I've been an Advanced Open Water diver since 1989.... I quit taking pics long ago. Well.... That and there's nothing exciting about pics of a beached whale.:rofl:

Well, this was a good surprise in my otherwise poor portfolio.

http://www.imassera.com/whole-foods-...idend/2419145/

Nothing but a sea of red in my portfolio. Couple more days til I make my new purchases though. I'm hoping the clearance sales will still be going then. That's what all that red means, right :lol:

Yes! End of year profit taking - the whole fiscal cliff debacle - and blah blah blah.... the world is not coming to an end. Buy LIGHTLY... the old scale in... 'cause it can always go lower... but LONG TERM things will prove to all that the world is fine. Especially when you get that dividend along the way!

Well, my 2013 ROTH contribution is in my checking account. As soon as the new year starts and I finalize my selections, I'm going to buy my next round of stocks.

This is what I have and the sectors they are in
OXY (energy)
KO (Consumer beverage)
SO (Utilities- electric)
KMP (Utilities- natural gas)
WFM (Retail- specialty)

These are the new ones I am considering and their sectors
MCD (service- restaurants)
MO (Consumer- Tabacco)
CLX (Consumer- Household)
JNJ (Healthcare)
COST (Retail- specialty)

Since it's a ROTH, I have $5000 I can spend. I'm thinking I should go with five different stocks instead of four. That should diversify my portfolio more hopefully. I'm wondering though, if I add these five stocks listed, will I not be as diversified as I think? I would end up with three Consumer stocks and two retail. I think I will be fine because the three consumer stocks are in three entirely different sub-sectors. The two retails are both listed as specialty but have very different client bases and different products. Is this still ok or are they more closely linked than I think because of their major sector? Anyone have a sector suggestion for me to look into? I'm just looking at names I know and use so I'm limited in my thoughts.

Why these selections:

MCD because of the dividend and the fact that it's McDonalds. It's the same as KO for me.

MO because as Greg has mentioned and I've read elsewhere, MO itself is diversified. I was also looking at PM but they only have cigarettes as their product. MO makes its money elsewhere mainly. The other thing is MO costs less than half of what PM does. MO's dividend is slightly more than half of PM's. So given the same dollar value to spend, I'll own more than double the number of shares as I would with PM. When the dividend pays, it'll pay out more dollar wise than the PM will. I then in turn will buy more shares of MO with the slightly higher dividend payment as well.

CLX has the better dividend than CL or PG. I also like their past long term performance better. Hopefully, it's an good indication of the future too.

JNJ is the same as CLX. Just looking at steady stocks that pay good dividends and are solid companies.

COST is like WFM for me. I like the way they operate their business. Their attitude towards their employees and customers is what I like. I think more companies should follow their lead so I support them. For those that don't know, their cashiers earn enough to live on and are often there for a long time. They only have a 15% markup on anything they sale according to Clarke Howard. They also require their executives to go into the stores occasionally. Sure, that's more symbolic than anything but I think it matters. If you shop there, don't be surprised one day to learn that the person who greeted you or walked up to you and asked you some questions was a higher level executive and not just the store manager.

So those are my possible selections. I'm just trying to maintain my money and make it work for me with dividends. Anyone have any comments or suggestions for me. I'm always willing to listen.

Thanks

Trey -- That's a great looking portfolio and will serve you very well.

You're right -- buy 1K each of those names

Next year you can just add to each holding $500 each - 'cause I think you'll have 10 names total with this years buy.

Then you can start 2014 looking to add 5 new names - and so on - adding to positions and working your way to a total of about 20 names. Then you can feed them as you want to.

You'll retire to a nice life of leisure!


:cheers: :woot:

Thanks, Greg. That's basically my plan. Slowly spread it out and build it up. I still have half of my ROTH in Vanguard's mutual fund and there's also my 401k with Fidelity. I guess I'm still not certain enough of myself to not have a portion of my funds in "professional hands". I need to check on the 401k but I've been pleased with the Vanguard fund so far this year. It paid me a descent dividend and has been weathering the recent turmoil well. We will see in a few years how it compares to my more diversified stock selections.

