High Yield Dividend Growth

[hendi_alex]

Importing a stock price is easy for any spreadsheet, you just have to follow the correct syntax. For Google.docs this is the form that I use: =googlefinance({A2},"price"). A2 is the ticker that is written in field 'A2'. In this case the ticker is AAPL. Instead of typing {A2} the field could have AAPL written in the space, but using a variable makes it much easier to copy and paste when setting up an entire column of tickers.

[Kerim]

Do you know of a similarly easy approach for excel?

[hendi_alex]

Looks like Excel is a little more involved but still appears pretty straight forward.

http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Track-of-Sto...h-MS-Excel

[EricL]

(10-22-2013, 07:17 PM)Kerim Wrote: Nice spreadsheet, Eric!

I'm pretty proud of my own, but you've got a few columns there that I hadn't thought to include. I especially like the total return column.

I forget, are you reinvesting dividends automatically? If so, how are you factoring those purchases into your spreadsheet?

Also, does google docs have an easy way to import or update the current share price? I use excel and apparently there is a way to do it, but it certainly isn't simple and I haven't been able to make it work despite some hours of effort.

I am accumulating dividends for a directed reinvestment with this account. The second tab shows the dividends received by month for each position and then I show the account cash balance at the bottom of the first page.

I hope to wait until I have about $1000 for a new purchase, but knowing myself the way I do, I'm guessing I buy something before then

[TomK]

(10-22-2013, 10:02 PM)EricL Wrote: I am accumulating dividends for a directed reinvestment with this account. The second tab shows the dividends received by month for each position and then I show the account cash balance at the bottom of the first page.

I hope to wait until I have about $1000 for a new purchase, but knowing myself the way I do, I'm guessing I buy something before then

So I assume that means you will not do any automatic reinvestment?

Then, let's say you buy another 10 shares of COP down the road, would that show up as a new line item on the first page? Or would you add it to the 15 shares already reflected on line 4, for a total of 25, and then adjust the purchase price, commission, etc. accordingly?

[EricL]

(10-24-2013, 02:31 PM)TomK Wrote: So I assume that means you will not do any automatic reinvestment?

Then, let's say you buy another 10 shares of COP down the road, would that show up as a new line item on the first page? Or would you add it to the 15 shares already reflected on line 4, for a total of 25, and then adjust the purchase price, commission, etc. accordingly?

Correct, I am not doing any automatic reinvestment with this portfolio.

Could go either way but guessing if I add to any positions I would just figure the total basis and commission and keep it on one line.

[cannew]

I agree with TomK, that spreading $8k over 10 stocks will cost you a heavy commission. Depending on the fee charged, $10 to $28 per trade, it cost you 1.25% to 3.5% on each purchase. Investing in only 3 stocks will cost you 0.037% to 1.05% per trade. Trading cost do make a difference in the long term.

[TomK]

I hope you're not paying $28 per trade, cannew!

[EricL]

(10-24-2013, 02:47 PM)cannew Wrote: I agree with TomK, that spreading $8k over 10 stocks will cost you a heavy commission. Depending on the fee charged, $10 to $28 per trade, it cost you 1.25% to 3.5% on each purchase. Investing in only 3 stocks will cost you 0.037% to 1.05% per trade. Trading cost do make a difference in the long term.

I pay $8.95 per trade, so the 8 trades cost me $71.60 or about 0.87%.

Going forward the only fees for the account are the transaction costs for future directed re-investments.

[EricL]

Made my first purchase with reinvested dividends in this account as I added a speculative play with 20 shares of GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) last week at $16.95 per share.

The company is expected to be the new supplier for Apple iPhones with its "Sapphire Glass". The company also has some innovations in solar panels that are expected to ramp up in 2015.

Its purely a speculative play that I think has the potential for plenty of upside. The investment isn't off to a very good start as I'm currently down 12% on the buy, but this is a long term investment so I'm not too concerned about it yet.

Here is a link to the portfolio.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...6YkE#gid=0

Overall the account is doing pretty well as its up 17.9% since 8-12-2013, which beats the DJIA and S&P, while slightly trailing Nasdaq.

[EricL]

Important lesson for myself not to speculate. Buy earnings, not potential for them.

GTAT declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, which pretty much wipes out my capital I invested back in July. Fortunately it wasn't a very large position, but painful nonetheless.

https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=gtat

Buy quality.

Buy quality.

Buy quality.

...

...

[Roadmap2Retire]

The statistic that stood out for me was: "Worth $1.5B on Friday. Bankrupt on Monday." This is my problem with most of the tech companies ..its all about the perception and the expectation of earnings. A photo app (Snapchat) valued at $10B, messaging app (WhatsApp) at $20B, ....its a joke!

When I was having trouble finding good value in the market a few months ago, I was tempted to speculate and buy "Growth" companies...including GTAT. I considered buying 40-50 shares ... but Im so glad that I ended up just buying other DG stocks which were just more expensive.

Sorry about your speculative loss, but chalk that one up in the Experience column.