wipe the browser cache when exiting too. (unfortunately not an option on Firefox)[/quote]

Or if that is too inconvinient, you can probably fire up “incognito window” in chrome and use it to go to the site …

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[quote=ocrenter]http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-20-2012/moment-of-zen—mitt-romney-s-boyhood-dreams[/quote]

Homer votes …

SNL skit …

http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/09/snl-spoofs-romneys-percent-136278.html?hp=r16

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[quote=ocrenter]I don’t know, squat. I think it was already quite apparent how Romney view the little people. And while I would not say ALL one percenter believe half of the country are moochers, I do think a huge number of them do look at the poor as they are simply lazy.

[/quote]

I was not shocked as much as disappointed! There was a part of my brain which was hoping that Mitt was taking all these public positions just to fit into the republican base, but bellow all that he was basically a nice level headed guy who had decent handle on things…

Hearing him say all these things in a private setting, confirmed all those stereotypes of out of touch one percenter. Having listened to the whole video, I can say that there was absolutely no reason for him to say what he did. This was probably the first time we got to hear the real Romney – not the carefully scripted polished Mitt that you see on TV.

And boy, was that not a disappointment? He appears to be very close to what Obama campaign says he is – which is a real shame!

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What’s going on with Jumbo & high-balance conforming rates? Are they also approaching 3.25/3.5%?

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of course, it was left to Jon Stewart to point out that Mitt’s dad George Romney was also recepient of welfare for a few years in his life. So by Mitt’s logic he will never get his dad’s vote either …

http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-stewart-on-romney-2012-9

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/george_romneys_welfare_relief/

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As long as there is piggington.com, I am not worried about gettting my unbiased local news!

Papa Doug is looking more and more like Mr. Burns in Fraudcast news.

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Fraudcast_News

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