A dramatic shift is taking place in the market as value stocks continue to heat up, and it’s creating some attractive opportunities, so long as you stay disciplined and focused on your goals. This week’s Weekly shares some specific attractive opportunities, as well as our advice on how to win in this market.

For perspective, this first chart shows how growth stocks (i.e. expensive, often 0% dividend paying, growth companies) have been dominating value stocks in recent years.

However, this next chart shows a dramatic shift is starting to take place over the last month, whereby the tide has been turning in favor of value stocks, a trend which some investors believe is long overdue and could continue for an extended period of time.

We have some advice on how to play this shifting tide in our “part 1” conclusion, below. But first, some specific attractive investment opportunities right now.

Last Week’s Weekly:

Last week’s Blue Harbinger Weekly shared a few attractive big-dividend energy stocks (see: Top 5 Big Safe Yields (Energy Sector)). Energy is one of the more “value stock” sectors of the market, and it has been the worst performing market sector so far this year. Nonetheless, it’s actually been outperforming the S&P 500 over the last month and there are currently some very attractive opportunities in that sector, as we descrided in the link provided above.

Stock of the Week:

Last week we actually had two “Stocks of the Week,” they were both in the energy sector, and you can read those full reports here:

BP’s 6.3% Yield: It’s Worth Considering

Royal Dutch Shell: Stable Dividend (6.7% Yield) in a Volatile Sector

This week’s Stock of the Week is a big-dividend preferred stock that is also worth considering:

Seaspan Preferred Shares: 7.8% Yield, Worth Considering

Income-Generating Options Trade:

Last week our income-generating options trade was rolled up into our top 5 big safe yield energy stock list, whereby we shared a put option idea on big-dividend energy company BP. Here is that link with that specific idea again. And for reference, you can view the headlines for a few of our recent members-only options trade ideas here. Further still, the members-only “part 2” version of this report shares a few ideas as to what may be a few attractive options trades this upcoming week. For reference, one of those ideas may be selling income-generating, out-of-the-money, put options on Ares Capital (ARES) which was down significantly just last week (and that type of volatility usually leads to some attractive premium income opportunities). We wrote up a recent free article on Ares Capital here:

Ares Capital: 8.4% Yield, Stable Income Potential

Conclusion (Part 1):

Before we get into the members-only part 2 version of this report (where we share the recent performance of each of our current holdings, plus a few more attractive investment ideas), we have some important investment advice for you to consider. Specifically, the market has been slightly more volatile and rotating lately. More specifically, value stocks have been starting to make up some ground on growth stocks—a trend many investors believe is long overdue. However, before you go haphazardly chasing all value or all growth stocks, consider this. Prudently-diversified, goal-focused, long-term investing has proven to be a winning strategy over and over again throughout history. And it has most certainly proven a far better strategy than trying to time the market (no one really knows what’s going to happen in the market today, tomorrow or two months from now). The best investment advice you’re going to get (from anyone) is to know your goals, and then stick to an investment strategy that is consistent with those goals. It’s okay to be opportunistic on the edges (e.g. for rebalancing purposes, and/or when an attractive opportunity presents itself). But for goodness sake, don’t bet the farm because you think you’re going to perfectly time the size and extent of some big style rotation in the market. Instead, just pick good investments, that are consistent with your goals, and then hold on to them for the long-term. It may sound simple, but it’s absolutely a winning strategy.

Part 2:

In this part 2 version of The Blue Harbinger Weekly, we review the recent performance of each of our holdings, we share a few more attractive investment opportunities, and we conclude with more sage advice. If you are a member, you can access the full report here.