In a market where most income-oriented groups offer near record-low yields, investors are starving for income. All MLPs offer market-beating distributions, as well as attractive tax advantages, but fight the temptation to blindly reach for the highest yields.

In a market where most income-oriented groups offer near record-low yields, investors are starving for income. All MLPs offer market-beating distributions, as well as attractive tax advantages, but fight the temptation to blindly reach for the highest yields.

In the case of master limited partnerships (MLPs), focusing on earnings per unit--the MLP equivalent of EPS--not only provides an incomplete picture of a company's health but it's also downright misleading.

Stocks to profit from in the oil and deep water drilling market. 

 
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To profit from the boom in deepwater spending, focus on Brazil, my favorite region in The Deepwater Golden Triangle.

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of speaking the Indiana Energy Conference for the second consecutive year. I recap some of the highlights and share my take on climate-change legislation and its implications for investors.

Futures market speculators are a favorite scapegoat for politicians looking to assign blame for rising oil and energy prices. But data released on Friday by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) backs up what I’ve been saying for a long time: Futures market speculation is not the main driver of oil prices over the longer term.

The depressed crude oil prices at the end of 2008 and early 2009 were the real aberration--not the current quote. Those depressed prices reflected unusually weak near-term fundamentals and historic imbalances in the futures curve. Much of the subsequent rally has simply been an unwinding of those imbalances.

Far too many investors ignore the role that improving credit markets have played in the recent rallies in stock and commodities markets.

Consumer and producer behavior from 2004 through mid-2008 is not consistent with artificially high oil prices. The speculation argument has little basis in reality. The real cause of rising prices is unusually strong demand growth coupled with sluggish supply response despite record spending.