Trades – January No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio Purchases

January No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio Purchases - Nike Shoes

As I’ve continued to adjust my investing style with the removal of credit card purchases at Loyal3, I’ve been able to find a methodology that works well and is something I’ll be sticking with moving forward. I’m planning on leveraging Loyal3 to the tune of $7-9,000 of new capital this year, which will allow this account to really accelerate. For those who aren’t familiar, Loyal3 offers investors the ability to invest with as little as $10 per trade or even participate in IPOs with the big boys!

Loyal3 has no fees, no cost, every time you trade. Of course, this is only possible with Loyal3 generating revenue through social stock programs and assisting with the aforementioned IPOs. Given the list of stocks offered is still relatively small, 64 as of today, there are still some offerings to interest both groups. Looking for a growth stock, well BABA, BRK.B, GOOG, and AMZN might you’re your fancy. For dividend growth investors, there are over twenty different options in which to invest. Some classic consumer goods DG positions can be found such as KO, PEP, UL, and WMT.

So with Loyal3 offering plenty to investors, even those like myself with a dividend growth focus, there is nothing left to do but keep on building that passive income stream. Going forward, my primary focus is to leverage the fee free ability to dollar cost average into some great companies. This will be reflected in the consistency of these updates going forward. Should they become redundant, I’ll combine them with my passive income updates. However, since we aren’t there yet, let’s take a look at my actual January purchases where I invested a total of $731.98.

January Loyal3 Trades

Because of the number of positions, I thought it would be easier to present as a chart. Below you will find the overall totals for each position and related purchase information.

January No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio Purchses - Table of Activity

Of the purchases above, only one represents a new position in my Loyal3 portfolio, Nike. Nike represents another great dividend growth opportunity, having raised their dividends for 13 years in a row, with a 10-year dividend growth rate of 18.4%. While the initial yield is a bit low at 1.17%, over the next 30 years this accelerated with growth will pay off. As you can see in the positions above, quite a few of the positions represent a long-term growth play with a lower initial dividend. Since I currently hold some higher yielding positions, this will help balance the growth of my dividend stream in the future.

McDonald’s continued to struggle during the most of January, allowing me to add some more shares below my cost basis. As a result of this latest purchase, I can now expect greater than $10 of dividends from MCD per month, which potentially opens up direct reinvestment. We’ll know here in a couple of months. Currently only KRFT is getting directly reinvested in this account with UL and MCD potentially happening in March. Unilever is the classic defensive consumer staple company. Given the depth and width of their product lines, I’m going to continue to build this into one of the several cornerstones of my portfolio.

January Loyal3 Purchase Summary

As you can see in the chart above, January’s purchases resulted in a total increase of $18.99 to my forward 12-month dividends and carried an overall average yield on cost of 2.59%. This is well below the average yield of the portfolio, but offers greater long-term growth and greater increases to my dividend income.

Containing 14 different positions now, my Loyal3 portfolio has a forward 12-month dividend total of $232.37. Amazing the power of regular investing. In just over 12-months, this “side” portfolio has grown to be its own dividend producing machine. As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I would anticipate more than doubling the size of the portfolio in 2015, at which point it will really begin to take a life of its own, contributing several hundred dollars each year to its own cause. Plus, given it is in its second year of life, dividend raises will become a bigger part of its growth story.

The full details of this portfolio can be seen on my Dividend Growth Portfolio page. If you’re interested in seeing what dividends this portfolio generate in 2015, check out my 2015 Dividend Calendar.

Go check out Loyal3 and let me know what you think.

What purchases are you looking at making in the near future?

Flickr: Photon

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Comments

  1. roadmap2retire says:

    Great purchases, W2R. I like how you are putting away a bit of cash into some strong companies over time. You are using Loyal3 well to your advantage.

    Thats $18.99 you dont have to work for :)

    R2R

    • Every little bit adds to the ever growing stream of income. I know I’ve got a lot more work to do to hit my goals this year, and will be making some moves to get capital to work for me.

      Thanks for stopping by R2R!

  2. Great purchases W2R, love that you are able to invest regularly in your Loyal3 account.

  3. I’ve never used Loyal3. I’ll have to check that out. As of now I tend to make larger 1/3 to 1/2 purchases less frequently that a lot of people here do. I’ve been a Tradeking user to date.

