February was bad. Unfortunately, March on Wall Street wasn’t any better. The slump in stocks continued and S&P 500 continue sliding down. The first week of March looked promising. The markets went up and it all looked that we are finally on the path of recovery.

Then Trump announced his tariffs shame aimed against China and excluding all others. Those who hoped in growth of the US steel got slammed as major steel exporters got exception and China threaten Trump with large retaliation.

And the Wall Street used this mess as a good excuse to dump stocks again. A March toll? A loss of 7.11%

But, I do not feel bad about it. As a dividend investor I welcome this drop and all great dividend stocks being on sale. and I wish this would last for some time! I wish the stocks would go lower even more!

 

 

As an options trader I pretty much do not care where the market goes. That’s the beauty of trading the options. Options will allow you to make money in any situation – if done right.

My only concern, in this market slump, is to be on the right side of the trend. Many of my trades were bullish. If this market is truly changing into a bear market (which I do not believe we are there) these bullish trades would hurt. There is a way to revert them into bearish trades but it will require capital reserves. And my concern is, will my accounts have enough money in reserves to trade through the reversal?

In march we made the most money I have ever made trading options in a month. The final revenue for March 2018 was $18,124.40 dollars!

Now, the biggest task in the coming months will be to retain the revenue (and a few more bucks along with it).

 

 · Dividend stock investing

 

When I started trading in 2006 my goal always was to make enough money trading which can be invested into dividend stocks.

Later on, I got into options and realized that options can provide the dreamed income which can be invested.

My next goal then is to make enough money to be invested into dividend growth stocks but also provide living. I am not there yet. But I study hard and learn to get there.

Here is a review of all accounts stock purchases made in February:

 
Traditional IRA

 

ROTH IRA

 

TD account
TBD
 

In March we purchased the following shares:

 

 

 · Dividend Income

 

ROTH IRA dividend income

 

IRA dividend income

 

 · Market outlook

 

I am still bullish but I think the bull market is getting closer to its end. My estimate is end of 2018 or first half of 2019. I believe it will be partially due to Trump’s incompetent and protectionist policy which would kill tax cut benefits and lead to the economy slowdown. But before all this ever happens I believe we will see yet one more all time high and then we may see troubles unfolding. But I may be wrong. I am usually always wrong in predicting the market.

I want to trade the market no matter what it does. That’s my ultimate goal – to learn how to trade the market up or down. Make money no matter what the direction is.

That however requires a few things:

1) Discipline and not over trade. Always have enough money in your account to sustain drops like this one in February and be able to manage your trades, adjust them, and escape bad trades. If you have a small account, trade only one trade at a time, or save more money before you trade.

2) Stay calm. Do not panic. If you are in a trouble, roll your trades away to buy time and then when all is calm, adjust.

3) Do not sell your stocks when they go down. Wait until all is over. Remember why you bought the stocks in the first place. I bought mine for dividends. Then I don’t care what the price is doing. I am not selling for capital appreciation. I am a dividend investor. At the end of any panic or bear market there will be a start of a new bull. If you invested before 2008, sit through 2008 selloff, reinvested dividends, and even bought more shares, your account is not way higher than before 2007 end.

4) If you want to be a bit active investor and trader, learn and study the markets. There is always a lot to learn. Play with your trading positions, simulate your options and way how to roll them, fix them, or adjust them even if you do not do it. But the trading platform will show you what you can do and if you see that your situation is hopeless, learn what else you can do to adjust a trade. For example, you have a deep in the money put spread. That is impossible to fix on its own. You play with the trades and find out that you can roll into calls for a small debit and sell new OTM put spread to offset the debit.

5) If everything goes your way DO NOT BE GREEDY!!! Boy how may times I was guilty of being greedy and opening more trades because everything was great and all trades were winning just to see getting myself in trouble the very next day when the market changed direction.

There are many possibilities to trade. Learn them and find those which work best to you and if you stay calm and never panic, be greedy, base your trades on expectations rather than trading what you see, you will prosper and be consistent.