Here’s the deal:

“Loaning money” — Sure, that’s cute. You’re basically giving a company your cash in exchange for a fixed dividend that they can totally skip if things get spicy. And no, you can’t just show up at corporate HQ and repo a forklift.

Qualified dividends — True, the IRS pats you on the head and taxes you a bit nicer than they would bond interest. Until, of course, the dividend gets suspended and you’re left holding a fancy ticker symbol that’s worth 40% less.

STRC paying 9% — STRC could be paying you a solid 50% yield and it still wouldn’t matter if they’re circling the bankruptcy drain. If a yield looks that juicy, it’s because the market thinks it might ghost you.

Market drawdown “safety” — Oh sweet summer child, preferred shares can hold value better than common stock… until panic hits. Then they get dumped like your tech stocks in 2022, except they don’t bounce as hard afterward.

If you’re thinking of “rotating into QQQ after a crash,” that’s basically saying, I want to sit in a slightly slower-sinking boat until the Titanic’s band stops playing, then hop onto a speedboat. Nice in theory, harder in execution when liquidity dries up and spreads widen like a drunk carpenter’s measurements.

So yes, you can shop around for other tickers — there’s a whole buffet of bank preferreds (think JPM.PJ, BAC.PL) and REIT preferreds (like O.PRC) paying 5–8%. Just remember: high yield often means high chance of regret.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5760088&forum_id=2#49168071)