The start of every month is exciting as we look back at the previous month and see how much passive dividend income our portfolios generated. This update brings me to a happy milestone.

Our Winter Power Outlook dispatches the entire N. America power system.

Fund holdings affect fund performance more than fees or past performance. A cheap fund is not necessarily a good fund.

One of the major expected drivers of MLP growth over the coming decade will revolve around the US natural gas story. In the past five years, natural gas production in the US has grown by 11.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) — a gain of more than 20%.

Utility sector ETFs and mutual funds are in the Danger Zone this week. The pickings in this sector are slim as every single ETF and mutual fund earns a Dangerous or Very Dangerous rating. The Utilities sector ranked last in our Sector Rankings report.

For the second quarter of 2014, only three sectors manage to even earn a Neutral rating. My sector ratings are based on the aggregation of my fund ratings for every ETF and mutual fund in each sector.