AOD Monthly Dividend 6c 18% p/a yield p/a

AGD Monthly Dividend paid 0.6c 14.9% yield at current price

FTR Quarterly Dividend paid, 8.6% at current yeild

Closed AGNC short trade at $28.10 5% profit in 5 days

This trade worked out pretty nicely, although I could have waited a day later to enter. I had anticipated this AGNC short trade some time ago in a previous post, after observing that because of the large dividend payouts every quarter, the stock drops by exactly the $1.40 dividend amount every time they pay out. So why wait for the dividend when you can short the stock just prior to the record date, and make the dividend as a short sale in a week or so rather than waiting months to get your dividend. Your money gets to work somewhere else for three months.

My plan was to exit when the candles penetrated the lower bollinger band, but the market is on a strong rally this week. Making money on a short trade while the market is going down is one thing, making money on a short trade while the market is moving against you is another.

So I decided that 5% profit in 5 trading days was OK. Effectively, I was getting paid the AGNC dividend in 5 days, rather than waiting three months like a traditional dividend investor would. I'm not convinced that a company paying out so much cash every quarter is destined to last at these pay out rates anyway.

I also made money trading AGNC midway through the summer (see the earlier post), so it has been treating me well in the choppy sideways market of the last few months.

Sold FTR at $8.00. Cashing out in the rally

Taking profits and accumulated dividends off the table. FTR cut their dividend because of picking up accounts from Verizon, so it's dropped below my 10% cut off for dividend stocks. My initial entry was around $7.50 about a year ago.

Rule 1 of income investing. Pick stocks with dividends over 10%.

Rule 2 of income investing. Get out with any profits if the dividend is cut. The stock price will probably follow the dividend cut.

Long RSG @ $29.50, Closed at $30.75

Held too long for a short term swing trade, too short for it to reach the upper bollinger band. Impatient. That's why we analyse our trades, right? Profitable, but I only rated myself 5/10 for this trade.

Closed Long STX - Dead Cat Bounce

STX didn't bounce as I expected, so closing this about even. Entry graph on 8/12 showed the green candle after the red bollinger band was penetrated. I was expecting more of a bounce.  Exited on 8/18 as it started to drop off again to a futher low. Graph was not made until 9/20, so you can see what actually happened after position was closed. Risky trade trying to get a bounce in a downtrend, but you can see at the start of the graph what I was looking for.

Close AGNC Long position with 3% profit in 3 days

The current environment makes me nervous. Good news, bad news.

So I couldn't leave 3% profit in two days on the table in this AGNC trade, even though it was bought for my income portfolio because of the 20% dividend.  It jumped right into the upper bollinger band which is a signal to considering taking profits on a Swing Trade.  My trading plan originally had my profit point for this trade above the amount I would earn from the next dividend payment. But with AGNC outperforming the market in the yesterdays little rally, I decided to take the profit off the table in case the unemployment figures tomorrow cool off things.

I'll still have a chance to earn the generous AGNC dividend by picking another entry point before the dividend record date.