Tag: Stocks

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Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Strategy

Dividend Portfolio: 4/14/23 Weekly Update & Big Shift!

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review, and a very special one at that! You’ll notice within the screenshot of my portfolio that the general structure has changed a little bit. I am starting to implement a new strategy! I am quite excited about the new direction of the portfolio, so read on to see what we’re doing!

This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $15,290 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $15.712.20. That’s a total gain of 2.76%. The account is up $177.46 for the week which is a 1.14% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -7.13% which puts us 9.89% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account last week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI decreased from $638 to $532. This large decrease was intentional and part of the new strategy I mentioned above.

So what is this new strategy, what has changed? Overall, I’m being pickier about the allocation percentage of my capital to different aspects of the portfolio. 70% of my capital will go to my stock picks which coincides with my long term strategy.

I have been reading a number of books like CommonStocks & Uncommon Profits, The Joys of Compounding, 100 Baggers, One Up On Wall Street, and many others. These books have inspired me to be pickier with my individual stock holdings and narrow down my number of positions. As I continue to study these investors and use their lessons to develop my own long-term stock picking strategy, I will create an excel sheet/dashboard that will allow me to track relevant qualitative and quantitative information such as leadership quality, cash flow generation, debt levels, capital allocation, margin of safety, intrinsic value, and more. There’s a lot of work I need to do to get to that point, but we are in the process of upgrading our strategy!

The other 30% will be equally split between ETFs and a new swing trade strategy. The 15% in ETFs will allow me to continue investing in the ETFs that afford me a level of diversity and dividend income that I will continue to grow.

The other 15% will be allocated to a trend following strategy inspired by legendary trader Richard Dennis. I have been studying him and his Turtle Traders for sometime and am working on article to publish the specifics about my strategy for these funds. That should be out soon, so stay in touch with this website or my Twitter account. I have morphed his strategy into a variation that will allow me to follow trends in dividend paying ETFs. The goal with this strategy is boost the medium term gains of my portfolio and use any gains over the allotted 15% to reinvest into my stock and ETF picks.

I look forward to this new phase of evolving my portfolio and am excited to bring you guys along with me!

Dividends

This week we received two dividends: $8.60 from $BBY and $2.27 from $O.

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $144.74

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $555.14

Trades

Obviously, because the restructure and the goal of cutting down on some of my positions, this was a week of selling. The positions I sold were either intended shorter term holdings or positions I felt I hadn’t researched enough to earn a spot within my portfolio. The short list has been chosen!

Full details for my trades are below:

  • April 4th, 2023
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $407.83
    •  Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.47
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $72.68
    • ETRACS 2xMonthly Leveraged US Small Cap High Dividend ETN ($SMHB) – added 1 share at $5.37
  • April 10th, 2023
    • ETRACS 2xMonthly Leveraged US Small Cap High Dividend ETN ($SMHB) – added 2 shares at $5.34
  • April 13th, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – Sold 130 share position at $8.94 for a 18.46% gain of $181.10
    • Orsted ($DNNGY) – sold 4 share position at $29.99 for a 7.26% loss of $9.73
    • Atlantic Infrastructure ($AY) – sold 13.09 share position at $27.72 for a 6.15% loss of $24.96
    • Steve Madden ($SHOO) – sold 3.01 share position at $35.02 for a 0.23% loss of $0.24
    • Ally Financial ($ALLY) – sold 13.27 share position $26.47 for a 4.80% loss of $18.00
    • SPDR S&P Biotech ETF ($XBI) – added 5 shares at $79.81 under the trend strategy
    • Best Buy ($BBY) – reinvested dividend
  • April 14th, 2023
    • Vanguard Financials ETF ($VFH) – added 8 shares at $78.80 under the trend strategy

Next week I will look to continue my weekly buys into $SPY, $SCHD, and $XYLG and watch for opportunistic adds as well as trend opportunities. I’ll be looking to add to my redder positions in $MMM, $BBY, $FIS, and $INTC to take advantage of the coming ex dividend date.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Big week for DividendDollars!

The market recap and outlook will be posted later this week and provides tons of information on what macro statistics I look at to keep a temperature gauge on the market and inform my portfolio movements. Read last week’s here while you wait for the new one!

I will also work on finishing my write up on the trend following strategy to share with you, so stay tuned for that.

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

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Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 4/6/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! And Happy Easter weekend!

This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $15,170 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $15,481.85. That’s a total gain of 2.06%. The account is down $119.58 for the week which is a 0.7% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -7.87% which puts us 9.92% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account last week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI increased from $635 to $638.

Dividends

This week we received no dividends. But we did receive some new dividend declarations, so the chart below shows an increase in expected dividends for April and May compared to last week.

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $133.88

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $544.28

Trades

This week was a very slow one for me. The end of March experienced a crazy run up which left me feeling not too excited to buy this week. So I didn’t! I only executed my weekly ETF buys and picked up a share of $SMHB on the way.

Full details for my trades are below:

  • April 4th, 2023
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $407.83
    •  Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.47
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $72.68
    • ETRACS 2xMonthly Leveraged US Small Cap High Dividend ETN ($SMHB) – added 1 share at $5.37

Next week I will look to continue my weekly buys into $SPY, $SCHD, and $XYLG and watch for more red in the market when adding to positions. I’ll be looking to add to my redder positions in $MMM, $BBY, $FIS, and also $INTC to take advantage of the coming ex dividend date.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook will be posted later this week and provides tons of information on what macro statistics I look at to keep a temperature gauge on the market and inform my portfolio movements. Read last week’s here while you wait for the new one!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Economics Market Recap Market Update Stock Market

Stock Market Recap & Outlook (3/24/23) – Fed Hikes Rates Again and Banks Recoup

This weekly market recap is brought to you by Koyfin, a powerful analytical tool that I am proud to partner with. Their platform is entirely customizable for whatever data you want to look at including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, currencies, economic data releases (one of my personal favorites used often for these posts), crypto, and even transcripts of company events! Click the link above to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers or go give my product review a read if you’re interested!

Weekly Market Review

Summary:

This week was a volatile one, mostly in the middle of the week, leaving the first and last days ending pretty firmly in place.

