Swapping Apple For Apple - October Dividend Portfolio Update

It's earnings season and across the board the results have mostly been better than expected, sending markets to all-time highs especially driven by the large gains in Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH).

Source: financeandmarkets.com
It has gotten pretty quiet on the trade frontier. Trump generated no visible noise and instead celebrated the most recent rally of the markets, while the unusual comment by the Chinese that they are uncertain how binding such a trade deal with Trump will be given his impulsive nature shortly irritated the markets before more earnings surprises and a strong job report reignited the rally.
Portfolio Changes October
It was a busy month for me, probably too busy, despite only investing net capital of around $800. I exited and reshuffled some small positions and marginally trimmed Apple ahead of earnings (a mistake from a total return perspective but what I considered prudent given the large share in my portfolio), started a bunch of new and small positions while at the same time kept on growing existing ones.
I sold shares of German car rental and leasing company Sixt (OTC:SXTSY) and exchanged them for the higher yielding and cheaper preferred stock and thereby increasing annual dividend income by around $5.
Further, I exited Activision Blizzard (ATVI) as it did not really fit my increased dividend focus and also generated negative headlines in Hong Kong. I may get back to the stock if it drops back into... Read more