I'm Back! 4.5 Years Later!

Now if only I could be as cool as The Terminator! 

All joking aside, it has been about 4 years since my last post on DividendPartisan.  I left without warning, I left without saying goodbye, I lost my domain name, and I really lost track of my dividend strategy with my forays into day trading and options trading.  So, and this is long, long overdue, but to my readers out there, I am sorry.  

With this post I wanted to let you know what has happened in my life over these past four years and to also let you know I have a new blog.  Yes, that is right. I am blogging again, and I intend to bring you great content, consistently, for years, and yes my passion for dividends is still extremely strong.  Though I also have added other 'passive income' ideas to my new site now.

One of the reasons why I stopped blogging in the first place was because everyone in 'my circle' - my family, my friends, and some of my co-workers even knew who I was as DividendPartisan.  This was awesome, but also challenging.  And as a result, it made it harder for me to be transparent with my readers.  I didn't particularly like sharing the more personal items about my finances and my dividend income on the internet, when I knew I had family and friends reading, which I think can make things uncomfortable for both sides.

As a result, I do not intend to promote my new blog at all to my family and friends.  This will let me be completely TRANSPARENTLY ANONYMOUS...as I like to call it.   I will be transparent, but anonymous. A beautiful harmony in one's journey to financial independence while maintaining humility and not creating drama.  Just a sharing of my story, transparent and anonymous. 

I'll share a quick example - one of the things that made www.dividendmantra.com so great was that he was completely open about his journey towards financial independence (and I'm very sorry to see him change this strategy, and I've kind of stopped following as a result).  But he used to share his income, his expenses, his challenges, and it was personal.  His readers loved it. I loved it.  And I want to be able to do the same with my new readers at my new blog.

So if you are interested to know about my new blog, and pick up with me again, I encourage you to email me at dividendpartisan@gmail.com.  I will let you know the new site address and share all of my new and consistent, great content there. Together we'll pursue financial independence and great investment decisions along the way.

Finally, without further ado, here are some highlights from my life over these last 4.5 years. A lot has happened:

1) I've moved three times, and purchased 3 homes!  I am now fully in the rental property real estate game.  Here is a picture of one of the homes:

I talk a lot about these purchases, and their cash flow, on my new site.  Real Estate is an incredible passive income investment!

2) I deployed to Afghanistan and fought again against terrorism, though this time was mostly about supporting our departure from the area.  Always remember those serving our country though (both in the military and the police, etc!).  Here is where I served this time:

3) God has blessed my wife and I with two wonderful kids.  Here is a picture of one:

My second baby boy was born at over 10 pounds! A tank of baby!

4) I attended Duke University to get my MBA.  Fuqua is an incredible business school.  Go Duke!

And for all of my UNC readers out there (sorry!)...2015 National champs!:

I think those are the major highlights for now.  I hope you all reach out to me at dividendpartisan@gmail.com if you are interested in getting my new website address.   Please do and I will be sure to email you the address!

Take care, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you at my new site,

Dividend Partisan

Monthly Progress Review: February

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review.  This article will highlight the twelve trades I made in the month of February, as well as the profit (or loss) I received for each trade.  This month I also added to one of my long term dividend holdings because I felt the entry price was right. Hopefully that particular trade encourages some of my devout dividend investor readers.

In other news, my technical analysis has continued to improve, and as a result it has allowed me to be somewhat more aggressive in my active trading.  These 'chart based' trades as I'll call them, have been more profitable than some of my other methods.  Furthermore, (and this is the most exciting improvement for this month I believe) is that I have begun shorting. Overall, another extremely active month for me in terms of buying and selling.  I was proud of several of my trades, and especially disappointed in some of my others. I guess that's the way it goes.

Nonetheless, listed below is a summary of the dividends I received for the month of February in my Dividend Income Portfolio, as well as the profit or loss from my day trading activities:

Recent Trade...

Good afternoon all,

Rarely do I highlight individual trades 'mid month'; typically I wait until the end of the month and roll them all up in my Monthly Progress Reviews.  But, I haven't written in awhile and thought I would provide a quick update to my last trade. 

This month I have already made 10 trades, but my last trade in particular was the 'riskiest' and most complicated trade I personally have ever done.  Many pros will laugh at its simplicity, but for me as a novice retail investor, I thought it would be worth mentioning and possibly soliticing some feedback from some of my readers.  All of that said, here are the details of my most recent trade:

Today I bought 200 shares of Proshares Ultrashort QQQ ETF (ticker QID).  From Morningstar, 

ProShares UltraShort QQQ could be suitable as a specialty satellite holding either for high-frequency traders who understand how this exchange-traded fund works and who have a very high risk tolerance, or for investors who hold a bearish conviction toward large-cap growth stocks, most of which are tech companies. This ETF also might be a fit for investors who prefer avoiding the unlimited loss potential in short-selling individual stocks, those taking a speculative position, or those seeking a near-term hedge.

I then immediately sold a covered call of 2 contracts on QID as well, making a premium of right at about $225.

I think the Nasdaq is completely too high right now, and I am expecting a pull back in the near term.  Things in Greece are completely affecting the markets right now so we'll see what happens.   

