July and August Quietness

The months of July and August were quiet except for the ledger recording my regularly scheduled deposits, dividend receipts, and a single trade in August. My trade in August was similar to my solitary trade in June. I simply added to an existing position.

My trade was a BTO of PG on the 5th of August. My reasoning for adding to an existing position of PG is simple. PG is a dividend paying stock that I have a level of confidence that it will continue to pay its dividend. It's a non durable consumer goods company that produces personal hygiene products for a civilized world. Although it has gone down with the softened market this summer, the number of personal hygiene products purchased should start going back up because of teachers/professors and students returning to the personal hygiene aisle as classes come back in session. Yes I am suggesting that some people take a personal hygiene hiatus during the summer.
For now that is all I got. I will continue to look for other opportunities to add to existing positions. I will also look to see if any other stocks meet my dividend paying strategy.

That's my opinion. What's yours? Disclaimer: See bottom of page.
http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - Bought/Buy To Open
PG - Procter & Gamble

June Purchase

For the entire month of June I only had one purchase. I added to my CNK position with a BTO under $40. This trade executed on June 29th of 2015.

I chose to purchase CNK because $40 is a recent support level. It is already one of my existing positions. This stocks dividend payout is in line with my long term income strategy. And summer being a movie going season should see a value increase meaning $40 is closer to the lows.

That's my opinion. What's yours? Disclaimer: See bottom of page.
http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - Bought/Buy To Open
CNK - Cinemark Holdings Inc

My May Purchases

My last post was for purchases I made in March. Since then I haven't made any purchases in April, but in May I made two, so far. The month of May is not quite over yet for 2015, but that is how I am going to title this post. My purchases  this month were for GSK and CNK.

My GSK purchase was made on May 1st and added to an existing position I had started December 23rd of 2014. As of this posting, I'm down a couple percentage points, but I am okay with that as I am far away from my target position size. There is an adage that starts, "Sell in May and go away...", and to me it suggests that I should focus more on accumulating cash and hold off on additional purchases for the summer. However, after analyzing the chart, $44 looks like a great support area to buy more if the opportunity arises.

My CNK purchase was made May 21st and added to an existing position I had started September 21st of 2012. As of this posting, I'm up 4% overall. As I accumulate cash over the summer, I suspect there may be other opportunities to buy more as the stock has been declining since April. After analyzing the chart, a price of $37.50 looks probable as a base for a turn around or a bounce. I'll be monitoring it for my opportunity to increase my position.

That's my opinion. What's yours? Disclaimer: See bottom of page.
http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

CNK - Cinemark Holdings Inc
GSK - GlaxoSmithKline PLC

Portfolio Update: Added to an Existing Position

On Monday, August 12th, I added to my existing position of T. My reason for that was because I believe the price to be in the right range for a purchase. Here is how I came to that conclusion.

Fundamentally T is a top rated telecom with high growth, EPS, and revenue with the expectation of continued growth in the coming years. In addition, it has a very attractive yield that, at the time of this post, was above 5%.

The stock has pulled back more than 10% from its 52-week high of 39 USD made on April 23rd. The stock has also created two short term tops on June 13th and July 17th, putting a resistance just below 36.50 USD. At the same time the stocks price has approached and seems to be bouncing away from the upward trend line I charted for it from January 18th through June 21st. As far as other technical indicators, the daily and weekly stochastic and MACD indicators (which are trailing and confirmation indicators) both show that the stock is becoming oversold. Instead of waiting for confirmation, I chose to pull the trigger now for what I think is the lowest price I will possibly get this time around.

Not having a lot of excess cash available I purchased all that I could. It is my belief that this should turn out to be one of my better timed purchases. If not, I still plan on buying more if more funds become available and T remains in this setup. That's my opinion. What's yours? Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

EPS - earnings per share
MACD - moving average convergence divergence
T - AT&T Inc
USD - United States Dollar

Portfolio Update: Continuing the Plan

Since my last portfolio update in June 2013, I have been collecting dividends from my investments and waiting for my next opportunity. Friday, August 2, 2013 was my opening. On that day I BTO an additional 5 shares of AGNC. Doing so has three benefits.

