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50% off isn't always a good thing! If you've been following so far, fellow Blogging Stocks contributor Sheldon Liber and I have been scratching our heads about high payout yields from energy trusts battered by the decision from the Canadian government to tax trusts. On the surface, examining the energy trusts' financials make it seem possible for them to sustain payouts at current rates, but for how long?

Well, income investors didn't have to wait long. Energy trusts shareholders will be in for a rude awakening to start the week. Last week, many notable energy trusts delivered bombshells by cutting their payouts - in a big way too!

Last Thursday, Shiningbank Energy Income Fund trimmed its distribution for the third time in the last 12 months. This only served as a prelude as a slew of cuts flew in last Friday. Enterra Energy Trust (NYSE:ENT) slashed its monthly payout by 50%. Precision Drilling Trust (NYSE:PDS) followed suit, reducing its distribution by almost 40%. Advantage Energy Income Fund (NYSE:AAV) would complete the hat trick, cutting its monthly payout by 17%.

Are you among the investors reeling from these announcements? If you feel inclined to blame the Canadian government, please take a closer look first! What are the wind-shifts in the industry outlook have caused these reductions, rather than the proposed tax levy?

As a contributor to GuruWatch.org, I noticed that celebrity guru, Suze Orman, is at it again. At what you might ask? Writing a new book, for one. And marketing herself, for another. Notice that she clearly gave thought to the colors to be used on her latest book cover. In short, she definitely knows how to make money .... for herself at least!

Suze Orman has partnered with TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) to offer brokerage account bonuses to women who read and follow the advice from her latest self-help book "Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny." In the book, Orman outlines a simple five-step, the "Save Yourself Plan," intended to help women find long-term financial security. TD Ameritrade is helping to promote Orman's book by offering a $100 bonus to clients who follow the Save Yourself Plan, open a new brokerage account during the month of March, and make monthly direct deposits of $50 or more for one year.

Forgive my eternal cynicism, but the "Save Yourself Plan"? I'm undecided whether that name is meant to motivate women by instilling fear or by uplifting their spirit. Orman explains it this way, "What's at stake is far bigger than money itself; it's about every woman's sense of who she is and what she deserves, and why it all begins with the decision to save yourself."

Would TD Ameritrade really care if women followed Orman's advice? The key is to build up the necessary illusion that they're after your best interest, and not your fees/commissions. The brand marketing strategy to reach out to women investors is a smart one.

As for Suze, increasing book sales would not be a bad thing at all for her bank account. I wonder if she uses TD for that? Hmm ...

There was no shortage of coverage regarding the Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold/Phelps Dodge merger yesterday. I'm never one to jump on bandwagons, but for this article I'll make an exception and comment about the event.

My observations lead me to believe that "monkey see, monkey do" investing is alive and well; it's so very disturbing that investors can't think for themselves! What's more disturbing is the fact that market makers are the ones that started this trend, and the money eventually flows into those coffers.

Phelps Dodge (NYSE:PD) stock opened on November 20, 2006, at $122.90 -- up more than 25% from the previous business day's close. The deal seems unbelievable. Freeport (NYSE:FCX), the smaller of the two companies, attempts to swallow more than it can chew by offering up $126.46 -- a 33% premium -- from Phelps Dodge's November 17, 2006, closing price. Anybody like me wondering how this marriage will end? Just imagine if you were the groom hoping to seal the deal on that mail-order bride, and you decided the best way to do so was to take on lots of debt! Even if the marriage is harmonious, the debt will most certainly put a strain on the initial relationship.

Mention Graco and most people start thinking about baby strollers. If you've ever confused Graco Inc. (NYSE: GGG) with the company that manufactures those baby strollers, join the club! I actually developed an interest in the baby stroller company by following Peter Lynch's principle of "investing in what you know." Graco baby strollers are everywhere and they're made of high quality materials, thus prompting my interest.

I thought to myself -- if the troops in the middle east ever come back from their tour of duty, historical statistics show that there should be a boom in new baby births right after a war ends. The population explosion of the last century may not have been possible without the two world wars. Foolishly, I looked up the stroller company but instead, found one of the world's premier manufacturers of fluid-handling equipment and systems.

It's all Enron's fault! Did I get your attention? I believe sometimes we Blogging Stocks writers take for granted that our audience understands intuitively the topics we write about. If you've been religiously following our blogs, you will notice the recent increase in our focus on private equity and leveraged buy-out articles. And if you're wondering what this Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) thingy is all about, don't be intimidated! I'll show you what they all mean and how it affects your investing bottom line.

