Today I’m watching HI (Hillenbrand Inc.). Remember I bought it for 21.26 a share, the price is going up. The dividend EX date is Monday, March 15 and it pays .18 a share. It would make a nice little profit if I sold it now, but I’d miss the dividend payment if I sell today. Watching it and deciding what to do.
I’m, also, checking out other stocks that will be paying dividends next week. Typically, the stocks will go up before a dividend payment, then drop back down after the EX date. I’m using the The Streets Dividend Calender to find the stocks that are paying the dividends next week. Always go to your Scottrade or your main account that is giving real time updates to check out the information. Right now I have Scottrade open in a window, The Street and Yahoo Finance and of course our ScottradeAccount. These are my favorite 3 places to get stock information.
UPDATE – 11:53AM Sometimes I have no reason why I buy certain stocks, this morning ARNA (Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) caught my attention. I bought at 3.04 a share, they do not pay dividends but just seemed like a good deal to me. Though I do have good luck with the pharmaceutical stocks and tend to like them and enjoy studying new products they are developing.
With the stocks down right now, it should be a good time to buy some of the stocks you’ve been looking at. (My opinion only!) I was able to buy SFD (Smithfield Foods) for 18.85 a share this morning. I’m hoping for a good day trade on it.
I just sold SFD (Smithfield Foods) for 19.18 a share. That is 33 cents a share profit. Not bad at all. I hope everyone that was interested in this stock trade was able to get in early and is watching so they can sell and make a nice profit.
Remember, my opinions are for entertainment only. I’m not giving any advice on what to buy or sell.
Today is an interesting day on Wall Street. The stocks can’t seem to decide if they want to go up or down. It looks like a good day to get in some day trading. Right now I’m keeping an eye on KYN (Kayne Anderson MLP Investment). I have a sell order for 25.99 and it looks like it may just make it today. We will have come out about even on the stock buy/sell itself, but still made a good profit on the dividend paid in January.
We are still holding onto the stock we have in CHG (CH Energy Group Inc.), I still think it will go back up. I hope that isn’t just wishful thinking on my part.
As a little side note – what do you all think of Scottrades new format? I’m liking it a little better now that I’m getting used to it. The first time I logged into my Scottrade after they changed it I didn’t think I liked it at all.
UPDATE – 11:15AM – Have put in a buy order for HI (Hillenbrand Inc.) for 21.26 a share. They have an EX date of 3/15 and are paying .18 a share. I’m not sure if we can get it bought for this price but have the order in. I have set this buy order to last only today on Scottrade.
EVENING UPDATE – This turned out to be a good day for us and the stock market. We still have CHG and KYN, I’m not willing to take a loss on them yet.
We bought USMO (USA Mobility Inc.) for 12.65 a share, it is has an EX date of 3/15 paying .25 a share.
Then, was able to get HI (Hillenbrand Inc.) for 21.26 a share. HI dividend is .18 with an EX date of 3/15.
Few Americans know how much money they’ll need to save for retirement. Some 44 percent of employed Americans–and even 29 percent of those ages 55 and older–admit they don’t know how much money they will need in retirement, according to a recent ING Direct survey. Continued here
How to Tell if You Are Saving Enough for Retirement is a very informative article found at Yahoo finance.
My experiment with the dividend paying stocks is working so far. Meaning we’re making money with our Scottrade account by taking care of it ourselves and buying the dividend paying stocks right before they pay the dividend. I know we will need to wait at least until the end of January to get better totals. But, from the dividend payments we have recieved in the first week of January we are doing great! One thing I’m trying now is to buy the stocks a few days earlier then I had first thought was necessary. Before the stocks EX date they are starting to raise in price earlier then the 3 or 4 days I had at first thought. Now, I’m looking to buy stocks that have an EX date of 7 – 10 days when I buy them. Also, the stocks are taking a dip in price for a few days after the EX date, meaning we are having to hold on to the stocks longer then I first planned.
These are the sell orders we have in now:
CHG SELL LIMIT $44.23 OPEN
KYN SELL LIMIT $26.25 OPEN
ERIE SELL LIMIT $40.25 OPEN
Didn’t buy anything today. I did pass up a good short day trade, if only I’d followed my instincts and bought when it was high.
Remember we are not giving any stock market advice. This is only what we are doing and our own feelings, instincts and whatever. Also, we are NOT using all our savings to try this experiment. So, please don’t anyone follow us using your whole trading account. I feel I’m buying fairly safe stocks that we won’t lose any money, but the stock market if risky and things change fast. We don’t do any trading unless we are watching the markets and have stop and limit orders in place. It is risky, but lots of fun!
How is your crystal ball working this, the second week of 2010? How do your predictions for 2010 stack up against some of the wealthiest people in the world? Forbes has put together a list of questions which they posed to some notable billionaires. Topics covered include global warming, the weakening of the dollar, the price of gold, and best places to invest in 2010. Their answers are quite interesting and, not surprisingly, different.
Click here for predictions from ten billionaires
It might be fun to bookmark or copy some of these predictions and take a look next year at this time to see how the predictions compared with the actual events.
When deciding upon the securities that you have in your portfolio, you of course have decisions to make for your direct investing. Percentages of each type of investment, etc. must be determined. Mutual funds are available from online stock brokers, but you must understand the pros and the cons to this investment instrument.
Do you really understand mutual funds? What are they? Should you have some mutual funds in your portfolio? May I suggest you read this article from Investopedia.com. Even if you currently own some mutual funds, you owe it to yourself to read this article, if just for a quick refresher. You may find that you have a question or two for yourself or your broker after you do.
The Credit Card Act of 2009 is designed to provide relief to consumers from the “abusive tactics” credit card issuers have used to inflate their profits. Well, leave it to those pesky card companies to dream up even more ways to gouge us. And gee, guess what? The Credit Card Act of 2009 doesn’t cover these new means of dipping into our wallets and pocketbooks. Many of these techniques have already been put in place.
I urge you to read this article from Yahoo Finance: Creative New Fees Escape CARD Act Rules, Surprise Consumers. Get ready to get even madder at the plastic pushers. Makes you want to pay cash for those plane tickets when you travel. But then you might get put on a watch list. Sigh.
The Stock Market was rather lackluster today, with the Dow Jones showing a modest gain (+33.18) primarily fueled by financial issues. The S&P Composite Index rose 4.55, and the NASDAQ lost 1.04. We pretty much sat on the sidelines today, but did put in a couple of sell orders for stocks that were not executed. We’ll see if they meet our ask price on Friday.
The US stock market isn’t doing very much right now. It can’t seem to decide if it wants to go up or down. I have our Scottrade account open and am watching.
Sold – FLS this morning. Not a huge profit, but we did okay with it.
Bought – YUM, WST, CBRL
Sell order – on ERIE for 40.25
So far, the dividend buying stock plan seems to be working good. We’re still trying out different ways.
Remember we aren’t suggesting or giving any advice, only sharing what we are doing.
Another New Year and a chance to set some goals of what to accomplish for this year. It is hard to believe we are already into the year 2010, I think it feels like we are in the future. 2010 and I’m alive and living in it! What do I want to accomplish this year? I want to work more on my family tree. Be more organized. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Learn more about herbs and natural health cures. The more I type the more things I think of.
I did a study on eating more green vegetables and the health benefits of it. Since I’ve already published the article I wrote on Assiciated Content I shouldn’t publish it again here. If you’d like to read the article I wrote, it is available here
