My Own Portfolio : Dividend & Options Income Report Out July 2018

Today we are writing our blog post from the city of Baltimore. Baltimore is a major city in Maryland with a long history as an important seaport.

Fort McHenry, birthplace of the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” sits at the mouth of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Today, this harbor area offers shops, upscale crab shacks and attractions like the Civil War–era warship the USS Constellation and the National Aquarium, showcasing thousands of marine creatures. I was only in Baltimore for a very short time and didn’t have time to explore the harbor.

If you want to check out the city and what it has to offer, go here Visit Baltimore

What else did we notice while being in the USA ? Look at the following frontpage headline of the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

U.S. stocks are on the verge of surpassing their longest running rally, ratifying a market rebound that began in the ashes of the financial crisis and defying those who have questioned its staying power. The broadest U.S. blue-chip index has more than quadrupled in price terms, creeping within striking distance of its January recordand outpacing most rival major global indexes.

Investors have also bet that the global economy will continue to expand at a steady pace even amid turbulence in some emerging markets such as Turkey and Venezuela. Few investors would have bet that the longest bull market in U.S. history would follow on the heels of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In 2009 investment firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns disappeared. Many people thought in March 2009 that worse tidings were coming after a 40% market drop.

Instead the economy struggled back to its feet over a period of years. Some people state that we have entered now overvalued market prices, others predict a recession soon and others argue that we can continue the bull run for couple of years.

U.S. central bankers are today ready to raise interest rates again so long as the economy stays on track, according to
a record of the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting.“Many participants suggested that if incoming data continued to support their current economic outlook, it would likely soon be appropriate to take another step in removing policy accommodation,” minutes of the July 31-Aug. 1 Federal Open Market Committee meeting released Wednesday in Washington said.

The minutes said that “further gradual increases” in their target rate “would be consistent with a sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions and inflation near the committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective over the medium term.” So let’s go to our Market Analysis.

Market Analysis

We are writing history here today with the longest bull run since years. Markets can go up a lot longer than many people think they can.

When we analyse the performance of the SPY (screenshot 22 August) we can clearly see that the SPY is testing the new All Time Highs. I drafted a line at 286.60. This will be the resistance we will start to test before going higher again. Once we break the 286.60 level, we will run higher.

So what would be risks for this market ? Let’s read the FOMC minutes of the FED report.

“Wide-ranging tariff increases would reduce the purchasing power of U.S. households,” the minutes said. “Further negative effects in such a scenario could include reductions in productivity and disruptions of supply chains. Other downside risks cited included the possibility of a significant weakening in the housing sector, a sharp increase in oil prices, or a severe slowdown in emerging market economies.”

Should the trade scenario worsen, that could impact future rate decisions.

Officials noted that “an escalation in international trade disputes was a potentially consequential downside risk for real activity. Some participants suggested that, in the event of a major escalation in trade disputes, the complex nature of trade issues, including the entire range of their effects on output and inflation, presented a challenge in determining the appropriate monetary policy response.” We will see what the near future brings. We can never predict the stock market.

Let’s dive in the numbers of my July Passive Income Income Report.

Options Income & Dividends received in July 2018

In July 2018 we received a total of 607,85 $ passive income. We received 261,17$ dividend income from monthly paying stocks or ETFs and 346,68$ from quarterly ETFs. STILL no options income as the transfer of our portfolio to our new broker is still not completely completed. A lot of miscommunication between the two parties and at the end I had to escalate the issue.

Below you see the monthly summary overview of the cash flow coming into my bank account.

Portfolio Analysis and Growth

So far we have 4591,63$ passive income for the year 2018. Last year we received a lot more dividend income as we owned a lot of quarterly paying ETFs and a more than 2,000$ record month in July 2017. We did hit our monthly goal of 550$ per month.

We have 46% of our yearly objective in the books. We are way behind compared to last year and so we need to focus to hit our targets for 2018 and start executing our options investing strategy in this portfolio.

The Euro/Dollar trend

We keep on following the EURO/USD valuation. The USD dropped the 1,17 EUR/USD level. The prediction as I wrote last month that the USD will get stronger going forward has become true. The gold price is dropping as the USD gets stronger.

We will see how this EUR/USD price evolves over the coming months. A stronger dollar is positive for our portfolio.

Going forward

The coming 6 months we simply need to focus. Our portfolio has finally been transferred to the new broker Tradersonly and I started to paper trade the new platform. This allows me to practice the new platform. I am practicing new strategies that the mentors are teaching me and we need to learn how to execute.

In the coming months I need to generate at least 5500$ ! Simple and straightforward goal.

Are you working out investment strategies ? Don’t hesitate to leave your comments and feedback. Let us know what you think.

Good luck with your personal finance strategy! Thanks for following us on Twitter and Facebook and reading this blog post. As always we end with a quote.

Sources : CNBC , Wall Street Journal Newspaper

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My Own Portfolio : Dividend & Options Income Report Out July 2018