Over the weekend, we got news that the Swiss National Bank brokered a UBS ($UBS) acquisition of Credit Suisse ($CS) for a price of $3.2 billion. The Federal Reserve also announced coordinated action with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank to enhance US dollar liquidity and assure that “the capital and liquidity positions of the US banking system are strong, and the US financial system is resilient.”

Early in the week, we received Treasury Secretary Yellen’s remark for the American Bankers Association that the government is prepared to intervene again “if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose the risk of contagion.”

Many of the beat-up bank stocks moved higher in the first half of the week as we awaited the FOMC decision on Wednesday, which brought sharp declines at the index level that day.

The FOMC voted unanimously to raise the target range for the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.75-5.00% and the updated Summary of Economic Projections showed the Fed’s median terminal rate of 5.10%. Stocks initially ran on this news before flipping lower as Fed Chair Powell gave his press conference.

Powell acknowledged that the Fed does not anticipate rate cuts this year. He believes that the events in the banking system do not help the possibility of a soft landing for the economy.

All together, Powell was neither super hawkish nor dovish. He did not sound particularly confident in the outlook either.

More central banks followed later in the week. The Bank of England announced a 25-bps hike and hinted at more increases in the future while central banks from Switzerland, Norway, Hong Kong, and Philippines also raise their rates.

By the end of Friday, price action suggested that the market had shaken off some of these concerns. The main indices closed the higher despite sharp declines in Europe’s indices.

The Treasury market was also volatile this week. Ultimately, the 2-yr note yield fell 5 basis points this week to 3.77% and the 10-yr note yield fell 2 basis points to 3.38%.

Only 2 S&P 500 sectors finished the week red– real estate ($XLRE -1.99%) and utilities ( $XLU -1.91%) — while the communication services (+3.4%), energy (+2.3%), and information technology (+2.0%) sectors saw the biggest gains.

Monday:

The stock market kicked off the new week with a reversal from the end of last week. Banks showed nice strength on the news over the weekend of the Credit Suisse acquisition.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve announced the coordinated central bank action enhance the USD assure that “the capital and liquidity positions of the US banking system are strong, and the US financial system is resilient.”

Still, some concerns around the banking industry persist, as seen in the decline of First Republic Bank ($FRC). The SPDR S&P Bank ETF ($KBE), which was up 4.5% at its high Monday morning, closed with a smaller 1.6% gain and the SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF ($KRE), which was up 4.9% at its best level of the day, was up 1.2% by the close.

$FRC’s debt was downgraded at S&P to B+ from BB+. There was some minor easing as there were rumors that Jaime Dimon was leading talks with other banks to convert $FRC deposits into a capitl infusion, however, FRC closed near its worst levels of the day.

There was no major economic data releases on Monday.

Tuesday:

The stock market continued strength on Tuesday after Monday had closed above its 200 day SMA. With Tuesday’s move, the S&P 500 regained all the ground that had been lost since March 8 when the SVB Financial blowup started to hit the scene.

Banking stocks led the charge after a Bloomberg report indicated the Treasury Department is looking at ways to guarantee all bank deposits without congressional approval.

Some of the names that had suffered the steepest losses traded up Tuesday. The SPDR S&P Bank ETF ($KBE) rose 5.3% and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF ($KRE) rose 5.8%.

The S&P 500 pushed above its March 8 close after the start of trading before pulling back some and trading in a narrow range throughout most of the session until a late afternoon lift had the indices close near their best levels of the day. The S&P 500 closed above the 4,000 level to lead into the FOMC’s rate hike decision the next day

For economic data on Tuesday we received the home sales reading.

Existing home sales jump 14.5% MoM in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.58 million versus an unrevised 4 million in January. Sales increased on a MoM basis in February for the first time in 13 months. Total sales in February were down 22.6% from a year ago.

The key takeaway here is that the median selling price fell for the first time in 11 years, underscoring the affordability challenges caused by rising mortgage rates and prospective buyers’ concerns about making a purchase at the top of the cycle.

Wednesday:

The majority of Wednesday was chop while we waited for FOMC policy decision and Fed Chair Powell’s press conference. The main indices ultimately closed the session sharply lower.

The FOMC voted unanimously to raise rates by 25 basis points. The language of the meeting and the Summary of Economic Projections looked as if the Fed is going to entertain the idea of pausing its rate hikes soon.

That view prompted a knee-jerk reaction upward in stocks the release. However, this sentiment flipped as Powell was speaking. Broad based selling interest came in and crushed last hour of the day.

All together, Mr. Powell did not sound especially hawkish or dovish. Importantly though, he did not sound particularly confident in the outlook either and I suspect that lack of confidence played a part in the lack of confidence that led to the selling during his presentation.

For Wednesday’s economic data we had the Weekly MBA mortgage application index and the Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories.

The MBA index rose 3% with refinancing applications growing by 5% and purchase applications rising 2%. The oil inventories showed a draw of 1.06 million barrels following a build of 1.55 million.

Thursday:

The market started strong, recovering some of the sharp declines from Wednesday. The upside momentum started to fade, though, after the S&P 500 briefly tipped above the 4,000 level at its high for the day.

The markets remained green until an uptick in selling interest dragged it into negative territory in the late afternoon. Ultimately, the main indices closed in the green, but far off their highs for day.

Investors were still digesting the Fed’s latest rate hike and commentary from Fed Chair Powell on Thursday along with multiple rate hikes from central banks overseas.

Initially, buying interest was broad with mega cap stocks in a leading position. By the close, most mega cap stocks stayed strong while the broader market deteriorated. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF ($MGK) was up 1.1% versus a 0.3% decline in the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF ($RSP).

For economic data on Thursday, we received the Initial jobless claims report for the week, the Q4 current account balance, and the new home sales report.

The initial jobless claims report for the week ended March 18th fell by 1,000 to 191,000 compared to a 204,000 consensus, while the continuing jobless claims for the week ending March 11ths increased by 14,000 to 1.694 million versus consensus of 1.684 million. The takeaway here is that initial claims remain low, pointing to little change in the health of the labor market, something that the Fed is watching closely.

The Q4 current account balance rose to -$208.6 billion from -$219 billion.