The first is that it reduced my cost average of my position in AGNC. The second is that it brings me closer to an option eligible lot size. And third, it puts me in a position with an increased dividend payout for the next distribution. It is my belief that the stock has bottomed and that a reversal is possible at this price. That's my opinion. What's yours?

Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

AGNC - American Capital Agency Corp
BTO - bought-to-open / buy-to-open

Portfolio Update: Two Transactions

April is half over and I've neglected to mention my activity so far. Shame on me. Now I'm going to rectify that.

On April 4th, I STC my entire position in VZ. I originally had two telephone communication companies in my portfolio. But after much consideration, I no longer saw the need to have two telep-co stocks in my portfolio. I chose to keep T and let go of VZ since T had a slightly better yield.

On April 9th, I BTO more of ETP. My reasons for buying more of this one over any other were that it was approaching it's ex-dividend date  for the second phase payouts, and the yield was the highest of all the  second phase stocks in my portfolio.

Those are my reasons for my actions so far this month. If you would like to question it, please do. But in keeping with my moto, which could be the reason I don't get any activity, that is my opinion, you can take it or leave it.
Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - bought-to-open/buy-to-open
ETP - Energy Transfer Partners, LP
STC - sold-to-close/sell-to-close
T - AT&T
VZ - Verizon Communications

Portfolio Update: Position Increased

This post is going to be one of my shorter ones. With the market sell off the day before, I added to my most recently acquired position, BGS. The part I didn't expect was how much BGS would pull back. If I had, I would have put in the order with a lower limit price. I will continue taking advantage of any further sell offs as often as possible. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it.
Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com
BGS - B&G Foods, Inc.

Portfolio Update: First Trade of the Year

The date of this post is the 16th of February, and it has been a while since my last post. About a month and a half. The reason being that I haven't had an order execute this year until yesterday.
Yesterday's order was for BGS. A company with a portfolio of grocery items. I chose this one to add to my portfolio because it has a dividend yield of 3.8% and pays out on the first phase of the quarter. This is particularly good because I only had one other stock that paid out on the first phase of every quarter, AGNC. Other than that, I also collect the monthly distribution from the TLT.
Recently, BGS had a quarter that was below expectations, but I am confident that it is not too serious of an issue. I am actually looking forward to a little more of a short term decline in order to increase my position at lower prices. This lower price will also increase the yield amount for this stock. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it.
Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com
AGNC - American Capital Agency Corp
BGS - B&G Foods, Inc.
TLT - iShares Trust Barclay's 20+ Year

Portfolio Update: Long Over Due

It has, once again, been too long since my last post. In the time that has passed there have been seven changes to my portfolio. I have made 5 purchases, 1 sale, and had an option position expire on me. The 4 of the 5 purchases and the one sale were strategic moves to my portfolio. The remaining 1 purchase and option expiration are my speculation plays.

To start I BTO additional shares in my ETP position. This purchase added to my dividend payout for the second phase of each quarter. This was done on the 3rd of October.

On the 8th of October, I BTO a SAND Nov 17 2012 $15 Call option position. This was done as my speculation play. Unfortunately, I have to admit that the decision to get in was poorly timed and selected. I should have waited for the pull back and then choose an expiration further out. As of this post, it is in the red but seems to be showing signs of improvement. I will be holding it until my profitable sale trigger is hit or it's expiration, which is a week away from this post.

On the 19th of October, my speculation play for FB Oct 20 2012 $15 Put options locked and expired. This was again an unfortunate speculation gone wrong. In hinds sight I should have taken my profits when I had them or probably should have chosen to purchase one option closer to the money instead of three so far out of the money. I still think FB is over-priced, but it seems that they are finally accepting that they have to make revenue in order to attract investors and are making changes that will actually create revenue even at the expense of loosing some of there ~1 billion users.

On the 31st of October, I STC my entire position of DE. I made this decision because DE did not fit the minimum yield requirement of my strategy of holding high dividend yielding stocks. Fortunately, I was able to get out with a very small profit.

