Monday, October 04, 2010

As Close To A Legal Ponzi Scheme As You Can Get: Wall Street Products Designed For The Greedy and Gullible

Charles Ponzi is long dead, but the scams live on
and play out each week.


There is a corner of the stock market where products are designed to:
1) Sell some "sizzle" in advance of an IPO.

2) Remove some money from the investor's wallet (5%) at time of sale.

3) Appeal to the "greed" section of the human brain.

4) Offer you an ongoing "yield" (watch this word closely) that knocks the socks off everything else.

5) Pretty much make sure that over time your investment continues to decline.


What lies in this murky corner?

Answer:
Closed End Funds (CEFs). Specifically, "Managed Payout" CEFs. It gets worse. Even reputable mutual fund firms have rolled out such funds over the past several years, all in an effort to "three card monte" the shareholder.


Click on the blog title above to read an outstanding blog from
Dividends For Life.


Note that WFG owns six of the stocks listed as superior alternatives to the scammy CEFs.


Investing Lesson

Greed and fear are the two greatest factors that typically separate investors from their hard earned capital.

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