This posting is a placeholder for all my trades since I started investing in November. You'll see my gains and losses, my buy points, etc. I will try to explain why I made each trade and everyone can comment as they see fit. Hopefully people can see what I did right, what I did wrong, and learn from it all. Tonight or tomorrow morning I will post every trade, copied from my cost basis screen in td ameritrade. If anyone else wants to do the same, feel free.
Be aware of some facts - started without about $45K in Sept. I took over control of the stock account from financial advisor sometime in November - withdrew $4500 in December and paid $2600 of it back on the 4th of January, the 1st session of the year. - YTD all dividends are being reinvested - original purchases chosen by financial advisor for the intent of dividends around $250/mo - current balance is $48310. I'm up 11.5% since September, 2% YTD. By comparison my supposedly aggressively invested IRA is up 6.9% since the same time in Sept, down 2.8% YTD
Lastly, here is what I make with dividends. GTN of $0.32 a share (I have 195) is not included because GTN just started their dividend. First payment coming in March.
I've made a boatload of mistakes which I won't repeat I hope - never pay attention to reddit driven short squeezes (AAL, SLV) - don't expect a positive earnings surprise to translate into a great gain (ACI, others) - do expect a bad earnings surprise to hurt (NVAX) - locking gains is good but don't be too fast at it (MPC) - don't mistype and buy 2x what you really wanted to buy (STZ)
What were my best decisions: - swapping CSSEP for O. O share prices weren't going anywhere and paid about a 4% dividend. CSSEP pays a 9%+ monthy dividend and I'm up 15% in share price. - selling DCP and GLP before January 1. I got great profits but limited partnership taxes are a pain in the butt because you have to pay taxes in all states where the partnership does business. I flirted with DCP again in Jan. and lost so I won't have to deal with this in 2021. - SDIV. This was a guess based on limited reading but it panned out to a 19% profit almost. Sold it because it's dividends are largely paid by borrowing and based on reading, GOF seemed safer. - Focusing on dividends. I don't have free cash to add to the account so my dividends are my only source of income to grow it.