New home sales increased 1.1% MoM in February to an annual rate of 640,000 units from 633,000 in January. On a year-over-year basis new home sales were down 19%. The takeaway here is that sales has moved up for the 4th time in the last 5 months.

Friday:

The stock market closed out the week on an upbeat note, but things didn’t start out that way. Initially, investors were weighing concerns about the banking industry, again, after reports indicated that Deutsche Bank’s ($DB) cost of default insurance jumped to a four-year high.

German Chancellor Scholz and European Central Bank President Lagarde both attempted to calm markets after the news, but stocks were still under pressure despite their efforts. The S&P 500, which fell below its 200-day moving average after the open, was down 1.0% and hit 3,909 at its low for the day. The Nasdaq and Dow were down 1.0% and 0.9% at their lows for the day.

The tone in the market shifted around the time that European markets closed. The tonal shift also coincided with buying interest in the Treasury market subsiding.

Many stocks moved higher with Friday’s rally, which saw the S&P 500 close above its 200-day moving average. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF ($RSP) was up 0.9% while the market-cap weighted S&P 500 had a gain of 0.6%.

Economic data for Friday included the Durable goods orders and the IHS Markit Services PMI.

Durable goods orders fell 1% MoM in February versus an expected 1.6%. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were flat MoM following a downward revised 0.4% increase form 0.7% in January. The key takeaway is that the report could bring in questions about the strength of the manufacturing sector since it showed an unexpected decline in orders while the January numbers were also revised lower.

The IHS Markit Services PMI rose to 58.3 in the early March reading versus 50.6 in the last reading. The manufacturing PMI rose to 49.3 versus 47.3 last time.

Dividend Dollars’ Outlook & Opinion

That’s it for the recap. Now for my opinion!

This was a slightly last week for economic data with the exception of the FOMC rate decision. Initial jobless claims came in lower than expected. Claims have been averaging below 200k for nine straight weeks, showing that the labor market is still very strong, which gives the Fed more ammo in terms of potential continued rate hikes.

The rate hike this week was the 9th consecutive hike since tightening began 12 months ago, for a total of 4.75% in increases. The Fed’s balance sheet reduction continues at $9B per month. This lead to another volatile week in the Treasury market and the stock market.

Right before the hike was announced, the probability of this weeks 0.25% hike was at 82%. For the 8 years in which data is available, whenever the probability exceeds 65% going into a Fed meeting, the expected move has occurred. Currently, Fed funds futures are pricing in a very little change of another hike in May and very high probability of a cut in June, despite the fact the Fed said they wouldn’t cut rates this year.

Futures and bond markets indicate otherwise. Time will tell if it is right and if the banking sector scare will force a premature pivot from the Fed.

This week was heavy with economic data (two key inflation reports) and plenty of banking news to keep up with. Though both inflation reports were not negative, both were overshadowed by investor anxiety related to banking.

However, given all of this uncertainty, markets moved slightly higher this week as we had expected in the last market outlook.

Our outlook last week a slightly bullish, yet volatile overall. With SPX up on the early days of Monday and Tuesday, then down Wednesday and Thursday, with gains made again on Friday, I would say we were spot on.

SPX managed to close above the 100 and 200 day SMAs on Friday, though it does show struggles around the 100 day SMA. If it can remain above the 100 day SMA, the 50 day SMA is a not-so-distant test of strength.

Changes in ETF open interest and equity open interest lean moderately bullish in the near term while SPX open interest changes are slightly bearish. VIX and SPX volume open interest put call ratios have shifted more bearish this week.

CBOE and OCC volume put call ratios have been oscillating. They aren’t clear if they are shifting more bullish or bearish and should be taken as an indication of volatility in the near term.

Vix futures and the IV gap are relatively neutral if not slightly bearish.

Next week we have the Q4 GDP reading on Thursday and the Core PCE (the Fed’s preferred inflation measure) on Friday to anticipate.

All of these things point to no clear directional bias, so the only logical outlook for next week is just continued volatility. I personally think we see some more green, but the chart and indicators are not clear in direction in my opinion.

That’s it for my recap! If you would like to see how I am building my dividend portfolio using my predictions/strategy written here, you can read about my buys in my weekly portfolio update on this link.

And if you like updates like this, follow my Twitter or my CommonStock page where I post updates on the economic data throughout the week.

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Economics Market Recap Market Update Stock Market

Stock Market Recap & Outlook (3/17/23) – Continued Banking Concerns Amongst Surprising Strength

This weekly market recap is brought to you by Koyfin, a powerful analytical tool that I am proud to partner with. Their platform is entirely customizable for whatever data you want to look at including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, currencies, economic data releases (one of my personal favorites used often for these posts), crypto, and even transcripts of company events! Click the link above to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers or go give my product review a read if you’re interested!

Weekly Market Review

Summary:

Banking scares that surfaced late last week continued to worry investors throughout this week. Continued developments of the situation and actions form the Fed, Treasury, and FDIC kept us all on our toes. Those actions were designed to shore up confidence in the banking industry, but price action did not reflect that.

With investors lacking confidence, a risk-off mentality was behind most price action this week. Certain mega-caps viewed as distant from the banking fallout were bought hand-over-fist. Companies with strong balance sheets and perceived recession resiliency, like $GOOG, $NVDA (sorry TagTrades), and $MSFT. These stocks all gained more than 12% this week.

$MGK, the mega-cap growth ETF from Vanguard was up over 5% this week, helping to prop up returns for the main indexes despite an otherwise weak market.

A flight to safety also showed itself through an outperformance of defensive sectors like utilities (up over 3%), consumer staples, and health care sectors (both up over 1%).

Treasury note yields tanked this week, driven by a belief that the Fed won’t be able to raise rates as much as previously thought in lieu of the banking issues. However, the CME FedWatch Tool shows a 59% probability of 25 basis point hike at the next meeting, and a 52% of another 25 basis point hike at the May meeting after that.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank agreed to raise its rate by 50 basis points this week despite concern surrounding Credit Suisse ($CS)

Monday:

Monday started a volatile week for us after a busy weekend of banking sector news. The market learned through a joint statement from the FDIC, Treasury, and Fed Market that all depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank of New York would be fully protected even though both had been taken over by regulators.

he Fed also introduced a Bank Term Funding Program that will help banks avoid selling government securities at a loss by allowing them to pledge those securities to the Fed, which will value them at par, as collateral.

