September 2010 Trading

September was a drastic improvement over recent months.  Although realized gain was not anything epic, we've managed to eliminate almost all the unrealized gains and most stocks are in the black for a nice change of pace.  

There were two sales this month.  One sale for both the first and last days of the month:

• Sempra Energy - I closed out this position for a 10.7% gain.
• TOTAL S.A. (ADR) - I sold out my full position in this stock for the second month in a row.  The return this month was only 9.5% and the position was half the size of the previous month, but the holding period was only half the size also. 

Current holdings and unrealized gains/losses are as follows. Note that I also included the gain/loss from recent months to demonstrate trends. Things have taken a drastically positive move in the last month.

• Exxon Mobil Corporation - Down 7.6% (-11.6% in Aug, -10.7 in July and -14.7 in June)
• Exelon Corporation - Down 5.4% (-9.6% in Aug, -7.1 in July and -15.7 in June)
• FirstEnergy Corp. - Up 1.8% (-3.5% in Aug, -0.4 in July and -6.9 in June)
• TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. - Down 12.1% (-30.7% in Aug, -26.4 in July and -31.5 in June)
• Harsco Corporation - Up 5.7% (-14.3% in Aug, -10.0 in July and -8.7 in June)
• Universal Corporation - Up 9.7% (-2.4% in Aug)
• The Buckle, Inc. - Up 1.0% (-9.2% in Aug)
• EnCana Corporation (USA) - Up 9.4% (-0.6% in Aug)
• Lockheed Martin Corporation - Up 2.0% (-1.3% in Aug)
• Nokia Corporation (ADR) - Up 6.6% (-9.0% in Aug, +1.1 in July and -13.4 in June)
• National Grid plc (ADR) - Down 4.2% (-5.5% in Aug, -9.0 in July and -17.4 in June)

Good month for Dividends:  

• FirstEnergy Corp
• Exxon Mobil Corporation
• Exelon Corporation
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• EnCana Corporation (USA)

August 2010 Trading

Another month, another 31 days of disappointment. Actually it wasn’t that bad. The market was slow, but I still managed to receive positive realized income. In fact, I had 0.90% return on total cash available. That‘s 11% annually, which is not too bad. But there are lots of unrealized losses to go with it, so this must also be considered.

Only one sale again this month:

• TOTAL S.A. (ADR) - I closed out this position with a 10% gain, then bought back in later in the month.

Current holdings and unrealized gains/losses are as follows. Note that I also included the gain/loss from June, July and August to demonstrate trends. Those trends were not always positive.  The numbers represent cumulative movement since buy in, not monthly movement.

• Exxon Mobil Corporation - Down 11.6% (-10.7 in July and -14.7 in June)
• Exelon Corporation - Down 9.6% (-7.1 in July and -15.7 in June)
• FirstEnergy Corp. - Down 3.5% (-0.4 in July and -6.9 in June)
• TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. - Down 30.7% (-26.4 in July and -31.5 in June)
• Sempra Energy - Up 8.2% (+5.7 in July and -0.6 in June)
• Harsco Corporation - Down 14.3% (-10.0 in July and -8.7 in June)
• Universal Corporation - Down 2.4% - New acquisition in August
• The Buckle, Inc. - Down 9.2% - New acquisition in August
• EnCana Corporation (USA) -Down 0.6% - New acquisition in August
• Lockheed Martin Corporation - Down 1.3% - New acquisition in August
• Nokia Corporation (ADR) -Down 9.0% (+1.1 in July and -13.4 in June)
• National Grid plc (ADR) - Down 5.5% (-9.0 in July and -17.4 in June)
• TOTAL S.A. (ADR) -Down 2.6% - New re-acquisition in August

Dividends were collected on the following:

• Harsco Corporation
• National Grid plc (ADR)

The following stocks wend ex-div in Aug with payments expected in September:

• FirstEnergy Corp
• Exxon Mobil Corporation
• Exelon Corporation
• Lockheed Martin Corporation  

July 2010 Trading

July was yet another slow month. Good upward movement until the last few days of the month, but gave back a lot at the end. Good progress was made, but still very little turnover.