On the 2nd of November, I BTO additional shares in two of my existing positions, T and VZ. These purchases added to my dividend payout for the second phase of each quarter. As a result I am almost 70% of my phase one dividend payouts, which are currently the largest.

Finally on the 7th of November, I BTO additional shares in my MCD position. This purchase added to my dividend payout for the third phase of each quarter. As a result I am almost 50% of my phase one dividend payouts.

Despite the fact that falling over the "Fiscal Cliff" will result in an increase of the dividend tax rate, I am not going to change my core strategy of building a portfolio of dividend paying stocks. My portfolio is not currently generating enough income to alter my effective tax rate significantly. I will, however, use the fear in the market to build up my positions.

That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - buy-to-open/bought-to-open
DE - Deere & Co.
ETP - Energy Transfer Partners LP
FB - Facebook CL A
MCD - McDonalds Corp
SAND - Sandstorm Gold LTD
STC - sell-to-close/sold-to-close
T - AT&T, Inc
VZ - Verizon Communications

Portfolio Update

In this post, I only have one thing to add. My position in CNK has been added to. This addition increases my dividend payouts for the third phase of each quarter (i.e. March, June, September, and December). This is in line with my current, and most self-relevant, investing strategy.

This strategy quite simple. It is to have a portfolio of dividend paying stocks from well run companies. The dividend payout of each of these stocks have generally predictable payout dates which allow me to spread my picks out into the three phases of each quarter so that I can eventually equalize my expectations.

That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

CNK - Cinemark Holdings Inc.

Portfolio Update

I have made a few changes to my portfolio over the past, almost, two months. The first set of changes were made on the 27th of July as I STC my ZNGA position for a loss that I could not bare to see grow any further, as well as my CIM position for the same reason. I need more profitable choices in my portfolio that will pay me dividends while growing or at least hold on to their value. But since speculating keeps me attentive to the market I will do it with options. This way, while I can see more exciting gains from option trades, I can narrowly define my losses better. So for longer term purchases I will be buying stocks, and for excitement trade options.

With the cash I freed by STC my ZNGA and CIM positions, I first BTO, as a trade, Puts against FB. My reasons being that I don't see them bottoming at this current time and that I believe the lockout which expires this week will result in an even lower price. Next I BTO a position into AGNC another REIT with growth and a better dividend than CIM and it's commercial counter-part NLY. These trades were made on the same 27th of July

Finally, on the 8th of August I BTO a position in ETP. I believe the price has become low enough that the dividend yield is too attractive not to buy. I want to continue to add to this position as time goes by but the majority of my free cash is not allocated for positions in a few other stocks to balance out my monthly dividend payout strategy. I will allocate more cash to purchase ETP and the other dividend paying stocks in my portfolio as the capital gets added from my day job. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

AGNC - American Capital Agency Corp.
BTO - buy-to-open / bought-to-open
CIM - Chimera Investment Corporation
ETP - Energy Transfer Partners LP
FB - Facebook, Inc.
STC - sell-to-close / sold-to-close
ZNGA - Zynga Inc.

Portfolio Update

Once again, I have made changes to my portfolio, so here is my portfolio update. Since I have been adding cash to my account, I had enough to make an order. I chose to add to my CNK position in the event that it would pull back to $21.50.

Well, it did. But a little more than I had expected. Apparently the Federal Reserve statements, Existing Home Sales, and Jobless Claims reports this week didn't give the market much solace, even though the European economic scene seems to have stabilized for the moment. But that can change any day.

I will continue to add cash to my account and put in orders to add to my existing positions. I believe the market will be more bearish this summer as Congress continues to perpetrate what they can to force a presidential change this fall by doing nothing that the current president has asked them to do. This is not me saying that I support Barack Obama, nor do I support Mitt Romney. I am of the opinion that Presidents have become nothing more than figure-heads. It is congress that actually has all the real power to help the economy.That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

CNK - Cinemark Holdings, Inc.

Portfolio Update

I am a little behind schedule on reporting my portfolio updates. Since my last update, I have changed some of my opinions a little. I have also added to my account so that I have some additional cash to invest.