    • Adam, like yourself I am primarily a TradeKing user for my dividend growth accounts. I’m finding that Loyal3 is a great way to DCA into higher priced dividend growth stocks without feeling as concerned with dumping a ton of money into that higher valuation.

      Let me know what you think of Loyal3!

  4. Loyal3 is one fantastic way to get invested. Partial shares and small increments are great for all types of investors. New, old, low amounts, high amounts, it all really adds up over time. Nice work

    • Absolutely – no set requirements besides a desire to invest works for Loyal3. My portfolio with them is really a testament to how much those little amounts can add up over time. I’m looking forward to a couple years from now when it is a mini-monster all on its own.

      Thanks for the comments ADD.

  5. Good work leveraging Loyal3’s commission free setup. Those are solid stocks to dollar-cost-average into. As you mention, several of them don’t have high current yields, but they should grow into something more substantial quickly. Best of luck!

    • You’re absolutely right FerdiS – a few of these have a long lead time before they turn into dividend monsters, but I’m willing to let them grow while continually dollar cost averaging into them. I’m looking forward to seeing where this ‘side’ portfolio is in a few years after slow and consistent investing.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!

  6. Great purchases this month, W2R. I’m glad to see you shaking things up and starting a small average into Nike. It might seem pricey on the surface, but it’s a fast grower and no one can predict if or when you’ll have a better opportunity, so I like the nibble here. Hopefully we’ll get some obvious choices / discounts with Loyal3’s limited offerings soon because I’m not sure what to add to my own account at the moment. There’s a lot of fair values, but I’d love to see some undervalued choices. You’re doing a fantastic job here, and the progress of your L3 account has been a treat to watch so far. Have a nice weekend!

    • Ryan, shaking things up is the name of the game with Loyal3 for me right now. I am picking up more traditional dividend growth positions in my regular accounts, so leveraging the higher valued and higher growth positions in Loyal3 is a great complement to that. I’m not as worried about the fair value of these companies, because they never seem to be at fair value. By taking small bite sized chunks, I can build some exposure without diving headfirst at one time. I’d encourage you to consider this as a possible option as you mull your future investments with Loyal3.

      Great to hear your perspective Ryan!

  7. I’ve been contributing small amounts to my Loyal3 account more than a year. I really like what they’re doing. No fees, good companies, and easy to use website. Good luck with your investing.

    • Couldn’t agree with you any more DD. I’ve been more than satisfied with the experience thus far and am really happy with the progress this ‘side’ portfolio is making.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  8. Hi Adam,

    I have to give you credit here! Your portfolio is growing real well for you.

    So Loyal3 will direct reinvest now? I was unaware of this.

    Can you tell me a little more how this works? I am considering dropping a couple of thousand more in and this has been holding me back.

    Thanks!

    Ray

    • Ray, great to see you! The portfolio is doing really well and building up a nice head of steam. As for direct reinvestment, it’s been rumored that if you cross the $10 in payouts from one position in a quarter, you will have that automatically reinvested. I’m not sure if this is the case, but I will find out in just over a month when UL and MCD pay out in March.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting, it is wonderful to have you as a reader.

  9. Wow! I didn’t realize they were allowing folks to fund investments through their credit card. There was a nice built in arbitrage for those that took advantage of it. But like most arbitrage opportunities, they don’t last forever and most don’t last as long as this one did.

    They made a very good business decision to remove the ability for people to take advantage of this platform and keep them on their mission to completely demonetize investing by offering commission free investments.

    By the way $7,000 to $9,000 is a healthy amount to be increasing your portfolio here by. Good work.

    Cheers!

    • They certainly were allowing it! It really was a marketing strategy to bring money onto the platform; once the customer acquisition cost got too prohibitive and the budget was maxed out, they shut it down. Still doesn’t take away from the great value offered by the platform for investing steadily, and at no-cost, into some great dividend growth companies.

      I’ll certainly be growing this account, and it will be fun to see where things are in a couple of years. At that point it will likely have taken on a life of its own and will almost be self-sustaining because of the dividend income and growth it will generate.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting GYFG!