Only one sale:

• Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo - I was happy to close out this position. Although I received my desired gains, this always seemed a bit riskier than my usual holding

My current holdings and unrealized gains/losses are as follows. Note that I also included the gain/loss from both June and July to demonstrate the generally positive progress over the last month.

• Exxon Mobil - Down 10.7% (June 30: Down 14.7%) - Ex-Div in Aug, Div in Sept
• Exelon Corp - Down 7.1% (June 30: Down 15.7%) - Ex-Div in Aug, Div in Sept
• FirstEnergy Corp - Down 0.4% (June 30: Down 6.9%) - Ex-Div in Aug, Div in Sept
• Telecommunications Systems - Down 26.4% (June 30: Down 31.5%) - July was looking like a very good month for TCS until they took a big hit after a disappointing earnings announcement this week.
• National Grid PLC - Down 9.0% (June 30: Down 17.4%) - Ex-Div in July, Div in Aug
• Total SA - Up 6.4% (June 30: Down 6.2%)
• Sempra Energy - Up 5.7% (June 30: Down 0.6%)
• Harsco Corp - Down 10.0% (June 30: Down 8.7%) - Also a victim of bad news, the only holding to move downward over the last month. Ex-Div in July, Div in Aug
• Nokia - Up 1.1% (June 30: Down 13.4%)

Dividends were collected on the following:

• Sempra Energy

June 2010 Trading

It's all about the dividends in June. The market stayed depressed and I only made one sale, but collected significant dividends to the point that the turnover yield is artificially inflated to over 30%. But this is tempered by an good yield on available funds of 1.55% (a respectable 18% when annualized) and the good new is totally overwhelmed by the large unrealized losses.

But I maintain my hold and collect strategy and am looking forward to two maturing CDs.  I plan to use these to buy in further if the market remains depressed.

My only sale was:

• Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo - Only half of my holdings, kinda wishing I sold 100%.

My current holdings and unrealized gains/losses are as follows:

• Exxon Mobil - Down 14.7%
• Exelon Corp - Down 15.7%
• FirstEnergy Corp - Down 6.9%
• Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo - Up 3.6%
• Telecommunications Systems - Down 31.5%
• National Grid PLC - Down 17.4%
• Total SA - Down 6.2%
• Sempra Energy - Down 0.6%
• Harsco Corp - Down 8.7%
• Nokia - Down 13.4%

Dividends were collected on the following:

• FirstEnergy Corp
• Exxon Mobil
• Exelon Corp
• Total SA
• National Grid PLC - Not a dividend, but a Rights sale in excess of 10% of the purchase price of the stock. This certainly helps offset some unrealized losses.

Tracking CD Ladders

I was quite pleased that that one of my recent comments on Bargaineering.com was the impetus for a post.  It was a real revelation to me that Jim would say "everyone implies that your CD ladder is held at a single institution."  I've always thought quite that opposite that no one holds their CD ladder at a single institution, especially in the electronic age. 

Regardless of the assumption, my personal need to track my CD ladder across multiple banks has led me to develop a tool for keeping up with this.  I use it for tracking maturities, yields, beneficiaries and potential exceptions to FDIC insurance limitations (I wish this was a bigger problem for me!).

Given this, I maintain a tracking spreadsheet in google docs.  In addition to tracking the particulars of each CD, it also provides a visual representation of the CD ladder that makes the concept a bit easier to follow.

This tool has evolved over the years, It originated as a Lotus123 spreadsheet and later evolved to Excel and eventually google docs.  It also grew from simply tracking my CD ladder to covering each of the components of my overall financial strategy.

I use google docs to maintain this spreadsheet and my stock trading spreadsheet.  These have become two foundational components of my financial monitoring.  Needless to say, since these are on a public server, I don't keep any specific information like account numbers or login info in these docs.