First, I have restarted auto deposits into my investing account and my IRA. Both of which are under-funded. I especially have a lot of catching up to do in my IRA. However, further information about that is outside the scope of this post.

Second, I STC my puts against FB. The result was that I raked in ~37% profit on that short trade.

Lastly, I then took the profit and the capital that I had pending for one of my other dividend paying stock picks, CNK, and added to my already existing positions of JNJ and PG. I then re-evaluated the chart for CNK and decided to buy a third of the shares I was planning on at the higher price it was currently around. Unfortunately, CNK has declined a little since I BTO the position today. I am still currently satisfied with my positions. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - buy-to-open / bought-to-open
CNK - Cinemark Holdings Inc
FB - Facebook Inc.
IRA - Individual Retirement Account
JNJ - Johnson & Johnson
PNG - Proctor & Gamble Co
STC - sell-to-close / sold-to-close

Portfolio Update

Since my last update where I purchased shares in ZNGA, it has tragically declined. However, as one of my few speculation plays, I intend on adding to my position if there next earnings report, indicates improvements I can believe as reasonable expectations.

Also, since my last update I purchased shares of YUM, as it finally came down enough to trigger my limit order. Now I only have one more stock to buy that rounds out my dividend strategy. It, however, seems to be resisting the market pressures better than I expected.

In the mean time I have taken advantage of the opening of FB on the option market to buy put options against it. I am extremely disappointed in its extreme over-valuation. I am expecting continued declines into the low 20s, if not further. That is my opinion, you can take it, or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

FB - Facebook Inc
YUM -YUM Brands Inc
ZNGA - Zynga Inc

Portfolio Update

The last portfolio update I made covered a stock purchase of DE. Since then I have added another equity to my account. On April 5th, I BTO a position into T. As of that date, I now have a quarterly dividend being payed to me every month. This does not include the fact that the TLT seems to pay me a dividend every month, I say seems as I have received a deposit of interest from this bond fund every month last quarter.

Outside of the new position that I have opened, I have adjusted my limit order prices for the remaining five equities I have in my plan to purchase. These five equities may change as I compare them against their competitors, looking for the ones I believe fit my criteria of paying good dividends, have relative growth potential, and are priced in at a level I can afford. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - buy-to-open/bought-to-open
DE - Deere & Co.
T - AT&T Inc.
TLT - iShares Trust Barclays 20+Year Treasury Bond Fund

Portfolio Update

In my last update I posted that I added DE, ETP, and PEP to my portfolio in accordance with the investing strategy of buying share in strong companies with sustainable dividends with the goal of being paid every month. I have since then added MCD to my portfolio. MCD has not held its value as well, but the decline does not yet seem to be justified as anymore than profit taking.

My position in the TLT has paid out again this month. Unfortunately, the volume in the bond market is now reversing. As a result of the recent decline, I have lowered my limit order even more. No point in over paying.

I have also made adjustments to my other orders. Some of them I have increased the limit and reduced the number of shares I will purchase because they have moved higher recently. Others I have lowered because I think I see better entries at lower prices based on my technical analysis. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

DE - Deere & Co.
ETP - Energy Transfer Partners, LP
MCD - McDonalds Corp
PEP - Pepsico Inc.
TLT - iShares Trust Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond

Portfolio Update

This post covers a few new changes to my portfolio. On March 1st, I made two purchase for my investing account. The first of my two purchases was for a pair of DE shares. The second of my two purchases was for a pair of PEP shares. On March 2nd, I made a purchase of an additional pair of ETP shares to add to my portfolio's existing shares.

The purpose behind my most recent purchases were based on the following facts. These are dividend paying stocks. These stocks have shown to be strong earners. The dividend payouts of these stocks increase my monthly income for eight of the twelve months of the year. I am however, still missing four months of payouts; January, April, July, and October. I have orders for stocks that cover these months and I am waiting and watching for them to be executed. This all falls in line with my current strategy. That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

DE - Deere & Co.
ETP - Energy Transfer Partners, LP
PEP - Pepsico Inc.

Portfolio Update

This week I have an update to make about my portfolio. I have added a position with a company I use to trade in the past. Instead of trading this security I will be adding it to my standard list of stocks that I hold for the dividend.