These items together makes it so that all depositors would not lose money and that banks would have a different avenue to raise liquidity through the BTFP rather than selling assets at a loss like $SVB did. Smart moves, in my opinion, however they did not calm the stock markets. In fact, their approach created a feeling that this banking issues is larger than we initially thought.

Regional Banking ETF $KRE fell another 12% and SPDR S&P Bank ETF %KBE fell another 10% with the biggest individual losers being $FRC, $WAL, $CMA, and $PACW.

Still, the main indices spent a good portion of the session in positive territory thanks to gains in mega-caps as stated in the summary.

Treasury yields declined as a potential less aggressive Fed is priced in due to this bank fallout and the potential for it to have a disinflationary impact on the economy.

Tuesday:

Stocks opened higher, bolstered by strength in the bank stocks and a small measure of relief that the February Consumer Price Index (CPI) wasn’t much worse than feared.

The quickly oversold market brought some opportunistic trading moves. The S&P 500 would climb as much as 2.1% to 3,937 before stalling at the test of its 200-day moving average (3,939).

Treasuries were selling off with some of the safety premium they had enjoyed in recent sessions being drained away and CPI data influencing prices. 

The rebound momentum reversed after failing to break through its 200-day moving average. Bank stocks began to pull back due to a report from the S&P that they had put $FRC on a credit watchlist shortly after Moody’s had downgraded the US banking system to Negative from Stable.

The day looked to end poorly excepted for a large buying effort in the last 45 minutes of the day that left major indices ending on an upbeat note.

Data on Tuesday was the CPI release and the NFIB Optimism Index.

Total CPI was up 0.4% MoM in February, in line with expectations, and up 6% YoY. This was the smallest 12-month increase since September 2021. Core CPI was up 0.5% MoM against a consensus of 0.4%. The key takeaway from the report was that inflation is still (no surprise here) well above the 2% target. Banking problems have mainly taken a 50 point hike off of the table of the next meeting, this CPI reading definitely keeps a 25 point hike as a possibility. Not raising rates may signal that the banking issues are bigger than people think, so the Fed must tread carefully here.

The February NFIB Small Business Optimism Index had a slight increase to 90.9 from 90.3 last month.

Wednesday:

Cautious trading was back in play. Selling interest on financials picked up after Credit Suisse’s ($CS) largest shareholder said they can’t give additional financial help due to regulations.

This news brought worries that banks may be more risk-averse, tighten their lending standards, and manage their balance sheets more conservatively. Those measures would slow economic growth and lead to further downward revisions to earnings estimates. So, it was not surprising that cyclical areas of the market were under the most pressure.

Things shifted by the close. Some nice gains in the mega cap space had the main indices close near their best levels of the day.

The upside moves were also helped along by the Swiss National Bank saying “Credit Suisse meets the capital and liquidity requirements imposed on systemically important banks. If necessary, the SNB will provide CS with liquidity.”

Data on Wednesday brought us the February Retail Sales reading, the PPI reading, and a number of other less significant pieces that I won’t mention.

February retail sales fell by -0.4% versus a consensus of +0.2%. Excluding autos the number was -0.1%, in line with expectations. The key takeaway from the report is that there were declines in most retail sales categories following large gains in January, suggesting consumers are being more conscious about their spending budgets.

February producer price index came in at -0.1% versus an expected 0.3%. Core PPI was flat compared to an expected 0.4% increase. This is overall a good inflation report, and should be pleasing to the Fed.

Thursday:

It shaped up to be a pretty good day in the stock market, but it didn’t start out that way. It started out with bank stocks remaining under pressure and Treasury yields declining in continued flights to safety.

At their lows for the day, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were down over .5% as news came out that the European Central Bank agreed to raise its key policy rates by 50 basis points due to inflation being projected to remain too high for too long.

Sentiment shifted around midmorning, though, when a Wall Street Journal report highlighted a potential solution to the issues at First Republic Bank ($FRC). The report suggested big banks had been discussing a capital infusion deal for FRC totaling $30B.

Also, sentiment in the banking sector improved as Treasury Secretary Yellen told the Senate Finance Committee that “Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them.”

For data on Thursday we received the Weekly Initial Claims reading, the Housing Starts report, and the February import/export data.

The Weekly Initial Claims came in well under the expectation at 192K. With initial claims were back below 200,000, we see that employers are reluctant to let workers go.

February Housing Starts hit 1.45 million, beating the expectations by over 100,000. Building Permits  hit 1.524 million, beating expectations by almost 200,000. The key takeaway from the report is that the stronger-than-expected activity wasn’t just a multi-unit story. Single-family starts were up 1.1% month-over-month while single-family permits increased 7.6%.

February Import Prices -0.1, February Import Prices ex-oil 0.4%, February Export Prices 0.2%, and February Export Prices ex-ag. 0.1%. The takeaway here is the moderation in year-over-year changes. Import prices were down 1.1%, versus up 11.4%, for the 12 months ending February 2022. Export prices were down 0.8%, versus up 16.8% for the 12 months ending February 2022.

Friday: 

On Friday’s quadruple witching options expiration day, investors were thinking risk-off again. Thursday’s strong finish was largely a relief rally on news. That relief short lived and investors sold FRC again on Friday following a dividend suspension.

Market participants were also reacting to reports that banks borrowed $11.9 billion from the Bank Term Funding Program and a record $153 billion from the Fed’s discount window for the week ending March 15, exceeding anything during the financial crisis. More and more items to digest when thinking about the health of the banking industry. Bank stocks were largely down for the day.

Selling efforts were broad in nature, excluding some mega-cap names.

Friday had an industrial production release and the Consumer Sentiment Index preliminary release for data.

Total industrial production was unchanged month-over-month in February, compared to an expected 0.5% increase. The capacity utilization rate held at 78%, also compared to an expected 0.5% increase. The key takeaway from the report is that industrial production activity is softening, evidenced both by the year-over-year decline in total production and a capacity utilization rate that is near its lowest level since September 2021.

The preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for March dropped to 63.4 from 67 last month. It was expected to increase to 67.2. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 59.4. Roughly 85% of responses had been recorded prior to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. The key takeaway from the report is the moderation in inflation expectations, which will please the Fed somewhat, although year-ahead inflation expectations still remain well above the 2.3-3.0% range seen in the two years prior to the pandemic.

Overall, 2 of the 3 main indices ended the week on a gain. Mega caps and defensive sectors ended higher while energy, financials, industrials, and materials made substantial losses during the week.

Dividend Dollars’ Outlook & Opinion

That’s it for the recap. Now for my opinion!

This week was heavy with economic data (two key inflation reports) and plenty of banking news to keep up with. Though both inflation reports were not negative, both were overshadowed by investor anxiety related to banking.

With all of the fear surrounding banking and the treasury market volatility, it did not feel like a strong week for the markets. However, it surprisingly was!

SPX ended below all of its key moving averages at the end of the week, though it did temporarily break above the 200 day and 100 days averages on Thursday. Friday it struggled to get back above those marks.

A number of indicators have surprisingly moved into bullish territory this week including VIX OI change, ETF OI change, and VIX OI put/call ratios. SPX OI put/call ratios and general equity OI changes worsened over the week.

Banking sector uncertainties and rate changes signal more volatility to come, even though markets may continue to trend slightly higher overall, especially with a light economic calendar next week (except for the interest rate decision).

That’s it for my recap! If you would like to see how I am building my dividend portfolio using my predictions/strategy written here, you can read about my buys in my weekly portfolio update on this link.

And if you like updates like this, follow my Twitter or my CommonStock page where I post updates on the economic data throughout the week.

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Stock Market

Dividend Portfolio: 3/10/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! I apologize for missing an article last weekend! I was traveling for a wedding and did not have time to write. This article will catch us up and detail all the moves I’ve made in the past two weeks.

This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $14,170 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $13,752.36. That’s a total loss of 2.95%. The account is down $641.82 for the week which is a 4.46% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -13.3% which puts us 10.38% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $440 in cash to the account in the last two weeks, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI increased from $507 to $583.

Dividends

These two weeks I received $22.50 from four dividends ($XYLG, $INTC, $CMI, and $MSFT).

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $91.17

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $501.58 – WOOT WOOT $500 mark hit!

Trades

These two weeks weren’t too busy for me an account of my travels and then coming back home in midst of a major bank collapse! I deployed all of my stored cash and added even more for buys late this week in NYCB. The buy zone and the channel in the chart from two weeks ago was totally blown apart by the news in the banking sector. NYCB, BAC, and ALLY are my main bank holdings and are still safe investments in my opinion, I will be adding to them more in the coming weeks as the Silicon Valley Bank situation plays out.

I wrote about the happenings of the week in the Market Recap & Outlook, make sure to read that here and checkout out the full breakdown of my trades below:

  • February 21st, 2023
  • March 1st, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 5 shares at $8.80
    • Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – $4.33 dividend reinvested
    • Intel ($INTC) – $12.20 dividend reinvested
  • March 2nd, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 5 shares at $8.56
  • March 7th, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 15 shares at $8.43
  • March 9th, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 20 shares at $8.13
    • ETRACS 2xMonthly Pay Levered ETN ($SMHB) – added 10 shares at $6.63
    • Cummins ($CMI) – $3.75 dividend reinvested
    • Microsoft ($MSFT) – $2.22 dividend reinvested
  • March 10th, 2023
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 50 shares at $7.52

Next week I will look to continue my weekly buys into $SPY, $SCHD, and $XYLG as I did not do those for the last two weeks. I will also look at adding to beaten down bank stocks even more, plus some other adds to my redder positions in $INTC and $MMM.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook is also posted and provides tons of information on what macro statistics I look to at to keep a temperature gauge on the market and inform my portfolio movements. Read that here!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Economics Market Recap Market Update Stock Market

Stock Market Recap & Outlook (3/10/23) – The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

FILE PHOTO: SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) logo is seen through broken glass in this illustration taken March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

I apologize for missing the report last week, was out on vacation but we are back now and have TONS to cover!

This weekly market recap is brought to you by Koyfin, a powerful analytical tool that I am proud to partner with. Their platform is entirely customizable for whatever data you want to look at including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, currencies, economic data releases (one of my personal favorites used often for these posts), crypto, and even transcripts of company events! Click the link above to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers or go give my product review a read if you’re interested!

Weekly Market Review

It was a big losing week for the market as investors analyzed Fed Chair Powell’s testimony before Congress, the February employment report, and news of SVB Financial’s Silicon Valley Bank being shut down. All major indices ended the week down over 3.5%.

Monday started on an upbeat note with early gains being supported by positive moves in some mega cap stocks. Apple ($AAPL) was a leader in that respect after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with buy rating with a $199 price target.

Under the surface though, there was some anxiousness felt as the market waited for key events in the week ahead. Even at midday, as the indices were trading near their highs for the day, the number of stocks declining was greater than the number of stocks increasing.

Mega cap strength started to face and selling ramped up in the Treasury market. The main indices were in a slow grind lower for the rest of the day.

Economic data for the day was only the January Factory Orders. This fell 1.6% month-over-month (consensus -1.8%). Shipments of manufactured goods increased 0.7% MoM after falling 0.6% in December. The key item in the report was the strength seen in nondefense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft. This criteria, which factors into GDP forecasts, were up 1.1% after a 0.6% decline in the last reading.

Tuesday started mixed with the market waiting for Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Both stock and bond markets reacted quickly to key comments.

Powell stated, “Although inflation has been moderating in recent months, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long wat to go and is likely to be bumpy… the latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes. Restoring price stability will likely require that we maintain a restrictive stance of monetary policy for some time.”

Powell’s Q&A portion afterwards added that data doesn’t suggest that the Fed has overtightened yet. Data suggests they have more work to do, increasing the likelihood that peek rates are higher than the Fed’s projections from the December meeting may be increased. The hearing and Q&A session ultimately suggested that a 50 point hike is back on the table. Markets moved lower throughout the day upon this news.