  10. W2R,

    I wish we have access to a similar service here in Belgium, because it’s a beautiful and cost-efficient way to build a dividend portfolio. What I like about DCA is that it helps to cancel out all the noise in the market.

    Great set of purchases again! I wouldn’t mind owning every single one on your list.

    Keep it up,
    NMW

    • You’re absolutely right about the ability to cancel out some of the noise in the markets by committing to and sticking with a dollar cost averaging plan. For this particular account, that is what I’ve done and will continue to do over the course of the next couple of years. It will be awesome to see what sort of beast this portfolio turns into on its own with those couple of years of consistent capital additions.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts NMW, happy to have you stop by!

  11. appreciate the posts on Loyal3, going to give them a go this year. you cant beat zero commission

  12. Never used Loyal3, but seems to work fine for you! :) Getting interested in UL. A couple of bloggers show nice results or stats about it. Never really considered it yet.

  13. W2R,

    Nice job spreading that limited capital around!

    I’m not necessarily a huge fan of Loyal3, as it seems to possibly encourage buying small portions of overvalued stocks. I took a look at NKE a week or so ago and concluded it was expensive. Of course, it was near $97 at that time. It’s since dropped a bit, which seems warranted.

    But DCAing into overvalued stocks isn’t really a benefit. Buying an overvalued stock in $50 increments and eventually building up a position is just the same as buying an expensive stock from the start. That’s perhaps the major downside to Loyal3. Because of the limitations in stock selection, you’ll naturally be more inclined to spread that capital out and pick up overvalued stocks. You’d have to factor in the commission there, but it’s probably a minimal impact.

    I think the platform is a great idea, however. Perhaps once they have a larger selection, it’s something I’ll look into. But I’m still not sure I’d feel comfortable with, say, $100k of my money invested with a new company with no physical branches and an unclear idea of exactly how profitable they might be. There’s investor protection there, but I can’t even imagine what kind of hassle that would be if it were to come to that. In addition, I’ve read numerous complaints about their fills that turns me way off.

    Seems like it’s working for you, though. As long as it’s meeting your needs, that’s all that really matters. :)

    Best wishes!

    • DM, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with your sentiments here.

      I’ve seen on your blog, and many others, frustration when ‘missing’ out on positions because they’ve seemed perpetually overvalued. While one needs to be judicial with their investments, DRIPing into a strong companies that are ‘overvalued’ like AAPL, DIS, or NKE will allow you to build into these positions without playing the market timing game. None of us are good at market timing, and DRIPing allows one to avoid some of the unpredictable market swings.

      Your second assertion regarding trying to force capital to work among a small number of selections is just plain wrong. Ignoring my own situation, which is far better off than some other investors (note this blog doesn’t track all of my assets), no one is compelled to pick any particular company in any particular amount. I only pick positions I want to hold.

      The final point regarding the physical locations is extremely outdated in today’s world. I use CapitalOne360, used to be INGDirect, for my online savings accounts. I’ve used them for almost eight years and have never been to a branch. Ever. I’ve been a customer of TradeKing off and on for about the same duration. I’ve never been to a branch. I’ve yet to have any issues as a result of these experiences.

      I’m curious what complaints you’ve heard about their ‘fills’ – I’m not even sure what that means. I’ve never had any issues, and everything has occurred as expected.

      Not every brokerage is for everybody. Not every type of investment is for everybody. The best part is we are all given the freedom to pursue our own path. I appreciate you stopping by and commenting. This sort of discussion is part of why the DG community is so amazing.

      • W2R,

        “I’m curious what complaints you’ve heard about their ‘fills’ – I’m not even sure what that means. I’ve never had any issues, and everything has occurred as expected.”

        Fills are filling an order. As in executing it. Preferably in a timely and efficient manner, which Loyal3 doesn’t.

        Just look at the prices you paid for these stocks bud. If you think they’re not getting you coming and going, you’re wrong. Free commission is nice, but not when you’re paying for it anyway through the higher execution price. Loyal3 uses batch ordering, meaning you have no control over the price you pay for your stocks. And it seems that for whatever reason, most of their executions just happen to hit plenty of stocks at their absolute highs for the day/week. Hmm, funny how that happens. Every report you list on these guys is the same thing over and over again. I don’t understand how you keep praising them, even though they’re nailing you on the execution. Either you don’t see it or don’t care.

