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Posted by Martin May 05, 2013
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My inspiration in the last week #20

My inspiration in the last week #20

This week I would like to present the following interesting web sites and links.

I often browse the internet to find ideas about investing, trading stocks, options, investing opportunities and strategies. I like to read about investors and what their investing/trading approach to create income you can live on is.

 

 
 




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Posted by Martin May 01, 2013
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Supper quicky note #7


The beginning of May started with a sell off in the markets. The talking heads are placing their bets whether this is a beginning of a long anticipated correction or whether the buyers step in and start buying tomorrow. Well, the after market and futures are pointing to rising markets tomorrow. But that can change.

Others are questioning whether the stock market will be or will not be affected by FOMC meeting or recent FED chairman’s comments about FED’s monetary policy.

Another group is mentioning the traditional sell off in May (I bet you know the adage “Sell in May and walk away”) and whether it is the same case as last year and the year ago when markets actually dropped significantly in May and this will repeat again.

So, what do you think? Is the old saying going to materialize and investors start selling their assets in May?

From the dividend growth investor’s perspective, I am not selling anything and if those crazy guys out there start panicking and selling like crazy, I will gladly pick up their “trash” and add it to my portfolio.




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Posted by Martin April 30, 2013
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Trade adjustment – Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI) put rollover

Trade adjustment - Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI) put rollover

Today Pitney Bowes cut their dividend by 50%. That makes this stock no longer attractive for my dividend growth strategy and I am no longer interested in this stock.

Originally I sold a put contract to get assigned to the stock. I no longer wish to be assigned and since I do not know how deep the stock may fall, I decided to roll over the put down and further in time. I will continue doing this as long as I will be safe and be able to let the put expire worthless.

Trade detail

04/30/2013 12:15:09 Sold 1 PBI Jan 18 2014 12.0 Put @ 1.22
04/30/2013 12:15:09 Bought 1 PBI Jul 20 2013 14.0 Put @ 1.31

This trade gives me more time to deal with it, lowers the strike price from $14 to $12 (which is safer, but still not a guarantee of not beign assigned) and still keeps this trade profitable leaving me with $70 profit (without commissions).




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Posted by Martin April 30, 2013
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Supper quicky note #6


Again, the market ran up yesterday in amazing session. It added to its overbought state and today we are correcting from yesterday’s run. Well, it doesn’t mean that this is the beginning of a bigger drop, but it may become one.

The market stalled at its crucial top marked on April 11, 2013 and now we are awaiting if it goes over the top (break the resistance) or this will be the first day marking lower high and thus potential reverse in trend.

However institutional money are still moving funds from bonds and other markets into equities and it is said that retail investors are still mostly sitting aside, so most likely, this trend isn’t over yet. At least this is what I have read in the news. Who knows. These days it is not much advisable trusting the media.

In the morning the market swung down from 159 opening all the way down to 128 and recovered most of the morning loses.

 


 

A stock I was interested in recently was Pitney Bowes. I was OK to own the stock, but I didn’t want to buy out right. So I decided to sell a put contract to get assigned into the stock. Here you can see my trade details of PBI put selling

Today the company announced 50% reduction in dividends to pay its debt. Although it is a good move in my opinion, it removes this stock from a list of candidates for my dividend growth money machine.

That said, I am no longer interested in this stock and I will do all it takes to let the put option expire worthless.




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Posted by Martin April 28, 2013
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My inspiration in the last week #19

My inspiration in the last week #19

This week I would like to present the following interesting web sites and links.

I often browse the internet to find ideas about investing, trading stocks, options, investing opportunities and strategies. I like to read about investors and what their investing/trading approach to create income you can live on is.

 

 
 




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My portfolio beats the market again

My portfolio beats the market again

Once again my results this week made me happy. My combined portfolio made of TD account (taxable) and ROTH IRA account grew faster than the entire market.

After so many years of loses, mistakes and learning how to invest without losing money I am very excited about my results. I hope the results are not seasonal but they will be the results in the future as well.

