Best in Class: Why Diana Shipping Stays Dry

Once you start looking into it, almost nothing about the dry-bulk shipping business is boring.

For sheer theater, the industry has it all: outrageous boom-bust cycles; a ruling class dominated by outsized personalities; traffic in sometimes unseemly-seeming business practices; wild share-price swings; heavy trading volumes; pirates.

But for sober investors in this vivid space, the best course of action may lie in seeking safe anchorage on the boringest boat in the harbor. (We beg your pardon, here at the outset, for the seafaring metaphors that seem habitually to pepper stories about the shipping business -- including, already, this one.) ...