May was not such a great month. I had about 1% lower dividends than that of the same month last year. Not good but I readjusted my accounts a bit and focused forward to June. In my 457K account June was awesome at $280.73, this is more than double in dividends than what I had last year. It took some time, but I finally got my 457K account to the levels in which I felt happy. For those not in the know a 457K account is like a 401K account, but is for government workers. The advantage is that it is tax free like a 401K but you don’t have to wait until you are 59.5 to take the money out. You are free to take the money out as soon as you no longer work for that government.
So I get everything on track and what does my employer do? They discontinue the broker that I had been using. So now I am being forced into moving all my funds to the new employer sponsored broker. There are of course less options than my previous broker. Already I know that I am no longer going to have my fixed rate market account (which was 3.5%), theirs is a paltry 1% (might as well put my money in my online savings account, more liquid, less strings). I don’t know the fees yet (I learn that in August) but I would be surprised if it was better than the old broker. I have to think someone somewhere is getting a kickback somewhere but I am not that high enough in the know to know that for sure. I would put more money in my 457K, because is tax free, but things like this put me off to the investment vehicle. I am highly considering a ROTH account.
457K Account: $280.73
Robinhood Account: $67.83
AGNC (American Capital Agency Corp.) – $5.94
O (Realty Income Corp.) – $4.22
ORC (Orchid Capital Inc.) – $24.08
EPR (EPR Properties) – $.68
WFC (Wells Fargo) – $1.90
WTR (Aqua America Inc.) -$2.90
DF (Dean Foods Inc.) – 2.70
FUN (Cedar Fair LP) – $1.71
HSY (Hershey Inc.) – $.62
LUV (Southwest Inc.) – $.50
FTR (Frontier Communications Corp.) – $18.48
VTR (Ventas Inc.) – $3.10
Interest – $1.00
Charles Schwab: $3.84
O – (Realty Income Corp.) – 3.80
Interest – $.04
Total June 2017 Dividends: $352.44
Shares Sold/Bought
ORC – (Orchid Capital Inc.) – Buy
FTR – (Frontier Communications Corp.) – Sell
VTR – (Ventas Inc.) – Buy
Very nice month John. Of course your employer has to throw a wrench in the plan they use. I’m sure the headache on your end will be well worth the pennies the company is saving in the long run. Glad to see that your 457k funds are getting to a comfortable level for you. Now, it is on to the next goal and the next milestone. Keep on pushing and keep the good times rolling.
Bert
Not a bad month overall. Looks like you have pretty low exposure to O, are you planning on increasing? It’s one of my favorites especially with the monthly divy.
Hi John, spent an hour or so looking through your blog including the monthly income posts to see that you are rotating the holdings quite a bit, sell as well as buy back or add to the same positions.
From your ‘about me’ you mention your trading philosophy is using as many available ways playing the stock market. Could you tell us, are the rotations due primarily to selling options on your positions that likely get called, as well as on the same stock symbol you are also selling naked PUT’s. Which kind of stock [types] are you shorting, would you also be holding a position on any stocks that you also short?
With you having done this now for a few years & likely experienced the up/down of what works for you, what trading strategy have you found the least winning trades? Is it finding Hi yield dividend stocks that you also sell CALL’s on & doing that, are you selling CALL’s ‘in the money ITM’, at the money ATM’ or out of the money OTM’?
On your SPY purchase, what are you doing with this position?
Appreciate any response or discussion.
Thanks
When I first started out I did some options but I found I wasn’t very good at it so now I mostly just buy and sell individual stocks.
I do have a margin account. If I feel a stock is going to do bad, like FTR at the moment, I will short it, but I don’t do that much.
Most of what I find myself doing now is trying to build up a monthly dividend. SPY for me is kind of a benchmark stock for me. I use that to measure if I am beating or losing to the stock market in general.
Thank you for stopping by do you keep a blog?
Thanks for the fast response. On options on underlying stocks – what I found successful on stocks that have dividends as well as decent open interest with LEAP’s is to sell a long covered call ITM to protect the downside & up the dividend rate
On SPY, DIA, QQQ these have great volume as well as options open interest.
I’ve been following, watching, now waiting till after July 17 when UVXY & SVXY stock split – consolidation. Possibly a vertical spread or a buy then sell covered calls & naked Put’s.
As you posted in your ‘about me’ there is more to playing the market than ‘buy & hold’ even if it’s just for dividends.
Good luck to you & I look forward to reading your regular updates
Looks like a solid month. That kinda sucks that you have less options to buy due to the broker change.