February 2010 Trading

Another slow month for realized gains.  I only sold one holding for minimal gain, but I was able to invest 100% of my funds as the market stayed depressed.  If not for an injection of new funds from a transferred IRA, I would be 100% invested right now. 

 As indicated, I had my second slowest month ever for realized gains and I only earned 7.3% on those.  I'm also marginally in the red for unrealized gains related to the current holdings.  But I went ex-div on 5 of 6 holdings, so March will be my biggest dividend month to date.

I sold the following:

• Owens and Minor, Inc - This is the second time I've cycled through this stock. 

I currently hold the following: 

• Lockheed Martin Corp - Up 6.3% - I've now held some of these shares for 6 months and will be collecting the 2nd round of dividends on them.  I'm tempted to cash in because the gains are reasonable, but I still like the topside on this.
• Exxon Mobil - Down 2.8% - I've been in the black on XOM several times since I've held this, but the gains have always been modest.
• FPL Group - Down 4.9% - This has been depressed since news of their rate case going south.  But it's still a sound company, so I hope to see a bounce back in time.
• Exelon Corp - Down 3.8% - Another depressed utility holding company with sound numbers, but I might bail out with modest gains.
• Marathon Oil Corp - Up 3.6% - Small holding bought at a nice discount.
• FirstEnergy Corp - Down 0.3% - Another small holding purchased at an attractive price, but it's had some bad news lately keeping the price down.

No dividends were collected this month, but I'll be collecting dividends for all stocks except FirstEnergy in March.  March income is already assured to be 250% of the paltry take for February.  With a few sales, it could very easily be a big month.  We'll see what the market has to offer!