Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) announced third-quarter earnings this morning and said it is withholding payment of its common dividend payment for the third quarter.

In its press release TMA said that it was doing so because of the instability of the finance markets, although it will pay 48 cents per share of its 10% Series F Cumulative Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock Nov. 15, to shareholders of record Oct. 31.

Sifting through the press release "speak," the fact is that Thornburg lost better than $1 billion this past quarter, or $8.83 per share. Although Thornburg says it has adequate funds to continue its business, that doesn't help us much.

The bottom line is that we have a busted stock that's not paying a dividend until things improve -- despite the seemingly healthy performance of TMA's portfolio.

When Thornburg declared the preferred dividends yesterday, I thought we were in good shape. I thought wrong. Sell Thornburg (TMA) at market and redeploy to other positions on our Buy List where you need to build out your portfolio.

I'll see you Friday with the Weekly Update,

Bryan Perry

Editor The 25% Cash Machine