"Wait a minute, are you promising to show me tricks to get rich?" No, silly! Tricks are for kids! For the advanced investor, you might think about these criteria next time you're looking for stocks to add to your watch list, or to aid in your buy/sell decisions. For the novice investor, it's a chance to learn something new and store it for future use. When the next opportunity arrives, you'll be ready! You can't depend on your financial advisor or Jim Cramer for stock picks all your life, can you? Invest in your own education!

If you have any lingering thoughts or questions, make sure to leave them in our comments! Here we go!

If you are an investor who strives to improve your craft, then you might have surrounded yourself with a community specifically for the purpose of discussion and learning. (You are reading BloggingStocks, aren't you?) And that's what joining BloggingStocks has meant to me. Though at times, I don't know how I fit into the group. My self-deprecating personality tells me that I don't post enough, that I've talked about a limited number of companies thus far. If you called me the Black Sheep of the "family," you wouldn't be too far off!

My insecurities were magnified when our very own Sarah Gilbert (god bless her hard work) announced that she is putting the finishing touches on integrating Blogging Stocks categories into the next AOL Money & Finance update. Definitely exciting news! But when I looked at the list of companies that will be having their own category/sub-domain on BloggingStocks, I realized how distant my own stock watch-list was from the most commonly followed stocks out there!

To visit the categories for these stocks, just take their ticker symbol and add it to the BloggingStocks domain. (Example: the category for 3M can be found at http://mmm.bloggingstocks.com). I will explain why I'm the black sheep after the jump!

I've known for a while that Bill Gates makes his personal investments through Cascade Investments LLC., but his trading activities still remained elusive. No, you're not reading the writings of a stalker. I'm just nursing a healthy voyeuristic interest in how the extremely affluent will invest their assets. And they simply don't come along with more wealth than the Microsoft founder.

It's very true that you will become like the people you choose to surround yourself with. Having Warren Buffett as a friend must have influenced Bill's latest investment direction. Buffett has been investing in utilities for the past 5 years. The Washington Post reports that Cascade Investments LLC., Gate's personal investment vehicle, has been steadily buying up shares of PNM resources - a New Mexico utility company. They've formed a joint venture with hopes to accelerate the growth of operations while taking advantage of the deregulation of the utility industry.

Another Bill Gates investment also mentioned in the article has also seen some recent spotlight, Bill Gates is part of an ownership group that's looking to privatize the Four Seasons Hotel Inc. Bill Gates owns a substantial portion and the bidding party boasts notable partners such as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Take a look at some of these names involved with Bill Gates: PNM Resources (NYSE:PNM), Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ:PEIX), Canadian National Railway Co., Republic Services Inc. (NYSE:RSG), Grupo Televisa SA, Fisher Communications, Four Seasons Hotel Inc. (NYSE:FS), Otter Tail Corp.(NASDAQ:OTTR), Six Flags Inc. (NYSE:SIX). These are names that you simply don't hear on the lips of ordinary investors.

Besides, I'm sick of listening to news about XM Satellite (NASDAQ:XMSR) and Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) or Jim Cramer's lightning round picks. I'd rather stay away from those so called "hot" stocks and take a closer look at Bill's holdings. What's most interesting is his willingness to take a long-term stance with his ventures. It's making more and more sense why Buffett chose to give Bill his money.

The Canadian Income Trusts meltdown has been all over the news lately, but it has received only a few mentions thus far on Blogging Stocks. Perhaps investment news north of the border simply don't make Blogging Stocks' top ten business stories of the week? But if you appreciate patriotism, allow me to demonstrate some as I add in my two cents. Sometimes, these market turmoils may prove profitable for opportunistic investors.

I've been a very disloyal Canadian investor. For the last two years, I've only batted eyes at U.S. companies while the Canadian indexes kept creeping higher. However, I've recently taken interest in beaten-down Canadian companies such as Loblaw, and Canadian oil and natural gas income trusts. My interest started with these income trusts due to their pricing issues in July and August, as well as the Amanranth hedge fund debacle. Such negative news always peaks the interest for the contrarian in me. I can't believe my new interest in income trusts has come at such a time of opportunity!

My much needed blogging break is over! Rather than go into what I did during my hiatus, I'll just jump right into the cold water and hope there's no shrinkage in your interest with my posts!

