The Sizemore Investment Letter

When you hear a mention of Turkey, it conjures up certain mental images.  The Aya Sofya in Istanbul…ships passing through the Bosphorus…mustachioed men selling doner kebabs out of pushcarts. And, unfortunately, military coups d’état and baton-wielding riot police. Turkey has become a little softer around the edges over the past decade as economic growth and [...]

What now? This is the question on every income investor’s mind.  After a five-month start to the year in which income-focused investments went nearly parabolic, concerns that the Fed might—just might—start winding down its quantitative easing sent the share prices of REITs, MLPs, utilities, and other popular investments into a tailspin. The JP Morgan Alerian [...]

If you are to believe U.S. politicians and talk radio hosts, China’s renminbi is managed by a sinister cabal of James Bond villains who intentionally suppress the value of the currency to give their manufacturers an advantage and to hollow-out U.S. manufacturing.   While that view of China’s ruling Communist Party isn’t completely fantastical, the [...]

“Sell in May” would have been terrible advice for stock investors in 2013.  The S&P 500 tacked on about 4% in the month, even if the last week and a half was a little rough. But for investors in REIT and MLP shares—which up until this month were two of the best-performing asset classes—have suffered [...]

Over the past 10 days, a period where the S&P 500 has traded sideways, REITs and MLPs are down 8% and 6%, respectively, as measured by the Vanguard REIT ETF ($VNQ) and the JP Morgan Alerian MLP ETN ($AMJ). Individual REITs and MLPs got hit harder.  The popular Realty Income ($O) and Martin Midstream ($MMLP) [...]