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PICKS GAINS

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

Conservative Picks for Consistent Growth

In times of economic uncertainty and extreme market volatility--such as this very choppy 2016, thus far--the quest to find quality investments to provide you with safety and security over the long-term becomes paramount. However, oftentimes the journey to find these stable, solid picks can turn out to be just as rocky as the markets themselves. This can be especially true when you attempt this formidable odyssey all on your own. This is why we've asked the nation's most respected and well-known newsletter advisors for their favorite conservative picks for the year. As always, we caution you to use these ideas only as a starting place for your own research and only buy stocks, funds, or ETFs that meet your own personal investing criteria, your risk parameters, and your time horizon. More importantly, these picks represent each advisor's current outlook. As fundamentals change during the year, a favorite "buy" can become a "sell." As such, it is up to each investor to monitor future developments at the underlying companies to be sure that the reasons behind buying a stock, fund, or ETF remain in place. We would also emphasize the importance of diversification. No one advisor is always right and there is no guarantee that any individual recommendation will succeed; you can minimize your risks by considering a diversified package of picks from among those featured in this report. We also encourage you to visit on a regular basis. Everyday, we feature new investment ideas from the top advisors. There's no better way to follow the ongoing advice and favorite stocks from the very best investment newsletter advisors. We wish you the very best for your investing in 2016.

Steven Halpern Editor, Top Pros' Top Picks

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

Contents

Click on page numbers to go directly to each article

3 Defensive Bond Funds: Fidelity Mortgage Securities, Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities, and DoubleLine Total Return Fund 3 By Walter Frank

3M: 57 Years of Rising Dividends

4

By Vita Nelson

A Buffett-based Portfolio: BMA, AAPL, WRLD, CACC, FDS, ROST, TJX, WIT, SYNT, and WAB 5 By John Reese

A Conservative Approach to ETFs: USMV,

SPLV, AOM, GAA

6

By David Fabian

Alliant: Safest of the Safe?

7

By Richard Stavros

Blue Chips at Fire Sale Prices: JP Morgan

Chase, General Motors, Macy's,

and Qualcomm

8

By Bret Jensen

Charged up Over New Jersey Resources

9

By Gary Hovis

CVS: Safety, Growth, and Yield

10

By Chloe Lutts Jensen

Dividend ETF for Rough Market: iShares Select

Dividend ETF, Lockheed Martin, Philip Morris,

McDonald's, and Clorox

11

By Doug Fabian

General Motors: A Prudent Pick

12

By Jason Clark

High-yield Play on Hartford

13

By Benjamin Shepherd

Income on Sale: Closed-end Discounts: ADX,

PEO, CII, BGT, BLW, RQI, DMF, EVT, EOS, EXG,

and UTG

14

By Richard Maroney

Investing in a Volatile Market: ALE, AMGN, BA,

CMCSA, CVS, DIS, EFX, FL, HBNC, PEG, SCG,

SWKS, LUV, SBUX, TRV, TCBK, TSN, VZ, WMT,

and WFC

15

By Chuck Carlson

Low Risk, Low Volatility ETFs: iShares MSCI

USA Minimum Volatility ETF and SPDR S&P

Dividend ETF

17

By Vita Nelson

Morningstar's Fixed-Income Manager

of the Year

18

By Sumit Desai

Munis: High Yield with Low Risk: Vanguard

High-Yield Tax-Exempt

19

By Tim Begany

National Storage: A Proven Plan

20

By Timothy Lutts

Procter & Gamble: Correcting Course

21

By Josh Peters

Southern: Safe Haven for Income

and Growth

22

By Bryan Perry

The Lucky 13: AIT, T, BA, KO, CVS, EMR, GPS,

IBM, OMC, UNH, UTX, TXN, & WMT

23

By Kelley Wright

Top Picks Among REITs: Realty Income and

Omega Healthcare Investors

25

By Briton Ryle

Two Techs for Dividends: Cisco Systems and

Qualcomm

26

By Scott Kessler

Value Funds for the Less Risky Bucket: ARTGX,

DODWX, SSHFX, FLPSX, TWVLX, XOM, CVX,

and OXY

27

By Russel Kinnel

Vanguard's Fixed Income Trio: VSCSX, VICSX,

and VLTCX

29

By Mark Salzinger

Wellesley: An Income Favorite

30

By Genia Turanova

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

By Walter Frank Editor

MoneyLetter

3 Defensive Bond Funds: Fidelity Mortgage Securities, Vanguard MortgageBacked Securities, and DoubleLine Total Return Fund

Fidelity Mortgage Securities (FMSFX)

Fidelity Mortgage normally invests at least 80% of assets in investment-grade mortgagerelated securities.

