Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Stock Market: Investing Direct and Investing in Utilities

By Zindy Maseko


The Direct Stock Plan operates differently than buying stock through a broker. There is no commission charged for these stock plans, but there can be a small fee. The other difference is that the company buys and sells the stock at a given time. The investor cannot sell or trade stocks at will. The investor may turn the stocks over to a broker to sell, but the broker cannot charge a commission. You may be charged a fee by the company. It depends on your agreement.

One method of investing direct in a company is by way of the Direct Dividend Reinvestment Plan. It is commonly called a DRIP. The good aspect of this type of plan is that instead of receiving the dividends you agree to reinvest the dividends in more stock in the company. It is a regular Direct Stock Plan with a reinvestment agreement. You may do the same reinvestment plan with your other stocks and mutual funds even if you have a broker.

It will astound you the number of very good companies that will allow you to buy stocks direct by setting up a plan. The ranges of possibilities include; utility companies, fast food stocks, entertainment and retail stocks.

Investing in utilities

Some good work horse utility companies are on the stock market. In seeking out the security of a public utility stock you may be interested in dividends. For some investors the utility is a relatively secure method of payment history, any amounts you owe and credit currently in use.

One example of a good utility stock is American Electric Power Company. It trades on the NYSE under the stock ticker AEP. This is a public utility holding company that transmits, generates and distributes power to a variety of utility companies. Some of these utility companies are cooperatives, municipal power companies and smaller utility companies.

If erroneous data is held about you, then contact the creditor responsible and get such information corrected. Your payment history is the single most important factor in determining your credit score, so get in the habit of paying everything you owe on time and keep the balances low in your credit cards.

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