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Yesterday our reader John sent us a message on mega BDC FS Investments (ticker:FSIC)--an investment grade rated Business Development Company. He noted that the company had changed their dividend payments from monthly to quarterly.  That was news to us--but he was correct--as noted in this 8-K filing by the company on Tuesday.  Now it would seem to us that something that is…

The question above is asked by our reader Kyle, who also asked if he should stick to just investment rated issues?While the more seasoned income investor knows the answer to this question not everyone has been investing for the 40 plus years like some of us more "mature" folks. We will take this opportunity to cover a few of the…

We wrote a bit on this new issue yesterday. We will be purchasing positions in both the 2014 and 2015 Models (and personal accounts), even though it is a perpetual preferred.  If we are going to buy a perpetual preferred this is a dandy to buy.  We believe one should be able to buy near par if patient and bought wholesale…

At the risk of sounding like an alarmist (ala Zero Hedge or Stockmans Contra Corner) we are watching commodity prices head much lower tonight in Asia and it is a bit scary.Copper which is traditionally considered a bellweather of global economic conditions took a plunge of over 6% tonight, while iron ore prices are trading at very low levels. Of…

Giant Coop CHS Inc has sold a new cumulative, redeemable, perpetual preferred issue at 7.50%.  This coupon is higher than the 2 issues sold in 2014 which were at 7.10% and 6.75%--both were reset issues (rate resets after 10 years).If you are not familiar with CHS (Cenex Harvest States) they are a $50 billion dollar agricultual cooperative headquartered in Minnesota.  They…