The Las Vegas MoneyShow kicked off on Monday with a 600 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Not a good stock market start for a conference focused on investment strategies and idea.

My first presentation was one of the earliest on the schedule for Monday morning. The groups I talked to were very interested in learning about dividend-centric strategies that don’t rely on share price appreciation.

Over the last five years, my presentations have evolved to spend more time on developing individual portfolio strategies. I now like to talk with investors about developing individual strategies.

The fact is that without an investment plan, most investors are doomed to the greed and fear cycle of buying high and selling low. Whatever strategy you develop should be designed to take the emotion of your investment decisions.

Here is a good anecdote from this year’s MoneyShow so far. I know the reps and portfolio managers from Reaves Asset Management well.

They have done exclusive online conference calls with my subscribers. I ran into one of the Reaves guys in the hall, said hi, and he was happy to let me know that utilities were the one stock market sector having a up day.

The folks at Reaves Asset Management run private money and a pair of publicly traded utility focused funds. The Reaves Utility ETF (UTES) is the only actively managed utility stocks focused ETF.

The fund has consistently out performed (by a small amount) the utilities index since its 2015 launch. Through April 30, over the last year, UTES has returned 18.2%. To compare, for the same period the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) returned 13.3%.

UTES is a nice ETF to hold in turbulent times for the stock market.

My presentations are mostly about strategies and techniques individual investors can use to build their own portfolios. However, I know the attendees love to hear stock ideas, and one from my first presentation was also one of the few stocks going up while the market went steeply down.

That stock is NextEra Energy Partners (NEP). This company is in the “Yieldco” category, similar to sponsored oil and gas infrastructure asset stocks.

NEP owns interests in wind and solar projects in the U.S., as well as natural gas infrastructure assets in Texas. The shares yield around 4% and the dividend grows every quarter.

My morning presentation was one of three in what the MoneyShow calls a Master Class. There were three dividend investing experts speaking. One of the others very much likes a stock that has done very well for my newsletter subscribers.

The company is Arbor Realty Trust (ABR), a commercial finance REIT. This stock has had a great run over the last two years, and its nice to see another well respected analyst express a very positive opinion about the stock’s future. ABR yields 7.9% and has been growing the dividend.

Final note on Las Vegas hotels. I can’t stop turning the wrong way every time I come off the elevator. I know I do it so second guess my first choice and it still turns out to be opposite of the direction I wanted to go.