The symbol for this security is ETP. I only have a small position it it at this time, but as I add funds to my account I will be extending my position with this security as well as others that I have on my watch list and have open orders for. Other than the new position, I also received a dividend payout for my position in TLT.

That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

ETP - Energy Transfer Partners, LP
TLT - IShares Trust Barclays 20+Year Treasury Bond Fund

Portfolio Update

As mentioned in my last post, I will be buying high dividend paying stocks. I will specifically be targeting stocks that have PEG ratios that are under 2.0. One of them I just BTO today is MCD. With a yields of 2%

I wanted to open a MCD position with a cost basis of no more than $500 as I spread my equity exposure across several stocks, so I only purchased 2 shares today with another order to buy 2 more at $90. I am not anticipating it to drop that much but I am attempting to not over pay for my position. I am aiming low with the assumption that some totally irrelevant news will temporarily drag the stock down like the news in Europe did last year.

That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

BTO - buy-to-open/bought-to-open
MCD - Mc Donalds Inc.

Portfolio Update

It has been way too long since my last post, and there is a lot to cover. So without further ado, I will get right into it.

As a result of all the European debt issues, on November 4th I STC my position of CPLP call options I BTO on October 20th. The result was a loss of ~57%. Since then, CPLP has continued to decline, and I sold my entire position on November 15th. That sale resulted in a loss of ~39%, not taking into account any of the dividends I received in the past or the dividend I received on November 16th. After doing that I continued looking at the chart for CPLP and it is channeling slightly to the upside. I might consider buying a couple Call options slightly out of the money and way out in time and wait to see if there is one of those pops that CPLP has done in the past. But at the same time, I finally learned what it means to compare PEG ratios, and apparently CPLP is over priced. So with this new knowledge, I found a couple of really "cheap" stocks in comparison that also pay dividends, GLNG and TDW.

Back on October 14th, I rolled an AAPL Call option to a higher strike price that profited me enough that I would be playing with the houses money. On November 7th I rolled this option out for another month, but unfortunately AAPL has been on the decline. Right now the AAPL Call option I own is almost worthless. At this point only a little of the profit from the original AAPL Call option position remains. I don't think I will be doing anymore rolling of this option. If it does not start rebounding, I will accept the loss.

On November 16th, I BTO positions in IWM and GLD. The plan with these is to build up positions that reflect the four asset classes. IWM for the broad market of stocks, GLD for gold, and in time, with the execution of my open order that is still pending a lower price, TLT for long term treasury bonds. The forth asset class is cash which remains in my account for the purpose of selling put options against. This is an imitation of the American Asset Management investment portfolio owned by Julian Rubinstein. And if I can hold to my plan, I should be able to produce better than his 9% a year track record.

Finally, on November 18th, I sold my lossing position in DWA. The final result of this was a loss of ~43%. As was mentioned with CPLP, I found out that the PEG for DWA indicated that it was over priced. On top of that the expectation I had that people would spend more time in theaters than traveling was too ambitious in these turbulent times. However, my research did reveal that there are two stocks in the same industry that are doing well, CNK and RGC. These two are the theaters that DWA movies play in. Despite the disappointing attendance in comparison to previous years, they both have nicer earnings than DWA. On top of that, they both pay a dividend. I might take a position in either or both stocks at some time in the future.

That is my opinion, you can take it or leave it. Disclaimer: See bottom of page. http://investorsopinion.blogspot.com

AAPL - Apple Inc.
BTO - buy-to-open/bought-to-open
CNK - Cinemark Holdings Inc
CPLP - Capital Product Partners, LP
DWA - Dreamworks Animation SKG
GLD - SPDR Gold Trust
GLNG - Golar LNG Ltd.
IWM - Ishares Russell 2000
PEG - Price-to-Equity by Growth Rate ratio
RGC - Regal Entertainment Group
"rolled" - (rolling) - to sell-to-close one position and buy-to-open another position in the same group of options to take profit or extend risk.
TDW - Tidewater Inc.
STC - sell-to-close/sold-to-close