Weekly Roundup - March 4, 2017
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| Happy Weekend! Check out what's been going on in my world and some of the best articles from around the blogosphere. |
I was hoping that March would bring some relief to the constant upward move in share prices, but based on the first few days that doesn't seem to be the case.
What exactly does all of this mean? Nothing really. The price of any investment is irrelevant without examining the relationship to the actual value. Despite the markets' epic run through February, and since Trump's election, you still always need to pay attention to the most basic principle of investing: price < value.
There were no new purchases this week for my portfolio although any purchases will only be coming in my Rollover IRA rather than my taxable accounts while we focus on debt rather than investments. However, that doesn't mean I was just an idle bystander. I was very active in the options market with 11 new positions being opened and 6 that either expired or were closed out.
There was some big news this week that should be good news for lots of investors. Fidelity reduced their commission from $7.95 to $4.95 and just hours later Schwab joined them in the cut to $4.95. There's still lower cost options out there, but this is a great start in lowering the fees for what is essentially a commodity.
The other great news is that I'm finally going back home. I started back to work on February 4th and was hoping to kind of be eased back into it and just be gone for 2 weeks or so. Well, today marks exactly 4 weeks, but sometime this afternoon or evening I'll be getting on the road and back at home with my wife and daughter. It's been long overdue.
On to the Roundup
In case you missed them, here's the posts from Passive-Income-Pursuit over the past week.
- Net Worth Update - January 2017
- 10 Option Moves to Boost My Investment Income
- Target Corporation: Searching for the 1-Foot Bar on Seeking Alpha
- Dividend Update Preview - February 2017 [Infographic]
- Lowe's: A Total Return Candidate for the DGI on Seeking Alpha
- Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Loonies Are Great Too
Once again I'd like to say thanks to each and every one of you that read, commented, and shared posts from here this past week. I think this dividend growth investing and financial independence community is amazing and the openness from everyone is awesome. Thanks again!
Now on to the links!
How Bull Markets Affect Your Intelligence by A Wealth of Common Sense
How Warren Buffett Earns $1,140 in Dividend Income Per Minute by Dividend Growth Investor
Outlook March 2017 by Roadmap2Retire
I Quit My Job Today! by Eat the Financial Elephant
How Dangerous is a Stock Market of Financial Robots? by Jason Zweig
Charlie Munger's Most Important Concept by Base Hit Investing
March 2017 Stock Considerations by DivHut
February Dividends and Options Income by Investment Hunting
Lanny's February Dividend Income Summary by Dividend Diplomats
To Travel Long or Travel Short? by Our Next Life
Portfolio Update: Reshuffling the Deck by FI Fighter
Fewer Dividends, Please by Go Curry Cracker
If you're looking for investment ideas, A Frugal Family's Journey maintains a list of stock analyses and recent buys from fellow bloggers.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Image courtesy of Gubgib via FreeDigitalPhotos
Wow I can't believe being away from wife and daughter for that long...but it's great to hear that you are heading back home.
ReplyDeleteThis market is just insane imo...the valuations don't make any sense to me.
Thanks for sharing my outlook for March.
Have a great wknd
R2R
R2R,
DeleteIt's definitely a hard transition to make after being home every day for about 10 months. But it helps to put us in a better financial position and at least I was used to it before since I had done it for nearly 6 years.
It's been a crazy run for the markets that's for sure. I was listening to a podcast earlier today and they did some research and the market is eerily similar to how it was the first few months of 1987. Obviously I don't think that means anything like the '87 crash is guaranteed to happen, but it's definitely hard to find anything resembling value. In my view, the risk is definitely to the downside now as opposed to missing out on further gains. It's a good time to review your portfolio and see if there's anything that seems absurdly overvalued or doesn't really fit into your long term goals. I know that's what I'll be trying to do during March because it never hurts to have cash at the ready.
Thanks for stopping by!
This run is getting far out of control. I'm just hoping that when it falls (and it will with these evaluations) that it isn't too incredibly crippling. I'm just thankful that with dividend investing we only really need to make sure that the company continues onward with payments rather than buying low and selling high. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteDR,
DeleteThe valuations/run on the markets really only makes sense if the corporate tax rate is actually cut and economic growth picks up. It seems that the market is essentially pricing those 2 things in as a certainty when I would say they're anything but.
Dividends are great, but I think March is a good time to examine your portfolio to see if any valuations are insanely out of whack or any positions crept into your portfolio during the bull run that really shouldn't be there for the long term. Don't get me wrong I love seeing those dividend checks come in each month, but if you still have a long time horizon before you'll be using those dividend to fund your lifestyle it seems like the focus really needs to be on efficiency of your money within reason.
Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoy your time back home with family. I'm sure it's the best part of your week. I wonder if other brokerages will be reducing their commish rates for general trading too with Robinhood, Loyal3, Motif and others really offering a much cheaper alternative. Thanks for sharing the DivHut post too. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteKeith,
DeleteIt definitely will be and I can't wait. Of course they're taking their sweet time getting our tools back to surface so we can get things cleaned up and then on the road. Such is life.
I hope to see commissions continue to fall but I think the $4.95 area is probably where the major brokerage firms will hang out for the next few years. That's still a heck of a lot better than it was before though so I can't complain too much. I still might move some assets around to another firm, but the reduced commissions sure make it less urgent.
All the best.
Wow 4 weeks gone is crazy, I've never been away from home/kids that long. Most of my work trips I fly out on Sunday evening, work the week there, and fly out sometime on Friday to be home midnight'ish.
ReplyDelete