1. Securities Ex Dividend or Ex Interest Today: I try to keep up generally with the "ex" dates of securities that I own. The TC with the Embarq bond, FJA, went ex interest today with its semi-annual interest payment. MarketWatch.com Quote The floating rate equity preferred, METPRA, went ex dividend for its quarterly payment. MarketWatch.com Quote The two TCs that I own containing the same senior Verizon bond, XFL and PJL, went ex interest with their semi-annual interest payments.
MarketWatch.com (pjl)
The TC with a Trust Preferred issue from First Union (KTV), now part of Wells Fargo by virtue of the Wachovia acquisition, is also ex interest today. MarketWatch.com Quote
The synthetic floaters, GJN & GJT, are ex interest today. MarketWatch.com Quote
For those new to investing the ex date simply means that a holder of record on that day is entitled to receive the interest or dividend payment, as the case may be. Dividend.com Ex-dividend date - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia So since I owned all of these securities prior to today, I am entitled to receive these distributions. If I bought one today, I would be buying it "ex" the distribution, meaning the price has been adjusted down at the start of trading today by the amount of the distribution. By way of example, assume I have a bond that pays 50 cents in interest twice a year and it closed yesterday at 10. I owned it yesterday and it goes ex interest today. I would receive the interest payment. If I bought it today, I would not receive that 50 cent payment. The bond would open today at $9.5. If it traded up to $10, it would show a gain of 50 cents even though it is unchanged from yesterday. Unfortunately, a large number of quote services do not make that adjustment when quoting the price today. My broker does not make the adjustment on the page listing my holdings. So, it may show XFL being down today when it is either up or unchanged after adjusting for the interest payment that went ex today.
2. Sold CBLPRC at $12.7: I sold my preferred stock position in CB & L properties at $12.7 this morning. This one was bought for $10 back in November of last year. A 300 Point Misunderstanding I will keep for now the small 170 share common stock position that I built up in this retail REIT. The last common stock buy, other than reinvestment of dividends, was in the 4th quarter of 2008 at less than 4. For most of the time I owned the preferred, it was under water until recently. This is part of what I call managing risk in an disfavored asset class, which is perpetual cumulative preferred stocks in the case of CBLPRC.
3. Bought 100 VV at 41.45: Sometimes it is just better for me to just do rather than think incessantly about doing. One aspect of my long term planning has to do with substituting some stock ETFs for the pathetic stock mutual funds that I still have in my taxable account. Fortunately, I sold most of my mutual funds prior to 2008 and reduced the ones that I want to jettison now to less than a few thousand in each of them. I came up with a plan a few weeks ago to buy stock ETFs now to replace those funds, while the market was still depressed, and then wait to sell the mutual funds when the market was well into the next bull phase. So far, I have bought VEU and ADRU as part of this plan. I went ahead and added VV this morning, an ETF from Vanguard which has 750 large cap U.S. companies in it and an extremely low expense ratio of .13% .Vanguard - Vanguard Large-Cap ETF Overview As with VEU, I just look at it as being ahead of the game since I sold VV before this bear market started at a good profit, and now I am back into it at a much lower price than my previous purchase. This will be a core position. So I am not concerned about it falling some or rising some. I would hope to own it for many years, and possibly add to it later. Some may say why didn't I buy it in early March. Well, I thought that I was being plenty brave for an old geezer with all of the buying that I did before the start of this current bull and during its early stages, as shown in my posts from early and mid- March 2009.
DISCLAIMER
I am not a financial advisor but an individual investor trying to navigate my way through a difficult market. I have never worked for a financial institution and never will. In these posts, I am acting as an unpaid financial journalist and an occasional political commentator. I am also aggregating financial news stories that I view as important and providing readers of these posts with links to those articles, sort of a filtered, somewhat intelligent, free search engine. Any discussion made by me of particular securities is not a recommendation to buy or to sell. Trade at your own risk. Consult with your financial advisor prior to making any purchase or sale. I will try to identify my sales too but it may take a few minutes after I implement them to create a post explaining my reasons. The sale may before or after the post. Before buying or selling any stock, even one recommended by a trusted financial advisor, please research it and make up your own mind which is what I always try to do. Research would include reading reports, reviewing financial records, earnings estimates, sec filings and prior earnings releases and news. In this post, and all others by me, I am merely describing my reasons for purchasing or selling securities, and the potential pitfalls that I identified prior to purchase or the reasons for a sale. The securities mentioned in this and all posts written by me may not be suitable for others based on their unique financial position and risk profile. By way of example, it is unlikely that I will ever need the funds contained in my retirement accounts. Always read the prospectus before buying a Trust Certificate, bond, preferred stock or other bond or bond like investments. Information contained in my posts has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. It is always important to follow the investment process. the investment process/links to further information on canadian energy or royalty trustsInvestment Process Part II: Bonds and Bond Like Investments NOT A RESEARCH SERVICE/Add of PWE Last Week These posts by me do not constitute investment advice, nor shall they be construed as a guarantee of future results, or as an offer of any transaction in securities. All content in these posts is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is a form of entertainment for me. Anyone interested in a topic may want to review all discussions contained in the blog about it by using a relevant search term in the box at the top. Opinions are subject to change and they certainly evolve over time as information is assessed and analyzed for compatibility with prior opinions, the only process for a serious investor, and a topic of frequent discussion in this post.
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