Week in Review

Happy Saturday everyone!  Quick update on activities this week (and a few I missed from the prior week). 

 Dividend Increases (Feb 25th)

• Sempra grows dividend by 4.1%, reaching 12th consecutive annual increase

  Sempra announced its next dividend of $1.145 per share, a 4.1% increase over the company's previous payout of $1.10.

  The multi-state utility generates steady cash flow and offers a well-covered dividend. The company's rate base has nearly tripled in the last four years, setting the stage for future payout growth. 

• Your annual income increased $5.58 as a result.

Dividends & Income Received

A great week, $237 in dividends.

• BKH - $59.50
• AFL - $40
• KR - $21
• V - $8.63
• XYLD - $67.69
• PFE - $40

Trades

Added 100 shares of $SCHQ this week as I continue the theme of defensive investing for the time being.

Options Activity

Good opportunity in rebalancing to acquire stocks using cash-secured puts. Selling cash-secured puts gives you the obligation to purchase a stock at a strike price if the underlying price goes below strike. You collect a premium for selling the put. If the strike price is under the price at time of expiration, you keep the premium, so it's a nice way to make a few bucks on a stock you were going to buy anyways.

• My Verizon shares were assigned at $54 a few weeks back. Made ~$83 this week through trading a few cash secured puts this week floating around the strike price. I'll continue to trade some cash secured puts on this ultimately acquiring before the 04/03 ex-dividend date.
• Got killed on my Kroger covered call, ultimately having having to buy back by $47 call for ~$500 more than I received. Fortunately the stock rose another 6% on Friday.  While I'm a big fan of Kroger, this type of growth in two days seems overblown, so I bought 6 $60 04/01 puts to hopefully capture some correction in the next few days.

Other Activity

• No other activity this week.

What's Next

• Continue to take time to learn more about macro investing. Given the volatility lately, I think there's some educated bets to be placed.
• I think I can integrate into the portfolio via asset & sector allocation management. I'm not a fan of day trading, but I like the concept of smart swing trading when highs and lows are involved. 
• Evaluate covered call opportunities. 
• The portfolio rebalance introduced a lot more positions of 100 shares or more, so I can take better advantage of covered calls.
• Slowly shrink number of positions to ~40 while maintaining a strategic sector breakdown focused on macro trends.