        You can Google it for yourself, but a lot of people are noticing that the price they’re paying is the absolute maximum for a daily or weekly price.

        You paid $96.18 per share for DIS.

        You paid $96.46 per share for NKE.

        You paid $97.33 per share for PEP.

        You paid $64.06 per share for KRFT.

        So on and so forth.

        Some of these prices were hit for only a very short period of time all month, especially DIS and NKE.

        Per Loyal 3:

        “Since LOYAL3 uses a daily batch or combined order process, and typically executes trades only once per day, your price may differ, perhaps significantly, from the market price when you place your order.”

        Again, no commission is nice. But I can see that for whatever day you enter your transactions, Loyal3 seems to nail the absolute high. Or, depending on when you enter your order, the next day. That adds up as well. It’s not free.

        I’m not saying one should time the market or try to catch lows, but being forced to catch the highs as a form of commission isn’t like you’re getting something for nothing.

        I just think your posts act as if Loyal3 is somehow altruistic, which clearly isn’t the case. Not only does your history show that they nail you on price, but most other comments about the service seem to show the same.

        Again, you can disagree. And that’s okay. But I’m not the only one pointing this out across the internet. And your results seem to prove that out.

        Best regards.

        • DM, I’m a bit surprised by your tone here, however, your passion for trying to clarify something you see as wrong makes sense. Unfortunately, your examples are actually coincidence and not a result of nefarious actions like you think. Let’s take a look and examine the facts.

          On January 10th, I had eight monthly orders initiate. Based on the time in which it took to pull money from my bank account, these orders actually processed on the morning on January 13th. Nothing surprising nor unexpected here. Ignoring any purchase by me, if we look at the peak prices for the listed companies, DIS, NKE, PEP, and KRFT, they all have one thing in common. They all were hitting intraday peaks during the morning of the 13th. Is this something Loyal3 is responsible for? No. My trades were processed between 11-12 am that morning. Go and check out the specifics of the prices during that time frame, and my price per share for each stock falls below the high during that period of time, except KRFT, which is right at the 11 am price point of $64.06. Also, NKE never hit $96.46 during that period, however that cost basis utilized is the result of two separate transactions ($50 and $10) on different days, both which check out as expected. So, before we run off on a witch hunt, let’s be careful when associating coincidence with collusion or wrong-doing. If I weren’t such a maniac about tracking things, I wouldn’t be in a position to know what is happening.

          If, for some reason, the above didn’t clarify things enough, let’s jump back to December. On the 29th, I purchased $30 shares of UL for $41.31 per share using accumulated cash from dividends. I placed this trade right before the same-day trade deadline of 2 pm, meaning my trade, by default, occurred between 2-4 pm.

          Prices Per Google Finance:
          2:00 PM – $41.37
          2:30 PM – $41.30
          3:00 PM – $41.34
          3:30 PM – $41.335
          4:00 PM – $41.28

          Unfortunately, I am not seeing where I was bilked by Loyal3. With the exception of the last half an hour of the day, every price was mostly above, or right around, the price I paid per share.

          I would caution people from leaping to conclusions without having first-hand experience or tracking trades of their own. Does Loyal3 make money on the bid-ask spread? More than likely, but so do most brokers, real-time trades included. Like every other brokerage, they are not in this arena handing out favors, they are in it to make money. The quote you’ve taken from them fairly out of context here. Since you are not making a real-time trade, of course the price you buy out will be different than market at the time you hit the little ‘buy’ button; you are talking hours or days later depending on where your cash currently sits. This is batch trading 101, and you’ll see the same disclosures at Sharebuilder and other batch trading facilitators.

          Lastly, I completely agree with you on this: Loyal3 is not for everyone. Do they make sense to be the primary provider of brokerage services? No. They are limited in too many ways for that. Are they a great way to invest small amounts of money at no-cost in familiar companies, some of which happen to be great dividend growth companies? Yes. Most of the top-20 brands in the world are offered through them. No one is debating whether each purchase is at fair-value, that is up to the individual, but to categorically say they are ‘nailing’ people when they aren’t, doesn’t make much sense to me.