Not sure how long this will last but go to google.com/finance and type in sell. Press enter and laugh. :thumbsup:

Remember during this whole ridiculous "fiscal cliff" etc -- to go back and check out the longer term charts of the shares you own... it's somewhat soothing to see that line headed higher in the long term picture.

All the smoke and spillage in between is just a buying opportunity.:unibrow:

Speculating
 

A stock I've been picking away at is American International Group (AIG) the big insurance conglomerate that got a bailout from "us". The treasury sold it's stake (and made a few billion in profit) so is finally out of the picture. This stock was a wildly profitable dividend payer until it got too big for it's britches and got into trouble. Hopefully the management learned their lesson!

I'm not pitching it -- just discussing for investing 102 -- as this is the kind of HISTORY that I look for. It USE to be a good dividend payer. That was all suspended during the debacle it got itself into. And what I'm hoping for is that the GROWTH returns -- and they go back to dividend payments. If so - buying in "early" will get me a nice total return.

I'm not putting much into it because buying this kind of stuff is speculative, i.e., gambling. But it's a good educated guess over an IPO. I have history to go off.

In '08 this was a $1200+ stock paying a $4 per quarter dividend.... of course it's an entirely different company now. But I'd love to catch a double or maybe even a triple from here.

Hopefully you haven't blown the Apple (AAPL) out yet -- 'cause just look at the nice move it's had today... Thus -- I'd continue to hold. After today - nobody will be selling in order to lock in the huge gains at LTCG's tax rate.

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...os/file-10.jpg





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...tos/file-9.jpg





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...os/file-11.jpg

That manta ray is cool!

Thanks GW!

1:15 and 40* here and the Real Feel is chill ya to the bone. :mad:

Well -- those pics are really from a dive in 2008.... but I was feeling under pressure to produce.


Here! Does this help? I always am trying to be helpful.....:woot:






http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...os/file-13.jpg

Back to Investing 102 ---- today's action is why it's so hard to be OUT of the market waiting for something to happen. This is why I park cash in an investable spot rather than just sitting on cash.

I consider parking cash in ETF's such as JNK - HYG - NLY... where you get a pretty dang good dividend -- the share prices are "relatively" stable. I currently have quite a bit parked in JNK and NLY... and while NLY has been drifting lower (it's very interest rate sensitive).. overall when I see the dividends I've collected and the increase made on JNK has offset the loss I have in NLY... and overall that's the objective. I look at my account as a whole not as individual performance... and you MUST included the dividends in the calculations.

So just to show what I'm talking about....


I currently show (can't say HAVE because I haven't sold so just have a paper loss) a loss in NLY of $16,500 but consider the dividends -- I don't really have a loss.

I currently show a gain (again just paper gain) on JNK of $39,800

Just the gain in JNK cancels out the loss in NLY -- but lets consider the dividends collected:


10/29/2012 NLY ANNALY CAPITAL MGMT REIT
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$17,500.00
07/26/2012 NLY ANNALY CAPITAL MGMT REIT
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$19,250.00
04/26/2012 NLY ANNALY CAPITAL MGMT REIT
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$13,750.00
01/26/2012 NLY ANNALY CAPITAL MGMT REIT
type: CASH DIV
$14,250.00


and JNK


12/11/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS ETF HIGH YIELD VERY LIQUID
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$13,354.56
09/12/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$6,682.32
08/09/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$2,296.25
07/11/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$2,356.51
06/11/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$2,368.39
05/09/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: ORD DIV - CASH
$2,462.88
01/06/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: LT CAP GAIN
$1,320.39
01/06/2012 JNK SPDR BARCLAYS CAPITAL HIGH YIELD BOND ETF
type: CASH DIV
$1,093.49



Notice that as the "fiscal cliff" talks seemed to be falling on deaf ears - I increased my JNK holdings significantly... because I had cash on hand - took some year end LONG TERM capital gains (locking in the 15% rate)... so all in all these are making me money SO FAR. That can change in a heartbeat - but for now the strategy is working. IF -- BIG IF -- these clowns can get their act together -- I'll scale out of these and work towards normal company specific positions.

I just read a few articles on "Rules for investing" this one was pretty interesting... http://www.thestreet.com/static/25-rules.html

Thought it might be a good direction considering the new year.. what are the "LatG investing 102 thread" rules for investing...

