Now approaching the middle of July the stock market has started to show more typical summer action, with down days mixed in with days when the major averages are up. The market in general seems wary of any negative news, and earlier this week, provided a negative surprise with the Dow down almost 200 points early in the day on some obscure financial news out of Europe.
This type of market helps validate the 30 Day Dividends strategy of basing trades on dividend payment cycles with 2 to 3 month holding periods. The factors driving the stock prices of the stocks used in our strategies are often quite separate from the general fear and greed driving the overall stock market. As I write this, all but one of our open trade positions are in positive territory, with just only Midcoast Energy Partners (NYSE: MEP) sitting 1.5% below the June 27 entry price.
Beat Our Results with Your Trades
The nature of publishing a newsletter with trade recommendations provides you as an individual investor with a built in opportunity to generate even better returns than what we report. All recommended trade entry and exit prices are recorded at the closing price for the day the newsletter goes to publication or the day a buy or sell email goes out to subscribers. Since share prices will move quite a lot during the trading days, in most cases you should be able to find the shares trading at a better entry or exit price than what we must mechanically record. I hope that when you receive the newsletter or an email with a recommendation, you are watching the discussed share prices and making your move at a price that is a few cents or more better than what we have to show. For example, MEP mentioned above has spent plenty of time below $22 per share over the last 10 days, compared to the $22.15 we recorded to make the publication schedule.
Click here for full portfolio update as of market close 07/10/14.