You can buy the common stock and protect it with long puts, say two weeks before the dividend ex-date, then collect the dividend, while the combination of the put and the common have exceptionally low risk. One of my favorite strategies. I can (and anyone can) get the absolute risk under the dividend amount.
Meanwhile, my friend whom I am trying to teach this who poo-poos me about it has probably lost $60K on his beloved MSFT & AAPL this week. We’ve seen peak AAPL. It just got dirted.
There is no way to own common stock safely without a collar. (stock + put - call)
If it pisses off enviroweenies to invest in oil, I am all for it.
A buck is a buck. Show me the money.....
For a long time, oil stocks were great, especially the dividends. But starting in Aug 2014, they dropped very quickly as the price of oil declined.
I have some stocks that are worth just 5% of what they were back in July 2014. While some of those still pay dividends, many of them have stopped. I don’t need the $$ and I think oil will eventually rebound, so I didn’t take the loss. However, the big danger is that some (many) companies will go bankrupt the longer oil stays under $40/barrel.
I would rather invest in the tech stocks for 2017.