          Thanks for providing some input on this, and I appreciate your thoughts. Constantly evaluating the companies that hold our money/investments is something that everyone should do.

          • W2R,

            Right. I’m not criticizing you or even necessarily Loyal3. They’re honest about the fact that there’s the potential for paying much more than you should be. As such, I didn’t take their quote out of context. They’re open about the fact you may be (and you did here) paying far more down the line than the price that was available at the time of order placement. I was only attempting to point that out so that the other side of the coin is represented. And to be fair, there’s the potential for paying less.

            You can clarify it and attempt to rationalize it all you want. The fact of the matter is that you entered a buy transaction on one day when all these stocks were much lower and the buy went through at mostly their absolute highs a few days later. Laying out the paper trail doesn’t eliminate the fact that Loyal3 completed these transactions at a much higher price than you could have had with a different brokerage. I’m not saying there’s anything afoot. I’m just pointing out the disadvantages of batch ordering, which seems to be very visible here.

            If I would have wanted to buy any of those stocks with a full-service brokerage on the 10th, I could have at a much lower price. That’s really the bottom line. So no commission or not, there are costs there. You have the advantage of spreading out your transactions there (I never said Loyal3 was a bad platform), but spreading out over multiple stocks at their highs – especially if some are already expensive – seems to have limited benefits in terms of cost savings.

            As I stated in my initial comment, I think Loyal3 has merits. A more robust selection will probably go a long way toward improvement and increasing interest. I agree in that it’s definitely not a primary service for someone, but DCAing into stocks with little money is a great benefit. But I don’t think that service comes at no cost. But just like potentially paying a little more here and there due to lack of control over the price you pay will average out to probably very little money over the very long haul, standard commission fees for said control will probably average out similarly. Really depends on the situation.

            Best regards.

          • DM, what this really boils down to is market timing.

            “If I would have wanted to buy any of those stocks with a full-service brokerage on the 10th, I could have at a much lower price. That’s really the bottom line.”

            Whether or not an investor is better served by timing the market with a real-time trade or one that is delayed via batch trading is a pointless argument. There are countless examples on either side of the coin. I’d argue that over time, the impact would ultimately be negligible. In as many times as you’d be hurt by the batch trade catching the market on a higher day, you’d be equally benefited on the days when it dipped. Let’s use Canadian banks as an example. If you’d bought BNS on the ninth (10th is a Saturday), you would have paid above $53 per share. Assuming batch trading two days later, you’d have paid under $52. Who would have benefited in this particular case? Real-time trader or batch trader?

            Again, when you say there are costs to waiting, you’re talking about market timing, which we both know to be a fools game. I know you’ve written before about this generally and made comments as well to this effect: In a few years from now, whether I picked up that little bit of UL at $41.31 or $41.37 won’t matter.

            I know I’ve enjoyed this back and forth as we examine the benefits/cost to batch trading and Loyal3 by an large. As I’ve said to you elsewhere, this is the type of conversation that allows all of us to grow into better investors.

  14. W2R,

    Been reading your site for a while, love the design of it. I too have been using Loyal3, partially because it provides a secondary avenue to build positions I am not able to otherwise. It also allows me to start getting returns ASAP so I can in turn put those dividends to work quickly.

    I think DM is right in that we are probably paying a premium, but in sharing most of those companies you have up there I must say its worth it. In reality those companies should all do good for a long time. Even if you suffer a little premium now, it is worth it in the long run, especially if you are not always available to hit on the lows.

    My goal is to eventually merge my Loyal3 holdings with my standard brokerage (in this case Sharebuilder). I am also eying the same with Robinhood, which if you like Loyal3 you should check out as well. The Dividend Growth Investor had a good write up on it about a month back, the catch is you need an Apple product to use it (iPad, iPhone, etc.).

    Keep up the good work,
    Dividend Gremlin

    • Gremlin, glad to have you as a reader!