Fellow Canadian BloggingStocks contributor, Melly Alazraki, posed the question that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) investors are eager for the board to do something with its big cash reserve. I kept thinking about the subject and made the following observations:

• Why do investors always have to insist on share buy-backs and special dividends?
• The age-old question: Which is better? Buy-backs or dividends?
• Microsoft will always face these problems due to its immense cash-flow generation
• I'm more interested in where Microsoft is investing its cash. There may be something I can learn as an investor?

Did you notice I didn't consider dividend increases? Since the folks at Redmond have already doubled the company's initial regular dividend payout, it wouldn't be unreasonable for things to hold steady. But if anybody can keep doubling their dividend every few years, it's Microsoft!

I broke out the 2006 Microsoft Annual Report to see what assets Microsoft are invested in. I should disclose that I was an investor when Microsoft hit its lows this year. But as the stock appreciated 30% for me, I have since liquidated those holdings in favor of other stocks with more upside and less downside risk. Here's a few interesting tidbits from looking over the data:

Most investors cannot bring about any changes at the companies they own with their small number of voting shares. Whether you own 1,000 or 10,000, or 100,000 shares of a company (even penny stocks), your ownership is no more than a drop in the ocean. But there are investors who can and do affect positive change through shareholder activism. Notable names include Warren Buffett (The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)), Carl Icahn (Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX)), Kirk Kerkorian (General Motors Corporation (NYSE:GM)) and Ed Lampert (Sears Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD)).

What if you followed them instead?

Why shouldn't you leverage their insight and know-how -- and their ability to turn companies around? Very often, the news of an activist investor entering the picture can cause a falling stock to revive. Case in point with General Motors - if you had bought GM when Kirk Kerkorian announced his interest, you'd have done very well for yourself. How about when Warren Buffett first took a position in unloved Coca-Cola? Or as Ed Lampert is continuing to turn Sears around? The jury's still out on the Sears venture, but K-Mart investors definitely caught a break from their falling stock price when he got involved.

On the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans, a good subset of these folks made their fortunes by investing. That subset includes Warren Buffett ($46 billion), Carl Icahn ($9.7 billion), and Jim Simons ($4 billion).

Who are some other investors that can be considered "smart money"? Similarly, short investors may be following ShareSleuth to find out what companies Mark Cuban is currently shorting. But how do you take advantage of these legendary investors' track records?

If developing the next profitable business were anything like treasure hunting, then Microsoft is the very picture of the digital buccaneer. The company always profited from the hard work of others (not that being a pirate is easy!). Microsoft watches with keen interest while others blaze trails and forge paths into unknown lands. When these companies discover treasure, Microsoft lays ambush and relieve them of their bounty during their trek across the ocean of marketing. Before you make me jump off the plank for these metaphors, would you be willing to hear me out? You may also gain some investing lessons as I dissect the Microsoft Motto!

I will forever be more fascinated with how a business operates than with how its stock price fluctuates. That's why I'm a lousy technical analyst and need to rely on value investing principles. Let's think back to Microsoft's humble beginnings when they decided to buy a disk operating system and brand it as its own - "MS-DOS". Hmmm... that Windows 3.1 seemed awfully familiar to a Mac OS in development! Netscape suffered the same fate when Microsoft bought Internet Explorer (IE) from Spyglass. IE was re-developed and implanted successfully through its Windows integration.

Has Microsoft veered from tradition? X-Box's recent success shows that the pirating spirit is alive and well. Don't be the first to develop a product and train consumers that they need it! Instead of focusing on the early-adopters, target your version of an existing product to the mass market and distribute, distribute, distribute! This may be a reason not to doubt Microsoft's timing and decision to forge into portable digital audio players with Zune. Microsoft certainly heard the criticisms that the company simply rebranded a Toshiba audio player and made it the Bellevue Buccaneer's own. So what? I'm wondering how that's different from the company's past track record? If history does repeat, where should I be standing?

Amazon's UnBox movie downloads service scooped iTunes' own service launch. The strategic timing is merely a footnote on Amazon's desperate efforts. It does not make a difference if UnBox launched a week ahead of Steve Job's Sept. 12th announcement. Bloggers have been helping Amazon virally market its free introductory download offer, but investors have not warmed up to the news yet. Why?

Analyst reports have so far been skeptical. Matthew Himler covered a report from Carl Howe of Blackfriars Communications. I went back to Mark Cuban, whose thoughts I also valued regarding Apple's iTunes movie launch. Sure enough, Mark had something new to say, after reading a research note Palicapital's Rich Greenfield, specifically about the future of Amazon's UnBox.

Let's put aside my beliefs that movie downloads won't make a significant impact in the next few years. Let's also forget that Steve Jobs won't let Disney partner with Amazon because of his influence as a major Disney shareholder. Let's assume that movie downloads will be a meaningful source of revenue for Amazon. Why is it still a no-win situation?

