Monday, March 19, 2012

Q1 2012 Progress and Options/Day Trading

So I've been horrible about updating this bad boy, but hopefully will find more time now. I know most of the bloggers seem to do a monthly review, but I don't think that will work for me.  Being a husband, a father of two and trying to hold down a job and train for an Ironman all that same time eats up a lot of my "free time".

To sum it up, this past quarter was a good one.  5 of my stocks raised their dividend amounts, bringing my quarter total to $161.55 of dividends received, which I'm very happy about.  Considering Q1 of 2011 I brought in $17.94, you can see it's around a 1000% increase. Obviously additional stock purchases played in here, but none the less, the train is heading in the right direction.  I still firmly believe that dividend growth stocks are the most sound way to invest and continue to plan on using this as my A1 strategy for my retirement.



That being said, I have really become interested in options and some day trading, I've become pretty well read on covered calls as well as puts, and now that I have my feet wet so to speak with a few trades, I think both strategies can provide a nice little enhancement to overall return.  Covered calls can almost be viewed at as "dividend enhancer" if played right, and puts you can use to sit and wait, while collecting a premium, until a stock you want gets to a price you like.  Both are win/win in my book.  Even if a covered call gets called you away, just simply re-initiate in the stock and it's like you never lost it in the first place.

The way I use the profits from the options/day trades/etc.. is to include that into my core reinvestment that I make each month, so essentially it helps me to build more capital (faster) to invest in DGI stocks.

Below are the options and trades I have made so far, as you can see, I've had some hits (and the biggest one AUMY, was a impulse buy without even thinking or taking a quick look at the stock chart, lesson learned).  But even with my losses, overall I'm up close to $1200 in just 3 months.


Well that's all for now, be back in June at the latest, but I hope to try and post more.

-The Dividend Addict