Monthly Update: November 2014

Another solid month...

Portfolio Acitivities

Bought 7.6861 BLV @ $91.60

Bought 13.1062 JNK @ $40.14

Bought 34.4178 PCY @ $28.94
Bought 6.129 IBM @ $162.52
Bought 17.7930 RKT @ $55.98
Sold WHZ @ $11.59Sold ROST @ $89.10

$500 Deposited into Investing Account
$250 Deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($28.24)
     BLV: $2.61
     JNK: 4.56
     PEMT: $3.51
     RKT: $7.50     
     PCY: $5.84     
     Interest from Cash: $2.21
Lending Club     
     Interest: $49.74
Rental Income     Townhouse 1: $950

Lots of Activity: As I mentioned last month, I needed to deploy my cash. I had been sitting on the sidelines thinking that the recent dip in equities was going to be more. It wasn't and with the Christmas rally underway seasonally, its time to go shopping. I initiated no new positions. Just added to existing ones. 

I sold WHZ before it collapsed. I had expected as much because everything else dealing with oil had dropped and it had not at that point.
I sold ROST for a very nice gain. I am mostly a dividend investor but I do take capital gain trades when they look to have sufficient value built beneath their share price. ROST has a 0.88% yield I sure didn't buy it for income.

Income a lot lower: My monthly average income has dropped due to my selling spree. The vast majority of my sales were for capital gains profit or correctly avoiding big losses. However that does leave me with a 40% cash position which is not contributing income. That is a temporary setback that I will gladly take as I gained or avoided the loss of about 4 years of my current portfolios monthly dividends.

Lending Club finally pulling its weight: I purchase LC notes on the secondary market. My strategy is to wait 10 months after a loan has been issued and if they are never late, have a rising credit score, and have 20% or less of their income going to servicing their debt then I buy the note. Because it is a secondary market most sellers will have a mark up fee to make a little profit. Usually this turns out to be 3 months worth of interest. My big deposits over the spring and summer have been in my portfolio long enough that I'm getting profit now. About 1% a month. 

Ideally I want my LC position big enough that it will give my entire portfolio +0.33% to +0.5% just in interest. That will give my an annualized. 4%-6% gain before my company dividends and capital gains. 

Sharpe Trade Launches: This month the Sharpe Trade website launched. Its been something I and some others have been working on. Currently we have two content contributors. Myself and Dan Shy from NoNonsense Trading. With their help I should be able to reach more people and offer more features with my content than I would be able to do on my own.

It has been one of the main reasons for the slow activity here on my blog. My main writing will shift to Sharpe Trade but I will continue this blog and its portfolio's journey. A good portion of Sharpe Trade's content that I will be creating will be free so all will be able to continue following me.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.