Here's something to read while sipping your morning coffee! Coca-Cola simply refuses to be KO'd. The company got a bit of good press recently when an Indian newspaper reported pesticide levels in Pepsi products three times over the limit, while Coca-Cola passed the tests. I'm still dizzy from wondering why pesticides were found in the first place! This may be the nail in the coffin for some faithful consumers out there.

But, maybe Coca-Cola doesn't want you drinking carbonated beverages anymore. As my colleague Michael Canfield covered Sept 1, as baby boomers move towards healthier choices, Coca-Cola is eying Starbuck's lucrative territory. Coca-Cola is going premium with high-end retail outlets offering a variety of freshly brewed espressos, chai teas, cappuccinos and lattes. A recent press release announced the launching of the "Far Coast" brand to fill this niche market. After all, if you're willing to hand over $4, $5 to buy a plastic cup (my theory), why not hand it over to Coca-Cola? Are the coffees really that different?

Coca-Cola chose the multicultural city of Toronto, Canada (where I currently live) to be the launching pad for its "concept store" on Bloor Street yesterday. In a country fanatical about its Tim Horton's coffee, the premium market place has seen much competition. Starbucks has been able to carve out a very respectable market share. Therefore, Far Coast will have to do some serious catching up! Coca-Cola revealed that more stores will be opening soon in Oslo and Singapore (coincidently my birth country!).

The market bidded up Apple's stock today, hoping that Steve Jobs will perform magic, saying those anticipated words "we're launching the iTunes movie store" in his upcoming September 12 keynote. I remain unconvinced that the movie downloading business will become Apple's next cashcow. But I'm only one little InvestorGeek up against the entire market. So I searched for some similar sentiments (to make me feel better). I wasn't dissappointed by Mark Cuban, who shared similar concerns about the viability of such an operation on his blog, BlogMaverick.

Why should anyone listen to Mark's rants? If you look at the man's track record, besides being a self-made billionaire, Mark has been on the forefront of many digital content distribution ventures. From his days at Broadcast.com, to his current involvement in HDNet. To this day, he keeps his pulse on the industry's evolution. And the smartest thing he does on his critiques is to approach it from a user's perspective.

Mark gives his best impression of Curly Washburn (from City Slickers) by telling us "the 1 thing" that the iTunes movie store cheerleaders are missing. It boils down to convenience. Movie downloading sucks up bandwidth and you can't conceivably download more than 1 movie at a time. You might have to tie up your PC and internet connection for a whole night to complete the download. I won't even mention the possible Net Neutrality implications. Oops, my internet connection went down! (You know what I mean!)

As in real life, innocent by-standers sometimes become casualties of a turf war. When giants collide, there isn't enough time to care about not hurting the little guys. At $150 million market cap, Handleman (HDL) is the little guy that serves as the supply chain link between record labels (i.e. Warner, Sony, Universal) and large mass retailers (i.e. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Best Buy). Wal-Mart alone accounts for more than half of Handleman's revenue. While Wal-Mart and Apple struggle for music distribution supremacy, Handleman's stock has been in the drink - at the bottom of the glass.

Nobody wants to be near Handleman. The company announced the signing of John Breeder (former Hallmark Cards Inc. executive) as its President on July 25th, 2006, only to accept his resignation 30 days later on August 31st, 2006. Pessimistic investors cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. Though Handleman has tried diversifying into games distribution, the results have not impacted the bottom line as yet. Handleman is currently trading at less than 50% of its book value!

Apple's iTunes announced its billionth music download earlier this year. Competitors like Wal-Mart have taken sharp notice as their CD sales have dropped tremendously. Wal-Mart's online channel has failed to capture market share thus far. Online downloads have made traditional distribution channels obsolete while online sales have been booming. Hmm... where are the RIAA now?

The next battleground will be fought in the movies, but it's not coming soon to your nearest big screen! As we anticipate the announcement of a new iTunes Movie Store, retail DVD sales will be key. Wal-Mart's DVD sales figures have been a barometer for the nation in the past. I remain skeptical on whether the iTunes movie store will be successful in reshaping the movie sales industry. My concerns are about how efficiently the distribution system will work. Downloading a movie cannot be compared to downloading music, since movie file sizes are much bigger. It remains to be seen if consumers will embrace movie downloads as they have with music.

Vince Chan is an InvestorGeek, and blogs about investment / financial media at Investorial.com.