It's been a while, but finally a good month! Good realized gain, good dividends, decent turnover and I'm still invested at about 70% in some good positions with decent upsides (although I have a small unrealized loss at this writing). I earned 12.5% on the turned-over funds and 3.64% on all available funds. I'd characterize this as my third best month to date.
I sold the following:
- Lockheed Martin Corp - I held some of these shares over 6 months, but this was by far the biggest contributor to realized gain for the month.
- Marathon Oil Corp - Small holding, but turned over fairly quickly at a nice gain.
I currently hold the following:
- Exxon Mobil - Up 0.2% - Up and down, but no serious opportunities to sell yet.
- FPL Group - Down 0.9% - Still in negative territory, but way up from recent lows and moving in the right direction.
- Exelon Corp - Down 2.7% - I don't think this was in the black all month, but up from lows as well
- FirstEnergy Corp - Up 0.9% - Small holding.
- National Grid PLC - Up 3.6% - Small holding bought at an attractive price. Div paid semi-annually, so this represents a deviation from typical purchase. But goes ex-div in about 3 months.
- Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. - Up 0.6% - Another small holding at a good price. I've held this in the past too.
I collected dividends on the following:
- Marathon Oil Corp
- Exxon Mobil
- Exelon Corp
- Lockheed Martin Corp
March is starting out like a lion. I was able to sell my LMT position after the stock going ex-div and all holdings are up from their February positions. I already have my best realized gains since July and another stock (MRO) is approaching the sell price. So there is a chance of the best month to date if trends continue.
Further good news is that many of the realized gains from the LMT sales are associated with our Roth IRAs. And these gains are not subject to tax, ever. So maximizing gains in these accounts is a very good thing. If fact, these accounts are up 39% and 53% since May '09. These are higher than the gains in the other accounts, but that was the plan. What makes these gains even more surprising to me is the fact that the LMT holdings took 6 months to turn over and I've only been using this strategy for 10 months..
And if things turn south again, I'm now only 68% invested, so their are funds available for reinvestment. I'd like to clear the books a bit more before buying back in, but you take what the market offers.