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

DividendPartisan

Update to 10th Trade

Good afternoon,

I wanted to provide a quick update to my 10th trade now that I have officially exited.  For those who read my last post, you saw that I was 'stuck' for about two weeks due to a bad move on my part.  Here are the details and outcome of that particular trade: 

The stock I chose was JetBlue (JBLU).  JetBlue is a great company, but I have quickly learned that airline stocks are risky, to say the least. I'll just leave it at that for now. 

Anyway, here are the details of the trade - I had been watching JBLU fall for several days in a row and I was hoping the following would occur: the stock would level out, the price would slightly rise as buyers took over, and I could scalp about $100 gain, and then get out.  Unfortunately this trade was somewhat undisciplined and I entered too high.  In fact, I should have never entered period.  As my skills in technical analysis improve, it is clear that I was entering at too high of a price.

Nonetheless, I was stuck holding JetBlue since the middle of January (at a relatively high purchase price) unable to exit due to its ~4% drop or so in price.  Unwilling to take a loss, I had to wait it out and hope for a rebound.  To complicate things further, I was extremely nervous to hold over its upcoming earnings.  The stock had recently been downgraded, and as earnings approached the price continued a slow decline.  In fact there was one point where I was down around $4000.  Fortunately, I kept my emotions in check, the stock rebounded, and I was able to exit prior to JetBlue's earnings call.  (Now, for those who follow JetBlue, or read stock headlines in general, you'll notice that JetBlue actually beat earnings and the stock rose another 2% or so). 

That's ok by me.  For my particular situation, I was happy to exit prior to earnings, and I even made $99.21 on the trade.  Hallelujah.  

Now, my profits for January total at $1,297.93.  Think how large of a portfolio I would need to earn that amount in dividends.

In other news/analysis, I am expecting a large market pullback in the near future.  With my limited technical analysis abilities, it appears that almost every major company is over-bought and volume is low.  We'll see what happens.

Take care,

DivPartisan

Monthly Progress Review: January

It is time again for my Monthly Progress Review...the first monthly progress review of 2012!

This was another huge month for me in terms of buying and selling.  My day trading plan is in full effect; however, I continue to earn dividends from my 5 core dividend growth holdings, such as Realty Income (O).

In the month of January, I made 10 stock trades.  In this article I will highlight the details of each trade - showing you exactly which companies I bought and sold, AND their corresponding profit or loss.  Overall, a very exciting month to begin the year.

Without further adieu, listed below is a summary of the dividends I received in my Dividend Income Portfolio and the profit (or loss) from my day trading activities for the month of January:

Dividend Investing Vs Day Trading...

Hello all,

As many have seen, recently I drastically altered my investment strategy to include day trading.  This shift in strategy left my portfolio with just five dividend stocks: Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Proctor and Gamble (PG), Realty Income (O) and Anworth Mortgage (ANH)... and not to mention many fellow readers baffled in disbelief as well.

Although there are several who frequent DividendPartisan that feel I have completely abandoned my dividend growth investment strategy and should potentially change the website's name, a closer look at my holdings and their overall percentages will reveal otherwise.  In fact, four of my holdings (ABT, JNJ, PG, and O) made up over half of my original portfolio before I started selling my smaller holdings in order to fund my day trading - a fact that should not go overlooked when defining my investment persona... :)

Nevertheless, I have indeed been actively Day Trading for almost 30 days now, and as a result,  I thought I would share some things I have learned in regards to.... what are somewhat polar opposites of Day Trading vs Dividend Investing.

Naturally, I'll use my personal journey and my own real-world portfolio in this process.  My decisions and my trades are actual earnings, or losses, that others can hopefully glean some wisdom from.  I hope you enjoy this review...

Final Recent Sell...

Good Evening all,

My apologies for not writing in awhile.  I have been very busy as of late, and can officially say I am now I proud homeowner as well.  Pretty cool!

In other news, my wife and I have been all around the country for the holidays to see my family (nothing like driving 1359 miles in one day!  It is definitely a different feeling, let me tell you, when you hear your GPS say "continue 520 miles on I-40").  Things are finally now starting to settle down affording me the time to write once again.

Anyway, those who have followed the latest posts on DividendPartisan know that I have recently been selling my "dividend" paying holdings in an attempt to amass enough capital to effectively participate in the day trading game.  Many warned me; many even openly disagreed with me in my divergence from the safe dividend stalwarts that used to make up my portfolio.   And I appreciate their honesty and caution.  Let me be the first to stay that day trading has some "stressful" moments!  That said, however, I cannot be more pleased with my results thus far.  I hesitate to say this for fear of sounding like I'm bragging, but so far this month I have already earned $697 dollars.  Praise God for that; goodness.  And with 16 trading days left this month, it is possible I will break $1000.

Consequently, it is hard to understand why I would stick with a 100% dividend strategy that would have only earned around $170 this month.

Nevertheless, I made my final two sales within the last several weeks and am excited to have this new part of my strategy now going full steam.  The following two companies were the last on my "sell" list: