S&P 500  2,913.98 -0.02(0.00%)  Dow 30  26,458.31 +18.38(+0.07%)  Nasdaq  8,046.35 +4.38(+0.05%)
 

September 2018 is over and it is time to report our trading and investing results. Overall September was a great month but it was also a very volatile month.

Our IRA account performed great. Our cash increased to $104,600.00 and we purchased a few new stock position in dividend growth stocks. Our net-liq is stagnating as we are opening new trades which lower it temporarily. As trades get to close net-liq will grow too.

Our ROTH account is however showing signs of great improvement. Last year, we got into a few trades which went bad preventing us trading the account. If however, the trend of improvement continues we will be again trade ROTH more actively.

Our TD account is still depressed but also getting better consolidating it.

In September, we achieved the following results:

We made $5,998.56 dollars in September. Net-liq of all accounts increased by $5,625.27 this month.

We post our trades on our Facebook page and we also post (or try to post when I have time to do so) our end of day trading results.

 
Here are a few posts from the Facebook page you can review:
 

WEEKLY RESULTS, September 28, 2018

Trading day September 28, 2018

Trading day September 27, 2018

Trading day September 26, 2018

Trading day September 25, 2018

Trading day September 24, 2018

Here are the entire 2018 year trading results:

 · Dividend stock investing

Dividend investing is doing great on both accounts – ROTH and IRA. I keep using 50% of all options income and buy dividend stocks. IRA account keeps growing fast with new stocks being purchased every month. ROTH is more or less stagnant.

Here is a review of our accounts stock holdings:

 
Traditional IRA

 

ROTH IRA

 

TD account

 

In August we purchased the following shares:

 
IRA purchases:

 

ROTH purchases:

 

We keep spending 50% of our options trading proceeds to buy good dividend growth stocks using our screener to get a better entry into the stocks. Although capital appreciation is not our goal but a secondary target, timing the entry creates good results as our positions are mostly up. However, do not be too excited, any large selloff can temporarily send those stocks down again. It is a dividend income what matters to our portfolios, not the portfolio value and capital appreciation. It seems to be evident that using options to grow the portfolio is the right way to do.

 · Dividend Income

IRA dividend income

 

ROTH IRA dividend income

S&P 500  2,901.52 +0.39(+0.01%)  Dow 30  25,964.82 -22.10(-0.09%)  Nasdaq  8,109.54 +21.17(+0.26%)
 

August 2018 was a mix bag of goodies and rotten apples, so to speak. It was good until it wasn’t. We made nice income but then the market started rallying and many of our Iron Condors started seeing call spreads breached.

As I expressed in our Facebook group, I was happy when the market retreated a bit as it released the tension on our call spreads. My dilemma and worries were that if I started rolling the Condors higher and the market retreats more, those rolled Condors will suddenly hurt us on the put side.

We rolled a few Condors with deep in the money calls and sure enough, as the market dipped on Thursday and Friday last week even more, the puts were suddenly in trouble.

No matter what, all adjustments I made to our trades had negative income on our trading income as well as net-liq (net liquidation value). We also closed a few open trades prematurely to release cash in case more rolling will be needed.

Overall, my outlook of the market is bullish so these pullbacks and retreats are just a small consolidation and nothing to worry about. There fore I will not be rolling down those puts which are now in the money but rather keep removing calls as I expect this market to continue higher.

Income, although hurt a bit by adjusting the trades was good, We still made nice $5,575.84 dollars monthly income. Net-liq of all accounts dropped but this doesn’t worry me at all as it is just a temporary decline due to increased volatility of the open trades. If and after those trade close successfully the net-liq would rise back up again. Should the market keep dropping (which I do not expect), then I will start converting all open put trades into calls as we did in February and March this year. Otherwise we will keep trading bullish trades.

Here are the entire 2018 year trading results:

 · Dividend stock investing

Dividend investing is doing great on both accounts – ROTH and IRA. I keep using 50% of all options income and buy dividend stocks. IRA account keeps growing fast with new stocks being purchased every month. ROTH is more or less stagnant.

Here is a review of our accounts stock holdings:

 
Traditional IRA

 

ROTH IRA

 

TD account
TBD
 

As of now, I do not track dividend stocks in TD account. We have a few positions in dividend stocks but our focus in this account would again bringing it up to speed, grow the capital and then adopt the same strategy as in IRA.
 

In August we purchased the following shares:

We keep spending 50% of our options trading proceeds to buy good dividend growth stocks using our screener to get a better entry into the stocks. Although capital appreciation is not our goal but a secondary target, timing the entry creates good results as our positions are mostly up. However, do not be too excited, any large selloff can temporarily send those stocks down again. It is a dividend income what matters to our portfolios, not the portfolio value and capital appreciation. It seems to be evident that using options to grow the portfolio is the right way to do.

 · Dividend Income

ROTH IRA dividend income

 

IRA dividend income

S&P 500  2,840.35 +13.13(+0.46%)  Dow 30  25,462.58 +136.42(+0.54%)  Nasdaq  7,812.01 +9.33(+0.12%)
 

July market was volatile and hectic to our trading and investing. Trump’s trade war, although archaic news, still rattle the markets and spook the investors. there is however no need to be spooked and be afraid of the market.

The price action of the current market points to a lot higher and better days to come. Although some time ago I was cautious and expecting this market to turn bearish at the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019 the recent charts proved me wrong. We may see pullbacks and corrections but overall we are heading higher. A lot more higher.

Of course, this is not a prediction but a probabilistic view and the market needs to be reviewed on a day to day basis to look for clues of change. We do not have any clues that this market is heading down.

July trading and investing was somewhat mixed and for most of the month our trading was slow with a lot of pullbacks. Our accounts made nice highs just to lose them the very next day.

The end of the month improved and it again became easy to trade.

In July 2018 our combined accounts delivered nice $4,417.54 cash in premiums. Not the best month but acceptable. Our net-liq grew by $8,870.20 in July which is a good growth (given we had a lot of volatility).

July ended well yet we need to focus on our business account more and bring it back up to speed. This year we suffered large losses due to mistakes I made trading unsecured (naked) options against volatile non-dividend stocks such as LULU, X, WYNN, etc., and over-trading a relatively small account. I still have a few bad trades which I am thinking how to best manage them. They are now all secured and with plenty of time to adjust them when needed. So no rush.

I sinned the same in our ROTH IRA account over-trading it. Thus I am now trading that account less and mostly manage open trades only. Most of the growth in the ROTH is cause by dividend stocks. However, I plan on changing it as soon as possible by trading only small trades and depositing more money.

Here are the entire 2018 year trading results:

 · Dividend stock investing

Dividend investing is doing great on both accounts – ROTH and IRA. I keep using 50% of all options income and buy dividend stocks. IRA account keeps growing fast with new stocks being purchased every month. ROTH is more or less stagnant. We do not buy new shares as of now as I am focusing on increasing trading capital and then adopt the same strategy used in IRA.

Here is a review of our accounts stock holdings:

 
Traditional IRA

 

ROTH IRA

 

TD account
TBD
 

As of now, I do not track dividend stocks in TD account. We have a few positions in dividend stocks but our focus in this account would again bringing it up to speed, grow the capital and then adopt the same strategy as in IRA.
 

In July we purchased the following shares:

In one of the Facebook groups, where we post our trades and purchases, one member asked me why I only buy small amounts of shares, such as 4 shares of a stock, etc. His argument was that spending small amount would be offset significantly by brokerages fees.

Our reasoning is that we want to be buying only smaller amounts and rather more often to eventually dollar cost average the price. The table above indicates that we could purchase 7 shares of ABBV for $89.20 a share and when the stock dropped even lower, we could buy another 7 shares, this time for $86.90. If we have spent all our available money on the first purchase, we would not be able to buy more shares cheaper.

The next rule we have is to purchase shares for minimum $600 purchase or more, not less. With a $5 fee per trade, a 0.83% fee rate is acceptable. As you can see in the table above, this strategy helped us to buy shares of ABBV with over 4% dividend yield at that time and in 14 days we are already sitting on 11.08% capital gain for that particular purchase. If we spent all the money we would only see 8.22% gain.

As a dividend growth investor, capital gain is not important. It is a different mentality you need to adopt as a dividend investor. It is not a capital gain but stream of income what matter. However, even with that, our secondary goal besides the stream of income, is capital appreciation. And if there is a chance to grow the portfolio why not taking that option into account, right?

 · Dividend Income

ROTH IRA dividend income

 

IRA dividend income