      Loyal3 is indeed a great tool to put some money to work. It will never be my main portfolio, but instead one where I can focus on those equities I view as best bought in small amounts over time. Companies that are always overvalued, and in hindsight are ones you always kick yourself for not buying. I think where DM and I are on different pages is the fact that we are discussing ultimately the merits of market timing. While there is something to be said to having completely control over your entry point, it isn’t the be all end all as none of us know the market and its gyrations perfectly.

      I’ve looked into Robinhood, but am not interested in it until they come out with a web-based platform. Additionally, any concerns I have regarding Loyal3’s long-term sustainability are magnified even further with Robinhood, which doesn’t have the additional revenue streams that Loyal3 has.

      Thank you for your comments DG!

  15. Do you ever consider selling calls against your dividend paying stocks to enhance the dividend? For example, your position in KRFT, it is currently yielding about 3.3% (Dividend of $2.20/year) with the price trading as I write this comment at $66.72.

    You could for example sell the January 2016 $67.50 call against every 100 shares of stock you own and collect a $4.10 premium or about 6.1% of the stock price. Regardless of what the stock does the premium is yours to keep. This effectively triples your yield by just holding the stock outright and actually decreases your risk.

    Just another way to get paid!

    • I’ve considered using covered calls before, but at this point I don’t really have any positions I’d be willing to lose. If anything, I’m more interested in selling naked puts in order pickup shares in the future at a price I’ve already locked in while earning a premium. I’ll likely revisit this later in the year or next year.

      Thanks for the thoughts GYFG!

      • Gotcha! The risk profile is the same for a covered call or naked put.

        I typically sell calls against my positions and out of the money puts for stocks that I wouldn’t mind owning more of at lower prices. In each case I am just reducing cost basis :)

        Cheers!

        • The risk profile might be the same, but the end result is very different. With puts you are adding premiums and setting a cost basis for equities you want to hold. The risk here is you have to spend the money to buy the stock. With covered calls, you risk losing your position, which is an end result I’m not thrilled about.

          Good to see you’re using them effectively for yourself. I’ll be looking into them more along the lines of puts, but we shall see what happens.

  16. I looked at that picture and thought, “wait, did he buy NKE on Loyal3?” Haha.

    Congrats on the new position. Glad to be a fellow shareholder!

    • Haha was it that obvious? I kid, I kid. Yes, I added NKE. It is a company I’ve wanted to own for quite a while, but just never pulled the trigger because of the valuation. I’ll happily DRIP into it so I don’t continue to regret not owning it.

      Thanks for stopping by Seraph!

  17. I love Loyal3 for the reasons you’ve explained! I picked up some MSFT on their recent dip. I’ve picked up small amounts of VFC, PEP, YUM and BABA. I love how I can pick up pieces of some great companies at small amounts! Normally I wouldn’t invest in BABA or Google because they do not pay dividends but I’m long on both of these companies so I may pick small amounts for my “fun” portfolio.

    A quick note regarding their fills, while purchasing my MSFT, I did notice when the order went through, that it was $1 higher than current market price, which I thought was interesting but it didn’t bother me. I’m not claiming anything but just an observation I made. I’m going to continue to add funds to Loyal3 as I think their value proposition is great. I hope they continue to add great companies to their selection of stocks!

    • MSFT is definitely an interesting add after their latest drop. Another company I wish I’d snagged a couple of years ago back when it was in the mid-20s. Live and learn. Like yourself this is more of a fun portfolio, but one that is driven more by long-term dividend growth plays. I anticipate SBUX, NKE, and others to catch up on a yield-on-cost basis over the next decade or two given their over-sized dividend increases.

      That is interesting your purchase went through that much higher. I’d check the time of day it went through in comparison to the purchase price. I’ve yet to experience anything outside of the range I expected, and this is in over a year of transactions.

      Peter, best of luck as you continue to build your portfolio!