Data on Tuesday was the January Wholesale Inventories and the Consumer Credit reading. Inventories were down 0.4% MoM and was in line with expectations.

Consumer Credit increased by $14.8B in January compared to the expected $22.9B. The takeaway is that consumer credit expansion is slowing, likely a result of rising interest rates. The decrease was driven predominantly by revolving credit and was the 2nd lowest increase in the last 12 months.

Wednesday had the markets start off choppy as the second day of Powell’s testimony kicked off. Treasury markets signaled economic concerns with the 2 year and 10 year spread hitting its widest margin since 1981.

With that move, stock prices deteriorated and the major indices slipped closer to their lows of the day. They did close above the lows, though, thanks to mega-caps running in the last hour of the day. That momentum slowed with the S&P 500 neared its 50 day moving average ($3,997) which turned from support to resistance on Tuesday.

Economic data for the day included the Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications, ADP Employment Change, the JOLTs job report, and the January trade deficit reading.

The weekly MBA mortgage application index rose 7.4% with refinancing applications increasing 9.0% and purchase applications 7.0%.

The ADP Employment Change showed private payrolls rose by 242,000 in February against a 195,000 consensus. The January reading was revised upwards by 13,000.

The JOLTS Job Openings reading total 10.8M in January after a 0.2M upward revision for December.

The trade deficit for January grew to $68.3B compared a consensus of -$69B. December numbers were revised upwards by $0.2B. Imports for January were $9.6B more than December imports. Exports were $8.5B more than December exports. The takeaway here is that both imports and exports increased compared to December, reflecting a pickup in global activity and demand.

Then Thursday came around, and the situation that we’ve all been watching unfold for days now had kicked off.

The day started green, lead again by mega-caps and hope that higher-than-expect jobless claims could be followed by a weaker-than-expected nonfarm payrolls reading on Friday.

Initial jobless claims for first week of March increased by 21,000 to 211,000 compared to a consensus of 198,000. Continuing claims increased by 69,000. This was the highest claims level since December and teased the idea of some labor softening. However, current claims levels still are at levels that are indicative of a tight labor market overall.

The opening was short lived as bad news and price action in the banking space weighed down the market.

The S&P 500 cut under its 200 day moving average and closed near lows for the session in a steady and broad based sell off.

Bank stocks took the bulk of the losses as concerns about rising rates, higher deposit costs, and weaker loan demand collided with the news that Silvergate Capital ($SI) is voluntarily liquidating and that SVB Financial Group ($SIVB) sought to raise capital through the sale of marketable assets at a loss and a potential stock offering to combat their increased cash burn.

The second part of that last paragraph was the main trigger of worries about the state of deposits and capital positions for smaller banks that drove major selling interest.

Ultimately, things break when the Fed is in an aggressive tightening cycle, and banks, whether or not they are involved in a specific problem, will get pulled into the downfall regardless of their roll.

Treasury yields also fell lower that day, yet stocks did not respond in the opposite way. This leads us to believe that the flight to treasuries was more of a flight-to-safety than anything else.

Friday opened considerably lower and kept that theme up for most of the day. The employment report brought some good news with nonfarm payrolls being strong and average earnings growth being weaker, but the SVB Financial situation was by far the largest driver of price action. A broad sell off brought the S&P 500 under 3,900 on big volume.

Silicon Valley Bank was shut down by the FDIC in the late morning. This is the second largest bank to get shut down by the FDIC since Washington Mutual in 2008.

The FDIC also created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara to protect insured depositors of $SIVB. This news followed earlier reports that the Founders Fund (Peter Theil’s VC fund) had advised companies to pull their money out of the bank and that deposit outflows were outpacing the process of selling SVB to a prospective buying banks.

Wide concerns about SVB’s troubles and their potential contagion effects continued the flight-to-safety in the Treasury markets on Friday.

Most views from analysts so far are that SVB’s situation won’t be a systematic banking problem given how well capitalized the system is. That said, the market saw a rebound effort squised after it was reported the SVB was being shut down. The market lost their hold and broad based selling picked up putting the S&P 500 to a low of $3,846.

The sudden collapse of SVB could leave billions of dollars belonging to companies and investors stranded. As of the end of 2022, SVB was the 16th largest bank in the US with just over $200B in assets. Their tech and start up focus has felt the brunt of the aggressive interest rate hikes by Fed.

The Treasury bond assets they sold on Thursday incurred a $1.8B loss as the value of those bonds fell with the rising rates, the value of their hold to maturity assets have incurred an even larger, though unrealized, loss.

The main office and all branches will reopen on Monday and all insured depositors will have full access to their insured funds. That is good news, however, roughly 89% of the banks $175B in deposits were uninsured as of the end of 2022. What happens to these funds is anyone’s guess.

We can assume that the FDIC is working this weekend to find a bank that is willing to acquire SVB. A merger by Monday could secure the safety of those uninsured deposits, but no deal is certain.

I have seen headlines that Roblox Corp ($RBLX) and Roku Inc ($ROKU) have hundreds of millions deposited with the bank. With most of these funds uninsured, share prices have dropped by a considerable amount.

Collectively, the banking sector has lost over $100B in stock market value from Thursday and Friday, with European banks also feeling some pain. Some analysts are forecasting more pain for the sector as hidden risks become more clear.

All eyes will be on the FDIC and if they are able to secure an acquirer for SVB or if they will be force to liquidate the bank.

Dividend Dollars’ Outlook & Opinion

That’s it for the recap. Now for my opinion!

To be blunt, this week was insane. The market made big moves down on the SVB news. Economic readings and Fed speak were worth paying attention, but when it really came down to it SVB and the concern it has caused for the banking sector has defined this week. It may even be the definitive moment for the year.

This week was so red that $SPX broke down through numerous key points. The week started above every key point of support, but quickly took them all out as the week came to an end. The market broke through the 50 day moving average first on Tuesday, then the 100 and 200 day moving average on Thursday, and broke down below the long term downtrend established at all time highs in the beginning of 2022 before testing the bear market level at $3,855.

Price action broke down below that level briefly before ending the week just above it at $3,861.86.

As you can see by the three circles I have on the chart, following significant breakdowns underneath the bear market level, the following days are extremely volatile. I expect the next fews days to not be an exception, if anything they’ll turn up the volatility as the SVB situation unfolds.

