When evaluating the performance of a business, one of the first things you want to know is how profitable it is.  From an accounting standpoint profit is a more complex calculation than simply taking revenue and subtracting operating costs.  Items such as depreciation and amortization attempt to capture the loss in value over time of [...]

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The acronyms ‘MLP’ and ‘PTP’ are frequently used interchangeably, but there is a subtle difference.  A Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is technically just a business structure legally recognized in the tax code (it is not necessarily a publicly traded entity).  A Publicly Traded Partnership (PTP) is any partnership that is publicly traded like a stock [...]

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I often get asked about benchmarks for gauging MLP performance (similar to the S&P 500 for the broader equity market).  The de facto standard is the Alerian MLP Index which tracks 50 of the largest master limited partnerships in the energy industry.  Performance data is available under the NYSE ticker AMZ and AMZX (tracks combined [...]

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As millions of barrels of oil continue to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. is beginning to look at viable alternatives to offshore drilling.  This is a good thing for infrastructure MLPs, because  the logical choice is to increase the use of natural gas as an energy source.  More gas demand means more [...]

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