December 2009 Trading

December represented a significant improvement over the last few months. It was the third highest month yet for realized gains (best since July) and percentage yield (10.45%, just one basis point behind the second highest month).

I sold the following:

• FPL Group, Inc
• Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc
• Exelon Corp
• Owens and Minor, Inc.

At the end of the month, I'm still about 30% invested, which is pretty good considering that I rolled a rather large CD into my investable funds. So there's still a lot of upside with these existing holdings. I'm currently invested in the following:

• Lockheed Martin Corp - Up 3.0% - I've now held some of these shares for almost 5 months.
• Nokia - Down 2.0% - small holding, but I've not been inclined to double-up because of the beating that it's been taking from Apple and RIM.
• Buckle, Inc - Up 9.3% - Almost met my sell price a few times. Hopefully this will go over the top in the next few days. And if not, it goes ex-div in mid-January.
• Exxon Mobil Corp - No gain - Been up and down, ex-div in mid-February.

This is the largest dividend collection month to date with about 1/6th of the realized gain coming from dividends! I collected dividends on the following:

• Exelon Corp
• FPL Group, Inc
• Owens and Minor, Inc.
• Lockheed Martin Corp
  

Back On Track!

Whew, I was a bit worried after such a slow month in November, but I've sold stock on each of the first three days of December plus made a new purchase today. December already promises to be the best month for realized gains since July and the yield is running about 10%. I'm still holding about 40% of available cash in stocks, so there's plenty of upside from here too.