Up until this week, the market in 2023 has been playing red-light green-light with inflation readings and Fed meetings. Markets have been quick to react to every little item that gives insight into what the Fed will do moving forward.

Now we had a giant wrench thrown into that theme this week. Fed Powell’s testimony affirmed the position that Fed is willing to pick up the pace on rate hikes if economic data shows it is needed. Add to that, SVB has collapsed due to the effects that these rate hikes have had on them as bank and their customers. Granted, there’s a lot to pick apart and criticize with that situation as safe and sound banking strategies are not wholly evident, however, it is yet to be seen if this situation will change the Fed’s approach at all.

Will they remain focused on inflation and protecting the value of the dollar despite the giant problem on the horizon that is the SVB collapse? We will have to wait and see till the next rate decision on 3/22/23.

Because of this, the CPI report on Tuesday and the employment reports that follow may be difficult for the market to wrap their heads around the meaning of those readings. Anticipate a lot of volatility as all eyes are on this situation and Fed.

I anticipate more red next week, mostly due to investors being jaded by SVB and the effects on the market, but also as a result of the CPI and PPI reports. Forecasts for both are expecting an improvement on the MoM and YoY readings. If these come in higher than expected, expect the negative reaction to be larger than normal.

That’s it for my recap! Go check out my portfolio update to see how I am navigating these markets while building dividend-based wealth.

And if you like updates like this, follow my Twitter or my CommonStock page where I post updates on the economic data throughout the week.

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 2/24/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $13,730 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $13,745.45. That’s a total gain of 0.11%. The account is down $306.24 for the week which is a 2.18% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -10.9% which puts us 11% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account this week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI this week decreased from $536 to $507, mostly on account of the $INTC dividend cut.

Dividends

This week I received $4.21 from two dividends ($SMHB and $SBUX).

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $68.68

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $479.08

Trades

This week was a slower week for my portfolio, starting with the weekly buys in $SCHD, $SPY, and $XYLG. After that, only buys we had were in Intel and New York Community Bank. $NYCB is a new position, primarily based off of a chart that appears to be reaching a technical bottom. It’s a solid regional bank stock with decent financials and a consistent dividend. Will look to add down into it in the $9.00 – $8.50 area for a potential bottom and bounce. This is not intended to be a long term hold. View the screenshot below for the chart.

I also reinvested the $SMHB dividend, the $SBUX dividend will be reinvested on Monday. Lastly, I took a loss on an AT&T $(T) covered call. I sold at the wrong time, at it moved against me. However, if I had held it would have expired worthless as intended. Lesson learned.

Below is a breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • February 21st, 2023
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $402.03 per share (weekly buy)
    • Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.15 per share (weekly buy)
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $75.83 per share (weekly buy)
    • ETRACS 2xMonthly Levered ($SMHB) – dividend reinvested
  • February 22nd, 2023
    • Intel ($INTC) – added 1 share at $26.41
    • AT&T ($T) – sold $19.5 2/24 covered call for $7
  • February 23rd, 2023
    • AT&T ($) – closed call position at $15 ($8 loss)
    • New York Community Bank ($NYCB) – added 5 shares at $8.99

Next week I will continue to add $10 into each ETF ($SPY, $XYLG, and $SCHD). I’m being less focused on preserving cash at this point. I think the early 2023 rally is going to be the last solid rally we see for a little while, so I am more than happy to begin deploying more cash now on the way down. Next week I’ll be watching $SHOO and $BAC for opportunities to buy before the coming ex-dividend date. I will also look to add more to $NYCB.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook is also posted and provides tons of information on what macro statistics I look to at to keep a temperature gauge on the market and inform my portfolio movements. Read that here!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 2/17/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $13,610 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $14,027.70. That’s a total gain of 3.07%. The account is up $13.41 for the week which is a 0.1% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -8.45% which puts us 11.5% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account this week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI this week decreased from $525 to $536.

Dividends

This week I received $8.74 from four dividends ($APD, $ALLY, $O, and $TXN).

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $64.47

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $474.87

Trades

This week was my heaviest week for buys in 2023 so far. The market ended this week red for the second time in a row for this year, so it was time to take advantage! We mostly bought down in $INTC and then added a tad to positions that are going ex-dividend soon ($MMM and $BAC). We also initiated a new position in $FIS.

Our weekly buys in $SCHD, $SPY, and $XYLG and reinvested all our dividends.

Below is a breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • February 13th, 2023
    • Air Product Chemicals ($APD) – $1.65 dividend reinvested
  • February 14th, 2023
    • Fidelity National ($FIS) – added 2 shares at $ $67.90
    • AT&T ($T) – sold $19.5 2/17 CC for a $6 premium
    • 3M ($MMM) – added 0.11 shares at $113.27
    • Bank of America ($BAC) – added 1 share at $35.63
    • Texas Instruments ($TXN) – $1.85 dividend reinvested
  • February 15th, 2023
    • Realty Income ($O) – $3.04 dividend reinvested
  • February 17th, 2023
    • AT&T ($T) – covered call closed at $2 ($4 profit)
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $405.12 per share (weekly buy)
    • Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.43 per share (weekly buy)
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $76.50 per share (weekly buy)
    • Intel ($INTC) – added 1 share at $27.65
    • Bank of America ($BAC) – added 1 share $34.98

Next week I will continue to add $10 into each ETF ($SPY, $XYLG, and $SCHD) and will continue to hold onto some cash if the market gets lower. I have started to slowly deploy that cash in case a bottom has already been hit, but only time will tell. I really want to deploy this cash position into $CMCSA, and $INTC to build 100 share positions in them for covered call activities. I will also be watching $T for opportunities to sell covered calls.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook for this wild week will be posted soon, so make sure to have the site bookmarked or subscribe via email on the homepage!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Stock Market

Dividend Portfolio: 2/10/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $13,490 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $13,852.71. That’s a total gain of 2.74%. The account is down $230.10 for the week which is a 1.63% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -8.19% which puts us 10.93% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account this week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI this week decreased from $518 to $525.

Dividends

This week I received no dividends, how sad!

