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April 2014 review

Another month has ended and I must admit it was a successful month although it started miserably. At the end my account ended up by whooping 7.74% (adjusted for contributions).

Again, I had nice income made of dividends and collected options premiums. Once again, this month I focused primarily on increasing account value, meaning contributing enough cash so I had enough available funds for trading. I realized in the past, that trading options is a great tool for me and with enough cash in my account I will have a space for errors and my options trading will improve.

If you remember my strategy, I decided to invest into options (put selling strategy) to generate enough cash, which at the end of the year I take and invest into dividend paying stocks. Because I love dividends and I love the way they bring you money without working for it.

I trade options for adrenalin and satisfaction of my nature having some risk and excitement, but I consider my dividend stocks in all my portfolios as a core investment. It is something like an untouchable reserves, or base I will never touch. But because my accounts are still relatively small I needed a tool, which would help me growing it faster than dividends themselves. Options satisfy this demand. I generate enough cash which I can add to my regular contributions and buy dividend stocks. Stocks, I will never sell, unless they stop paying dividends.

In fact, I realized, that I might be able to retire a lot faster if investing into options. Currently my options trading delivered 19.73% in profits as of this writing. That is 59.53% annual return!

With 59.53% annual return, my account will double every 1.26 years, roughly in a year and two months. With my current balance of 17,000 dollars, I will be able to build enough cash for retirement in 4 years. My expectations of retiring in 5 years are far more realistic than ever before.

Of course, I am taking a higher risk, must be more active with my money (be trading) and I may lose money compared to a pure dividend investing style, which is more like a buy & hold strategy. Such trading is not for everybody and if you decide to take that journey, you must learn how to trade options and understand the risk associated with it. If you know the risk, you know how to mitigate it, you will win this game.

Attached is a chart of my account vs. S&P 500:

As I mentioned, April 2014 was a great month. Will May 2014 be the same? I do not know. So far May started off badly, even worse than April. It may change as April changed, but I am cautious and will be increasing cash.

Here are new results for April 2014 (TD account only):

 

January 2014 premiums: $156.10 (1.55%)
February 2014 premiums: $139.26 (1.38%)
March 2014 premiums: $746.62 (7.41%)
April 2014 premiums: $421.63 (4.19%)
   
January 2014 dividends: $25.87 (0.26%)
February 2014 dividends: $167.02 (1.66%)
March 2014 dividends: $68.77 (0.68%)
April 2014 dividends: $25.91 (0.26%)
   
Total 2014 income: $1,751.18 (17.51%)
2014 unrealized premiums: $1,523.00 (15.12%)
   
Account balance: $17,032.25 (38.87%)

What about you? How was your April 2014 and the entire year so far? Post a link to your website or write down your results to encourage other investors!

Have a great May in the markets!
 
 





4 responses to “April 2014 review”

  1. Nice results for the months. Option trades can make a nice addition to one’s portfolio. Keep up the great work!

  2. Those are some stellar returns. I havent traded options in a while, and thinking of writing some this month.

    Best wishes

    R2R

    • Martin says:

      R2R,
      thanks. I am also satisfied with those returns and because of them I decided to focus on put selling more than anything else. Thanks for stopping by.

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