Last week, I established a position in TGT with the usual $1,000 stake. In addition, another $250 in dividends and option premium had accumulated. However, because the latter funds materialized from within the portfolio itself and were not the result of a capital contribution on my part, only the $1,000 amount requires that I skip my typical weekly investment. This week is the first of three consecutive weeks in which I am abstaining from the usual $250+ investment into the portfolio, maintaining the $250+ per week average. For anyone bored out of their skull, here is what I would have invested in.
This week, four of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten: MMM, QCOM, TDS, and TGT.
| Ticker | Account Value |
| MMM | 2,237.67 |
| QCOM | 2,666.62 |
| TDS | 3,022.20 |
| TGT | 1,300.50 |
The lowest amount belongs to TGT.
TDS has climbed 25% over the last 10 trading days. The TDS230818C10 option1 sold for a high of $0.40 this past Friday, and if I could sell it for $0.45, the result of assignment at $10, would be such that I would make about $1.00 after adding in the previous option premiums and dividends collected. That’s $1.00 total, not per share. This would be an impressive performance given the entry into this position was at $14.54 per share on 2022-09-26. It is tempting to be able to make 0% on something with such a large negative total return, but I really want to see the next earnings report in early August. After all, investing is not about just outperforming, but outpacing inflation as well.
And Royal Dividends is about achieving an embarrassing amount of wealth2.
1This is a call option on 100 shares of TDS with a strike price of $10 and an expiry of August 18, 2023, that last sold for $0.40 per share or $40.00 per contract.
2Royal Dividends seeks wealth that is so massive one should feel embarrassed just having it. However, the other extreme – having performance so embarrassingly poor that it would have been thought statistically impossible – will also be considered mission accomplished. In other words, you want others to be able to look at your portfolio and marvel at the genius behind the decisions that were made and the sheer amount of wealth that has materialized as a result OR you want to feel the incredulity, pity, and understanding of others at just how improbably terrible your luck has been, despite your evident genius.