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $55.72

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $466.12

Trades

This week was a week of buying down into some DCA worthy positions leading into coming ex-dividend dates. We added to $AY, $MMM, and $SHOO. $AY’s next dividend hasn’t been declared yet, but I am expecting it to hit in mid-March.

The $MMM add was in anticipation of the dividend hike that was expected to be announced that day. The hike was another token small hike in order to keep their streak alive, which was to be expected given the situation with their litigations. I’ll continue to add slowly to this one, the litigations will not put $MMM out of business by any means but is a significant headwind for them in coming years. Long-term, these litigations provide a great value opportunity to buy into a powerhouse of a company.

Then both $SHOO and $ATVI were DCA’s. $ATVI was down on regulatory news, but that does not change my thesis on the merger arbitrage play with expected completion in June. At almost 4% of my portfolio, this position probably won’t get much bigger than here.

We also completed our regular ETF buys on Wednesday.

Below is a breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • February 6th, 2023
    • Activision Blizzard ($ATVI) – added 1 share at $71.42
  • February 7th, 2023
    • 3M ($MMM) – added 0.25 shares at $115.28
  • February 8th, 2023
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $413.62 per share (weekly buy)
    • Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.73 per share (weekly buy)
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $77.11 per share (weekly buy)
    • Steven Madden ($SHOO) – added 1 share at $34.19
  • February 9th, 2023
    • Steven Madden ($SHOO) – added 1 share at $33.91
    • Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructures ($AY) – added 1 share at $26.45
  • February 10th, 2023
    • AT&T ($T) – Covered call expired worthless, 100% gain on the premium

Next week I will continue to add $10 into each ETF ($SPY, $XYLG, and $SCHD) and will continue to hold onto some cash if the market gets lower. I have started to slowly deploy that cash in case a bottom has already been hit, but only time will tell. I really want to deploy this cash position into $CMCSA, and $INTC to build 100 share positions in them for covered call activities. I will also be watching $T for opportunities to sell covered calls.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook for this wild week will be posted soon, so make sure to have the site bookmarked or subscribe via email on the homepage!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 2/3/23 Weekly Update

Welcome back to the weekly Dividend Dollars portfolio review! This portfolio update is brought to you by Sharesight, a portfolio tracking tool that I am happy to partner with. Their platform makes tracking trading and dividend history, understanding your performance, and saving time a breeze. I wrote a review of the product that you can read here if you’re interested in learning more! Click the link above or the picture below to get a special offer only for Dividend Dollar readers!

Here at Dividend Dollars, our investing approach is a dividend growth strategy with aspects of value investing and fundamental analysis. I am a young investor in my 20’s and by sticking to this strategy over the long term, the magical powers of compounding are on my side. This allows me to more easily build substantial positions in dividend paying stocks over time, which will one day help me reach the ultimate goal of being financially free through the sources of passive income they provide. You can read more about the strategy here. Let’s dive into the portfolio review!

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $13,370 into the account the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $14,048.98. That’s a total gain of 5.08%. The account is up $302.22 for the week which is a 2.20% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -7.16% which puts us 12.24% higher than the market! I love tracking my portfolio against a benchmark like the S&P. The above chart comes from Sharesight which makes portfolio and dividend management a breeze!

We added $120 in cash to the account this week, trades made will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week, the blue ones are positions that I reinvested dividends into, the yellow ones are positions that announced a dividend increase this week, and the red are positions that I trimmed. Our PADI this week decreased from $509 to $518.

Dividends

This week I received three dividends. $0.91 from $SPY, $3.98 from $XYLG, and $27.79 from $T!

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically.

Dividends received for 2023: $55.72

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $466.12

This week marks the end of our second January of dividend investing. Our dividend income this January was 26% greater than the income from January 2022! Great progress and looks like February is going beat that by a lot!

Trades

This was quite the volatile week with the FOMC meeting raising rates another 25 bps and the historically strong labor data. But it was volatile in the up direction, not the down, counter to my expectations!

The market rallied very strongly this week. I hate buying stocks when they’re up, so you’ll see that most of my activity this week was buying down into my worst performing stocks like $INTC and $AY. We sold a very conservative covered call on $T, reinvested dividends, and kicked off the weekly ETF buys on Friday.

Pretty standard week, with the exception of the new position we added on Thursday! All week I have been working on an analysis of the soft lines industry and finally posted that article last night. You can read that here. The thesis is that with normalizing inventory levels, falling shipping and material costs, and an improving macro backdrop, soft line retailers (specifically luxury good retailers) are in a great position to realize large margin recoveries and growing sales. For that reason, I started a position in Steven Madden $SHOO. However, the article does have a number of other picks for the industry as well, so please go read it and assess your options if you agree with the analysis!

Below is a breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • January 30th, 2023
    • Intel ($INTC) – added 2 shares at $27.86
  • January 31st, 2023
    • Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructures ($AY) – added 1 share at $26.85
    • S&P 500 ($SPY) – dividend reinvested
    • S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – dividend reinvested
  • February 1st, 2023
    • AT&T ($T) – sold covered call $21.5 2/10 for $2 premium
    • AT&T ($T) – dividend reinvested
  • February 2nd, 2023
    • Air Product Chemicals ($APD) – added 0.1 shares at $293.40
    • Steven Madden ($SHOO) – added 1 share at $37.83
  • February 3rd, 2023
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) – added $10 at $413.79 per share (weekly buy)
    • Global X S&P 500 Covered Call & Growth ETF ($XYLG) – added $10 at $26.69 per share (weekly buy)
    • Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ($SCHD) – added $10 at $77.38 per share (weekly buy)

Next week I will continue to add $10 into each ETF ($SPY, $XYLG, and $SCHD) and will continue to hold onto some cash if the market gets lower. I have started to slowly deploy that cash in case a bottom has already been hit, but only time will tell. I really want to deploy this cash position into $CMCSA, and $INTC to build 100 share positions in them for covered call activities. I will also be watching $T for opportunities to sell covered calls.

Summary

That is it for the update this week. The market recap and outlook for this wild week will be posted soon, so make sure to have the site bookmarked or subscribe via email on the homepage!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on Twitter and CommonStock and other socials using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Regards,

Dividend Dollars