I like the Homework one Cramer mentioned..

Mostly for you Greg since you know NLY pretty good. I've been away for a while but going to re-do my whole stake along the lines of what's discussed here. I was just poking around today and found this:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1067...ce=marketwatch

I'm wondering if you know anything about this company or have any comments on this article?

I read the SeekingAlpha article and the writer makes many compelling points about EFC. I just trade NLY because it's a good name that I know and I can trust it. I park pretty large sums in some of this stuff -- and I have to be able to sleep well at night. Thus my "Buy names you know and trust" which I try to hammer home every chance I get.

There are ALWAYS better names -- or better peer performance. But can you sleep with them? What costs people money is that they panic at the first downturn or hiccup - and this panic is exaggerated when they put money into something they don't know anything about.

There is NOTHING wrong with learning about any or all of these company's and if you (you being the larger - any of you) feel this is a place you want to put money and like all the metrics etc over some other investment... then that's the best you can do. It's the best ANY of us can do. Many times - while researching a new name - you find out things about the company you might already be in! They'll all compare "their" company against the peer names. Sometimes you learn good stuff - sometimes you start to question the name you're in and go back and dig deeper... and I'm 200% for this type of self education! That is what we all should be doing and need to continue to do. Jim Cramer calls it HOMEWORK.

My son looked over my shoulder just a minute ago and said "dude - you've been doing that all day". True enough.... I'm always looking at this stuff - comparing - charting... reading. I love it as much as I do car stuff. My response to him was "yep - that's why I'm good at it". :D

By the way -- I'd have made more money using EFC than I have in NLY over the last 6 months or so!

Thanks for bringing up this name --- I'll do more poking around and put it on my "key an eye on it" list!

It will be very interesting to see the market reaction to the proposed (since the House hasn't voted yet) changes to the tax laws.

Dividend tax rates increase from 15% (far too low IMHO) to 20%... which is still too low.

We can argue on and on -- but it's this guys opinion that the tax rates are too low on top earners -- BUT -- BIG BUTT -- what top earners really understand and would like to see change is the WASTE that government does with the money they already were getting. That's a different discussion and let's not get into it.

My guess is if you're not in the market on Wednesday morning --- you're going to miss a very nice move UP. But that's just my guess. I'm thinking there's lots of money sitting on the sidelines avoiding a possible disastrous raise in the dividend tax rate... and since that appears to be set - that sidelined money should come pouring back into equities. I know that's what I intend to do. I'll scale back in but... I'll still be a net buyer. Around 40% of the one Schwab account I use for discussions here - is in "parked" cash. :thumbsup:

Im just happy they voted to not double to price of milk!

Score!!!!!!!!!!!

You can contribute $5500 per year to a Roth IRA now. That was a pleasant surprise. So my max has been reached for this year already. Next week I should be able to purchase the stocks. I just hope they wait til I'm on board before they take off like a rocket ship. Hey, I can engage wishful thinking, right? :D

I just received this letter from Fidelity:

12/31/12 14:07:16
CATERPILLAR INC. IS OFFERING TO PURCHASE ALL SHARES OF ITS COMMON STOCK FROM SHAREHOLDERS OWNING LESS THAN 100 SHARES (99 SHARES OR LESS) AS OF RECORD DATE NOVEMBER 26, 2012. SHAREHOLDERS WILL RECEIVE THE WEIGHTED AVERAGE MARKET PRICE PER SHARE TENDERED, THE DAY THE SHARES ARE SOLD BY THE AGENT. A PROCESSING FEE OF $2.00 PER SHARE UP TO A MAXIMUM OF $50.00 PER ACCOUNT WILL BE DEDUCTED TO DEFRAY THE COST OF THE PROGRAM.

HOLDERS ALSO HAVE THE OPTION OF ROUNDING UP THEIR HOLDINGS TO EXACTLY 100 SHARES. HOLDERS ELECTING THE ROUND-UP OPTION WILL BE CHARGED THE ESTIMATED PURCHASE PRICE OF $95.00 PER SHARE PURCHASED. A PROCESSING FEEOF $2.00 PER SHARE PURCHASED (UP TO A MAXIMUM OF $50.00 PER ACCOUNT) WILL BE DEDUCTED TO DEFRAY THE COST OF THE PROGRAM.