Currently, the fund is decidedly high quality, with 91% of assets in US Government obligations and 14% in AAA-rated debt. Mortgage-backed securities pass-throughs dominated the portfolio, at 80.6% of assets.

Its 2015 total return of 1.47% was in the top 6% of its peer group. As of yearend, the fund was yielding 2.43% Duration, a measure of interest rate risk, was 3.8 years.

Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities (VMBS)

This ETF tracks the Barclays US Mortgage-Backed Securities Float-Adjusted index; securities in the index are issued by Ginnie Mae, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.

It also invests in issues from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which do not have the same explicit backing. They are actually private companies, not government agencies, but generally are regarded as having an implicit backing by the government.

The fund's recent yield was 1.9% and duration was 4.3 years. Its one-year trailing return of 1.18% put it in the top 1% of the intermediate bond category,

DoubleLine Total Return Fund (DLTNX)

This fund has been a standout performer in the intermediate-term bond space since its early 2010 inception.

In each subsequent calendar year, it never fell below the top 25% in total return performance. In 2015, a 2.07% return put in in the top 97% of its category.

Fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach is well known in the bond investment community. His investment process includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

The fund takes a barbell approach to investing. In this case, the barbell is with regard to credit quality. More than 68% of the portfolio is government or investment grade.

On the opposite end, 22% of the fund is invested in obligations rated below B or not rated. The remainder is in cash. The fund's current duration is 3.6 years and the yield is 3.5%.

Subscribe to MoneyLetter here...

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

By Vita Nelson Editor

Direct Investing

3M: 57 Years of Rising Dividends

Fear becomes more apparent with each gloomy headline. Clearly, the end of the world is upon us! Except that it's not.

No doubt profits could be down and we could even slide into recession. And we could be seeing the onslaught of a bear.

But those things have happened many times before and they all have one thing in common: they always come to an end.

In the long run, prices always go up more than they go down. That's where dollar-cost averaging and dividend reinvestment come into play.

Every investor has a choice between wallowing in the depths of despair or building wealth through logical purchase of high quality companies at good prices.

One such high quality stock is 3M (MMM). Founded in 1902, the company has grown into a $85-billion market cap manufacturer that sells more than 50,000 products around the world.

Best known for its Post-It Notes and Scotch tape, 3M now makes everything from dental products and bandages to touch-screen monitors, asphalt shingles, and air conditioner filters.

The $4.10-per-share dividend, which provides a 2.9% yield, has been increased for 57 consecutive years.

What makes 3M so attractive is its scope and resources, which contribute to its proven ability to thrive in virtually any economic environment.

Throughout its history, the company has prospered by constantly developing new products, both for consumers and commercial customers, with the result that it has been able to expand both here and abroad.

In doing so, 3M has established itself as one of the most widely recognized (and trusted) brand names in the world, and by constantly expanding its product lines in all industries, has become a supplier of countless basic necessities.

As an investment, its stock has benefited by establishing a top-notch balance sheet and enviable history of growing sales, earnings, and dividends.

However, the stock--down from a 52-week high of $170--is not overvalued, trading at less than 17 times year-ahead earnings per share.

Subscribe to Direct Investing here...

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

A Buffett-based Portfolio: BMA, AAPL, WRLD, CACC, FDS, ROST, TJX, WIT, SYNT, and WAB

By John Reese Editor

Validea

Warren Buffett has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 for decades.

The Buffett-based "Patient Investor" strategy is the only one of our strategies that is not taken directly from the writings of the guru himself, as Buffett has yet to write about his investment strategies.

Our interpretation of Buffett's approach is based on the book Buffettology, written by Buffett's ex-daughter-in-law Mary Buffett.