I believe that the dividend growth strategy combined with options selling can beat the market by a lot. So far, my portfolio is showing that I am on a great track of exceeding the benchmark. Even during declining market my portfolio was able to beat the market and the drop was lesser than the one of the market.

The great example was the last week. My portfolio lost only -0.67% while Nasdaq and S&P 500 lost -2.70% and -2.11% respectively.

The last week the markets grew. Although Friday was mediocre and may signal a serious weakness the markets ended up higher for the week.

Once again I beat the market and my portfolio ended up by +4.73% while Nasdaq ans S&P 500 ended up only by +2.28% and +1.74%.

The biggest gainer in my combined portfolios was a dividend I received from AGNC in ROTH IRA account this week.

Overall, both my portfolios on 3 month basis are spurting up and leaving the markets behind. I know, this can change any time, but if this trend continues, I will have a great end of the year.

See the chart below showing my 3 months result.

Analytics

Hopefully I will be able to manage my portfolio in the same way in the following week.

Happy Investing and trading!




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Posted by Martin April 25, 2013
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Trade Adjustment – AT&T (T) addition

Trade Adjustment - AT&T (T) addition

As I announced on my Facebook page, the conditional order triggered the trade today morning and I bought some more shares of AT&T. This addition helps increase my overall dividend payout to 652.41 dollars a year.
 
 
 

TRADE DETAILS

04/25/2013 09:31:12 Bought 26 T @ 37.36

DIVIDEND STOCK DETAILS

Total shares held as of today: 87
Estimated annual dividend: $156.60
Consecutive Dividend Increase: 8 years
Dividend yield today: 4.86%
Dividend 5yr Growth: 3.78%
Dividend paid since: 1881

 




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Posted by Martin April 25, 2013
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Supper quicky note #5


Safeway Inc. FCF 197 mm better than last year due to lower expeditures.

 


 

Another stock suffering a big sell off today was Safeway. It dropped almost 20% during this trading session after reporting its quarterly report. Although the report missed the expectation, as a dividend investor, would you care about a quarter miss? The Safeway’s situation may be different however. In-store sales dropped and the competition is tougher than before.

Safeway have paid dividends since 2005 and increased the dividend for 7 consecutive years. Will the latest result change company’s dividend policy?




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Posted by Martin April 24, 2013
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Is AT&T a buy now?


AT&TToday AT&T dropped some 5% after trading down for almost 6% during the trading session. It then recovered slightly. My position and thinking about this stock is quite mixed. Is it a buy, or is it a sign of a trouble?

The company reported in my opinion good results. It reported, in their words, strong earnings per share and solid cash flow. In wireless network the company shined and grew data revenues by 21%, service revenue up 3.4% and total wireless revenue up 3.4%. The customer base, mainly the postpaid base grew significantly as well (by 72%). U-verse subscribers increased by 31%, etc,. However, it seems the numbers didn’t impress the market and investors heavily dropped the stock. Could slowing of revenue growth or Operating Income Margin (which was down as well) impact today’s trading? Maybe.

Was this price drop yet another overreaction? Is this price drop an opportunity to add more shares?

As a dividend growth investor I am interested in the dividend, how secure and sustainable the dividend is. I do not care much of the price action. I am only interested in price action of a stock, if it is providing a good opportunity to buy more shares.

However, such price action can be a result of a problem with dividends. This is the only task a dividend growth investor needs to find out. Is the dividend in jeopardy so investors are dumping the stock? Or is something else behind the drop? If something else, for example the company missed a revenue expectation, then I do not care about that. From the long term perspective, one missed quarter doesn’t make me worrying at all, mainly with a good solid dividend paying stock with a great dividend history, which AT&T definitely is.

What makes dividends available? Cash flow! So is AT&T the cash cow? If you had a chance to listen to the conference call and see the data, it seems AT&T is the cash cow you are looking for.
AT&T
But, on the Internet I found one item which bothered me. A rumor goes that the company offered to sell some assets to fund the dividends. That is a big RED FLAG, which would cause me either to hold the stock, or even sell it.

