MFA Mortgage: Why I want to kick myself . . .

Ever want to just slap yourself silly for not buying what you know you should have bought in the first place? I'm going through that right now with MFA Mortgage (NYSE: MFA).

MFA has been able to avoid the whole subprime mortgage chaos and is riding the wonderful wave of the Bernanke rescue effort. It operates as a real estate investment trust, and it stands to benefit from further rate cuts. Oh man, I was thinking of buying this one last summer, but it seems to have put me in the position of should-I-chase-this-or-not. Check out the chart. Thank goodness I at least own the preferred MFA shares (NYSE: MFA-A). I bought those last summer below par value, getting in around $22. The shares are now trading well over $24, and they pay a nice coupon at par -- over 8%. I happen to own another mortgage entity, Newcastle Investment (NYSE: NCT), which has been discussed previously by Sheldon Liber.

I'm going to be watching the price action on MFA carefully the next few days, perhaps looking to get in. Its dividends have been rising, and on a down day like today, its stock is getting a nice bid (as of this writing, it is up 3% or so).