I bought 100 shares of FB (FBR Asset Investment Corp) @ $34.74 with a commission of $14.95 in Fidelity Roth IRA account I just funded. This is my first established position in my Roth IRA account and I have high expectations for it.
FB is an MBS REIT (Mortgage-Backed Securities Real-Estate Investment Trust). It borrows money with short-term interest and buys ARMs from the MBS market. With high leverage of its equity (~7x), it can deliver high rate of return with relative low risk in a declining-interest market. It current pays a quarterly dividend of $1.25, or a yield of 14.4%.
I also researched other players of MBS REIT including NLY and TMA. However, I found NLY is not hedging its positions so it is prone to massive loss if interest rate suddenly runs higher. TMA has much higher leverage rate but delivers approximately same yield as TMA, which means higher leverage means more inherent risk.
FB is in a merger discussion with FBR (an investment banking company that also manages FB as a REIT fund). It's hard to say if this is positive news for FB or not. However, the current high yield should not be materially impacted by the merger.