Is this an issue with AT&T? Well, I listened to a conference call carefully, mainly the questions at the end of the conference and nothing has been mentioned or even asked by participants. Although there are still risks (as with any company), the information I could find is, at this point, a rumor to me and I found no evidence that the company made such an offer.

Today’s situation around AT&T is just an overreaction to me and an opportunity to add more shares to my current holdings. I decided to take advantage of today’s price and entered a conditional limit order to buy AT&T shares.

Trade detail

I entered the following trade:

When this condition occurs:

The last price of (T) is greater or equal to $37.36

Trigger an order:

Buy to open 26 shares of T Limit at $37.36
GTC (Good Till Canceled)

If the price continues sliding tomorrow, I will be moving my entry point lower with the price. If however the stock reverses tomorrow and grows up or above the trigger price of $37.36, the order becomes live and should execute. If any of that happens, I will post it.
Photo courtesy Aurich Lawson / Embassy Pictures




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Posted by Guest April 23, 2013
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Why Despite Debt Downgrade the US Stocks Have Appealed the Economy?


PartnershipCelina Jones is a skilled economist with years of experience. Working with the government has given her sufficient exposure to the current economic problems. For any other debt related issues, the info at www.consolidatedcredit.org gives great insight into what makes a great debt management program.

The debt burden is a global problem nowadays. Most countries are suffering from debt or are unable to handle their fiscal problems, impacting their economy and other financial aspects of the country as a result.

What is Debt Downgrade?

A debt downgrade is a negative change or a decrease in the rating of a particular security. This usually happens when analysts believe that the security’s future prospects may not be as strong as recommended initially. This can be a result of a fundamental or material change in the operations of the organization, the industry or its vision. Countries have debt management programs and are permitted to tighten or ease their fiscal policies as required using tools like these.

Debt Downgrade in the US

Due to the competition between political parties in the U.S., many credit rating firms in the U.S. believed that the confidence in the ability of the government to manage its financial issues properly seemed to weaken and reduce.

Many credit rating firms like Fitch and Moody’s warned that they may downgrade the U.S. credit rating if the government was unable to find a solution to avoid the fiscal cliff in the economy at the year end. However, Standard & Poor (S&P), one of the three major credit rating agencies of the country, downgraded the rating of the federal government of USA to a rating of AAA to AA+. The rating AAA implies outstanding credit security while the rating AA+ falls below that and implies excellent credit security. The agency has done this for the first time ever in the history of ratings. U.S. was given this credit rating since as long as 1917.

Reasons for Debt Downgrade in the US

The reason that S&P have given for the debt downgrade is that the deficit reduction plan that the government presented did not help in any way to stabilize the debt situation of the country. Moreover, the policy making system is also not efficient enough to cater to the current challenges of the economy.

S&P also stated that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the government was very unsustainable. Also, the lawmakers responsible for controlling the situation were not able to make the tough decisions that were required to rectify the problem.

The Impact of Debt Downgrade on the Economy

One of the major impacts of the debt downgrade would be the increase in the cost of borrowing. The federal government of the U.S. will find borrowing more expensive than it was before the downgrade. The action taken by S&P also left Wall Street surprised and shocked. Most people in the U.S. consider Treasury Bonds to be very safe but were left in shock after the downgrade.

Why Us Stocks have Appealed the Economy

Initially, due to the debt downgrade in the U.S., the 500-stock index of S&P dipped almost 7%. But when things cooled down, the main effect was felt on the financial markets of U.S. the fiscal policies have tightened up and the financial market is now restricted to perform freely.Coworker

Overall, the debt downgrade in the U.S. is an event that has now deflated. The negative results have worn off and the decision of debt downgrade has emerged to be quite positive with positive effect on the bond market.

Conclusion

The recent global financial meltdown left the entire world in a lurch. Every country, including the U.S., underwent the tough phase of recession and had to make difficult choices to cope with the prevailing scenario.

A few instruments were used to rectify the problems that occurred out of which, one was a debt downgrade. This has brought the country’s economy back on track by tightening the fiscal policy and has ultimately had positive implications on the overall economy. The effects of the unprecedented event will diminish with time but have made their mark where they needed to.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 




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