  18. PAT MURRY says:

    My experience with loyal3 has been pretty awesome, also I have made many purchases that did not coincide w/ price peaks. And since I spend usually 10-500 at a time I really don’t mind buying at a higher purchase price when that happens. I got lucky last week when mcd hit 89 my purchases when through close to the low for the day. I use loyal3 to help build an investing routine for myself by making regular purchases with small amounts. I think of my loyal3 account as an online coin jar or piggy bank. Also if you are comfortable investing any amount in a stock and do your research in regards to a companies fundamentals then 5% difference in purchase price shouldn’t be an issue. I’ve often wondered about the issues raised by DM, but I’ve came to the conclusion that it isn’t worth worrying about. The ability to purchase fractional shares with a small minimum and the lack of fees far out weighs not having the ability to time the market and choosing from a smaller pool of stocks in my opinion. Glad to see a fellow loyal3 user! I really enjoy following this aspect of your portfolio and I am interested in seeing how loyal3 transforms and adapts as a company going forward. Thank u for letting me contribute!

    Keep on keepin’ on!
    PATMURRY

    • Pat, thank you for weighing in on this. I completely agree that the small fluctuations in a couple days due to the market aren’t super material, and that the overall benefits far outweigh the lack of real-time trading. Over time, they will all net out to be a wash in my opinion.

      I’m glad you’re a faithful reader and enjoy the Loyal3 portfolio updates. Feel free to continue weighing in on your own portfolio.

  19. TokenReader says:

    W2R,

    I agree with some of the stuff DM said, but I don’t see those as reasons to not use Loyal3 as you can schedule on a daily resolution within the scope of a month. A more interesting service, albeit new, is robinhood.com. They let you trade relatively instantaneously presumably on the major brokerage fullfilment-comission routes with no commision. The biggest drawback is their service is iPad/iPhone only.

    • No doubt DM made some great points, but ultimately his complaints could be boiled down to market timing. While I understand, and can appreciate, the value of controlling your entry price down to the penny, this can lead to analysis paralysis, which is equally counter-intuitive.

      As for Robinhood, they offer quite a bit, but until they have a web-based platform I have absolutely no interest in them. Additionally, their sources of revenue generation are so narrow, I’m not sure how they’ll be able to survive long-term. With Loyal3, they focus on generating revenue from businesses, not from their retail customers. Different operating mentality completely.

      Great to hear thoughts from a range of people, so thank you for reading and sharing yours.

  20. Hi Adam,

    I have to admit that was a great debate between you and Jason. Each of you have great points! Both of you presented each side of things quite well…

    I will throw this in, what about ShareBuilder and their “auto-invest” service? If you are a Costco member, they will invest your chosen dollar amount each Tuesday for $2.00. My future son-in-law is doing this now and investing $100 per auto-investment day making the fee an additional 2% on the cost. He is buying PM and JNJ this way.

    From Jason’s side, this is still not market timing and it may not buy the best price of the day, but I think if you have 40 years to invest ahead of you, this is not such a bad deal.

    I have also spoken with him about Loyal3, and he may purchase some KO from them. Not sure yet.

    I finally got my Robinhood invite and have played around with it just a bit. Seems to be a good simple platform although I am not sure how they will do in the longer term. I understand they are rolling out Android sometime soon. I hold 1 share of BRK.B with them just so I have something invested. I want to see how these guys will grow and what else they will come up with over the next year.

    At any rate, I am glad that you two went back and forth. Great for your readers!

    Ray

    • Ray, good to hear your thoughts, as always.

      I’m actually surprised your son-in-law is only investing $100 per trade. At the $2 in commissions, that is a pretty steep fee on top of batch trading timing. I think he’d be much better served investing at least $200, if not more. Anytime you can minimize your fees, you put yourself in better situation. Counter to that point is that investing something is better than nothing, even if it is at a higher cost.

      Going back to Jason’s comment, it really is about market timing. Jason wants the control to put his money to work at the exact moment he hits buy, as opposed to waiting a couple of days and losing control over whether the price goes up or down. We’re arguing about semantics at that point, considering you’re looking at apples to oranges on transaction types and investment styles. If ‘cost’ can be construed as paying market price at the time an order goes through, you’re best not investing at all, because everything will have a ‘cost’.

      My main point with the recommendation of Loyal3 is that it is a great means to add money at no-cost into some really solid dividend payers, especially for beginner investors with little capital available to invest.

      I’m glad you’ve gotten a chance to check out Robinhood. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not interested in them until they have a web-based interface. I do not have an iOS phone or other device, and will not get one just to check them out. If they want to send me one… well that’s another story! :) Be sure to let me know how it goes working on their platform.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!

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