email: taipan@taipangroup.com      If you’re looking for a good example of how media-
shaped perception affects stock prices, look no further than
Impac Mortgage Holdings (IMH:NYSE), our favorite
play on the US real-estate market. Today, the stock
dropped below US$17.80 a share and is now more than
US$10 below its all-time high of US$27.91 from last
September.      You may recall that we initially recommended IMH
back in the summer of 2001 when it was an AMEX-traded
stock going for US$7 a share. Back then, we made it the
centerpiece of our yield portfolio. We stand by our original
assessment: With a P/E ratio of 4.75 and an annual yield of 16.82%, we consider IMH an exceptional asset.      But in addition to IMH’s cash crop of dividends, we’ve come to appreciate
another characteristic of the stock over the years: IMH exhibits an almost epic
cyclicality in its price development. Come dividend time, dividend-hungry
short-termers bid up the stock—usually until the ex-dividend date. Then, when
all recipients entitled to the cash disbursement are on record, the stock price
begins to drop again.      There’s little doubt in my mind that the upcoming dividend cycle will follow
the established pattern. The company just released its payment schedule:
Dividends will be declared on March 29, 2005. On April 15, dividends will be
paid to stockholders on record by April 8. Which would make next week a
great time to take a speculative position in the stock, either by owning it direct-
ly in anticipation of the dividend… or by securing your position with an options straddle. Crisis, what crisis?      The Federal Reserve’s recent increase of interest rates to 2.5% has thus far
had limited effect on mortgage rates. The creation of 2.2 million jobs in
2004—the most in five years—continues to provide a solid foundation for
demand, while household incomes are rising.      And while demand fluctuations for new mortgages over the winter months
fueled rampant speculation that the US real-estate “bubble” is about to pop, Next... APRIL 2005 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 6 This issue went to print 03/18/04. Prices and margins quoted reflect levels at this date. Dynamic gains in the real-estate
markets of 2005: Lock in your
upside and profit from the
downside of America’s red-hot
property markets J. Christoph Amberger    For your  FREE  daily
market updates, sign up for our  FREE e-Dispatch at www.247profits.com