I'm wondering, if I don't want to sell but I can't afford to round up to 100 shares does this matter? I thought I'd ask here before I call them in the morning.

Waking up to a nice jump in the market, today is starting to look like a good day.

I can't find any news on CAT taking an action like this... And I would NEVER respond to an email sent from any financial institution. Only way I respond to a financial institution to to use my OWN links (not those in an email) and or call them using the phone numbers I have (not those in an email).

I also have no idea what - if anything - you should do - since I don't understand the "offering".

From time to time I'll have a "Call" on some senior subordinated notes etc get called away - meaning that the company has the right to pay them back early at a pre agreed price. This just happened to symbol GE-A... General Electric 6.5% notes... they did a partial call. But I've not ever had a situation where they were just taking me out of a STOCK.

Cat
 

Jose,



My guess is - there's too much bookkeeping and they (CAT) just want to take out small batch holders so they don't have to cut dividend checks and mail notices out etc.

I don't see this "program" as being legit. Not only is this weird, the $2.00 per share ($50 per account) processing fee seems to make this a pretty raw deal. Why would you go through their "program" rather than just selling in the market and paying a normal trade commission? With most discount brokerage firms this would be less than $10 total? From what I read above, it's not like they're going to pay you a premium to the fair market value, so why use the "program"...

TOTALY AGREE with this!


The whole thing sounds fishy to me.

Jose,


Hope you held that APPLE stock?????


:D

This was an email from Fidelity that required me to log into my account in a seperate action. Not through a link provided with the email. I checked my Schwab account, also containg shares of CAT (don't ask, rookie mistake) and saw no mention of this. I hope I don't have to give up my shares just because they decide to squeeze out the little guy.

You boneheads ought to be happy with yourselves today! :faint: :cheers: :thumbsup:

Certainly could have been worse. :D

Big picture........just another hump in the long-term chart. :yes:

It was a good day today. some of my positions did real good.
PSX +4%
KMP +4.75%
MO + 3.5%
PM +3.71%
T +3.8%
KO +3.72%

I was ready for anything today....But man, my Dog and Pony are tired after the show....

That is exactly right! And tomorrow - half the hump - could get shaved a bit. It's called PROFIT taking. Best left to traders...

It's still more fun to ride the day this way than a fall off a cliff... :unibrow:

I had one "red" position (KMP) go positive and another red position (NLY) get almost to the green. Ya gotta love that!

3 and 4% moves in one day are the kind of days you have to have... that's one of those two steps forward kinda days. On average the "market" moves about 10 or 11% in a YEAR! So that 3 and 4% on one day is huge. :woot:

Mike --- I'd love to FIRE the entire team that drug your dog and pony around... but we know that ain't gonna happen. These bozos in Washington DC are the most frustrating bunch of clowns I've ever seen my my short lifetime. I truly hate every single one of them! Both sides of the aisle!:willy:

Animal abuse is what I call it....I almost called the Humane Society..:rofl:


They screw it up and then save the day....At the last dramatic second..:willy:

I was a Ron Paul guy, but even the GOP knew he would come in and clean house, so they kicked sand in his face....Too bad for us...

Yes, I am in for the long haul...No short term Trading... I look at the good days and just let the bad days ride...A crappy deal, but a deal ...

The Dog and Pony are resting now....The thing that I know is that they will all go to a 5 star restaurant on our dime and joke about it....Both parties together off Camera....Laughing at us:mad:

Man.. what a day yesterday huh!?

Still waiting for my ABT split to take affect. I dont show the ABBV stock in my account to make up for the ABT stock splitting in half. So I show a big loss (relative to me, lol).

Hopefully in a day or two it shows up. :_paranoid

You not only got a split -- they raised the dividend 6%.... what's not to like about that. I see they also received approval for the split off (AbbVie) to join the S&P 100 and 500 indexes. Usually that means that Mutual Funds and ETFs that mimic, or trade in, those indexes will buy those shares. That should be viewed as a positive.