The Buffett strategy buys stocks with an extremely long-term horizon. In fact, Buffett has held some of his investments for decades and he's said that Berkshire's favorite holding period is "forever."

Buffett doesn't try to capitalize on small day-to-day stock market movements.

Instead, he focuses on a company's business, knowing that, over time, the stocks of firms with strong businesses and good long-term prospects are likely to rise considerably, regardless of what those stocks are doing today, or tomorrow, or next week.

To find those strong businesses, this strategy goes back as far as a decade into a company's history, so only stocks with consistent long-term track records can pass this methodology.

Banco Macros SA ADR (BMA) Apple (AAPL) World Acceptance (WRLD) Credit Acceptance (CACC) Factset Research Systems (FDS) Ross Stores (ROST) TJX Companies (TJX) Wipro Ltd. ADR (WIT) Syntel (SYNT) Westinghouse Air Brake (WAB)

Subscribe to Validea here...

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

By David Fabian Editor

A Conservative Approach to ETFs: USMV,

SPLV, AOM, GAA The Flexible Growth and Income Report

There are numerous ways to successfully reduce overall volatility and mitigate risk in a diversified ETF portfolio.

The ideas mentioned below are for more conservative investors who are concerned about these transient periods of instability and wish to take a disciplined approach to reaching their long-term goals.

One approach is to focus on high growth and momentum stocks in favor of publiclytraded companies with a history of below-average volatility.

The iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility ETF (USMV) and PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (SPLV) are two examples of this conservative focus.

Both funds systematically select a subset of large-cap stocks with historical characteristics of minimal price fluctuations.

In addition, both funds offer enough multi-sector diversification and fundamentally sound properties to be suitable as core holdings in a cyclical bull market as well.

If building a well-balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds is overwhelming, it may be advantageous to look for a multi-asset solution that does it for you.

The iShares Moderate Allocation ETF (AOM) is a fund of funds style ETF that invests in a mix of 40% stocks and 60% bonds.

The goal is to create simplicity with a single investment vehicle that is automatically rebalanced on a regular basis.

This type of fund is suitable for investors that are looking for a conservative, diversified, and low-cost way to invest without the hassle of picking individual stocks or holdings.

In addition, the combination of stocks and bonds will help offset volatility and will likely reduce drawdown during periods of tumult in the market.

Another similar multi-asset alternative with enhanced international and commodity focus is the Cambria Global Asset Allocation ETF (GAA).

This ETF takes a balanced approach with 51% bonds, 42% stocks, and 7% commodities as a result of the underlying low cost funds it holds.

In addition, GAA has no management fee, which means that your only expense is the transaction fee to purchase it alongside the 0.29% expense pass through of the underlying holdings.

This makes for an extremely reasonable way to own virtually every large asset class in the world in one fund.

Subscribe to The Flexible Growth & Income Report here...

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CONSERVATIVE PICKS FOR CONSISTENT GAINS

By Richard Stavros Editor

Utility Forecaster

Alliant: Safest of the Safe?

We have long focused on the utility sector's credit quality as part of our effort to evaluate the safety and sustainability of dividends.

Our proprietary Safety Rating System scores each stock in our universe according to eight fundamental criteria.

In looking at the safest utilities, we look at those utilities that scored the highest in our proprietary Safety Rating System. We then review debt to0 equity, short-term liquidity measures, and free cash flow, among myriad data points.

Among the utilities in our portfolio, we continue to be impressed with Alliant Energy's (LNT) conservative financial approach.

In applying our enhanced credit screen, Alliant was one of a select few firms to achieve top marks on a number of different metrics.

Alliant's current ratio is above 1, which is a sign of excellent financial health. This tells us how a company might fare during a sudden liquidity crisis.

Alliant also has a debt to equity ratio around 100%, which is actually quite low compared to the industry average of 134%.

Funds from Operations (FFO) is also useful when analyzing operating earnings from companies such as utilities that have sizable non-cash expenses.

Among its peers, Alliant has one of the highest FFO-to-debt ratios, which means it is in a good position to pay down debt with operating income.

With a forward yield of 3.5%, Alliant is a buy below $64 for conservative income investors.

Subscribe to Utility Forecaster here...

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