Bank Preferred Stocks

[Bassin08]

Anyone have any information on these types of stocks? I am looking for long term income and not fast growth. Is there any downside to having some of these in your portfolio?

Also, what if the bank has a bbb-, or bb rating?

[NitroZ7]

You can buy the individual preferred but you need to check if they are callable and be careful if you are buying them at a premium. They usually drop if interest rates rise. I have some Goldman Sachs preferred shares that are perpetual and they are paying over 6% from where I bought them. I had some BOA a few years ago that were paying over 8% but they got called. In my opinion the better bet is to buy an ETF with preferred. There is PFF PGF and JPS (which is leveraged). If you can buy these at a discount to the net asset value you might be able to get a basket of them that pays a nice yield. At one point JPS was selling at a 15% discount to the NAV and was yielding over 8%. I was going to buy one of the ETF's but I'm waiting for the fed to move since it may drive the price down.