PWE - Penn West Energy Trust

[echan]

My friend, Gary, told me about Penn West Energy Trust (symbol PWE). The stock is a Canadian Engery holding company for oil and natural gas. This is now my favorite stock for the following reasons:

1. Current annual divendends are at 12% and are given monthly rather than quarterly
2. Investing in an oil type stock seems like save bet as long as oil prices remain high
3. The Canadian dollar seems stronger than the US dollar

If you hold the stock, you'll get about 12% dividend, which is much better than any money market. Even better, I found that the stock typically goes up just before the ex-dividend date then drops after the divend date (typically more than the dividend).

For example, this months dividend was $ 0.34 per share to be given on June 26th. The stock went up to June 23rd and started dropping on the 24th (it takes about 3 days for settlement so you won't get the dividend unless you buy before the 24th - I sold it at 34.71). The price yesterday went down to 33.50. I bought it back at 33.61 (hard to find the absolute bottom) making a $1.10 capital gain (to be realized when I sell) vs. the $0.34 dividend.

Just like I lost tons of money in the DOT COM bust, I hate to swear by this stock or tell you what to do. It's just something to think about, if you want a place to park some money.

Ed

[kyle.bowker]

Take 50% of my money and put it in the blue chips: Confederated Slave Holdings, Transatlantic Zeppelin, Amalgamated Spats, Congraves' Inflammable Powders, U.S. Hay, and sink the rest into that up and coming Baltimore Opera Hat Company.