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2010 Ex-dividend and Pay date information for AGZ, CFT, CIU, EMB, GBF, GVI, MBB, MUB, NYF SUM, MUAA, MUAB, MUAC, MUAD, MUAE, MUAG

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

The Ex-Dividend and Pay Date  information below is based on Ishares distribution schedule,

Ex-Dividend   1-Feb-10    1-Mar-10    1-Apr-10 3-May-10   01-Jun-10   1-Jul-10   2-Aug-10   1-Sep-10   1-Oct-10   1-Nov-10   1-Dec-10   28-Dec-10   1-Feb-11

Pay Date  2-Jan-10   5-Feb-10   5-Mar-10   8-Apr-10 7-May-10   07-Jun-10   8-Jul-10   6-Aug-10   8-Sep-10   7-Oct-10   5-Nov-10   3-Dec-10   04-Jan-11   5-Feb-11

AGZ      iShares Barclays Agency Bond Fund (AGZ)
CFT      iShares Barclays Credit Bond Fund (CFT)
CIU      iShares Barclays Intermediate Credit Bond Fund (CIU)
EMB     iShares JPMorgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Fund (EMB)
GBF      iShares Barclays Government/Credit Bond Fund (GBF)
GVI      iShares Barclays Intermediate Government/Credit Bond Fund (GVI)
MUAA iShares 2012 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAA)
MUAB iShares 2013 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAB)
MUAC iShares 2014 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAC)
MUAD iShares 2015 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAD)
MUAE iShares 2016 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAE)
MUAG iShares 2017 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAF)
MBB     iShares Barclays MBS Bond Fund (MBB)
MUB    iShares S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Fund (MUB)
NYF     iShares S&P New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond Fund (NYF)
SUB      iShares S&P Short Term National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Fund (SUB)

Looking for ex-dividend information for other ETFs?   Check this page.

Posted in Dividend Capture, Mainstream, all, dividend, ex-dividend | View Comments

Time for divergence from 2004?

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Looking a the chart below you can imagine this year’s stock market getting back on the 2009 trend line,  leaving the 2003/2004 correlation behind.  But I’m still betting that the market is in a sideways mode, rather than a continuing raging bull.

The most notable change in the curves since my last update on the 18th of March  is the big drop in normalized volume–something we didn’t have till the Summer of  2004.    Volumes have been low recently, so this drop-off isn’t surprising.  If the 2004 pattern holds true, the 30 day moving average of volume will drop during rising prices, and start increasing a couple weeks before rallies occur.

SPY-30Mar-comp

Posted in Mainstream, all | View Comments

Schwab stealth dividends — can you guess the pattern?

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Update

Schwab posted their 2010 ex-dividend / distribution dates for their no-fee ETFs here.

Original post…

Schwab’s new no-commission ETFs went ex-dividend last Monday, March 22nd.   The distribution date is 26-March–only four days later!   I had guessed Schwab would align with the quarterly iShares funds ex-dividends, but apparently they have decided to go it alone with apparently semi-random, unannounced ex-dividend dates.  The dividends to be paid were posted recently.  The distributions:

SCHA   $0.07

SCHB   $0.11

SCHG  $0.05

SCHV  $0.14

SCHX   $0.10  (I had guessed $0.12)

The two ex-dividend dates we have since the funds started, 23-Dec-09, a Thursday, and 22-Mar-10, a Monday, don’t suggest a pattern I can see.   Ex-dividend dates tend to follow a week / day of week pattern (e.g., Thursday on the 3rd week of the month), or a day of the month (e.g., 1st of the month unless it is not a business day).   The December date was the 17th business day, and the March date was the 16th, so not a usable pattern there either.  Guess we will have to wait another quarter to get another data point.   In the meantime I’m going to guess and predict the next Schwab fund ex-dividend date will be on 21-June-2010.

Posted in Dividend Capture, Mainstream, all, dividend, ex-dividend | View Comments

New options symbols: Generic, Schwab, Fidelity

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Recently options symbols transitioned to a new terminology.   Unfortunately Fidelity and Schwab decided they didn’t want to use the standard, generic format, so they invented their own “better” version of the new symbols.   Here are the new formats:

Generic, industry standard format: “SPY 10417C00114000″     (<symbol> <YYMMDD>  <C or P><5 digit whole dollar strike><3 digit decimal>).

Schwab’s systems: “SPY 04/17/2010 114.00 C”       (<symbol> <MM/DD/YYYY> <whole dollar strike>.<2 digit decimal> <C or P>)

Fidelity’s systems: “-SPY100417C114   (<dash><symbol> <YYMMDD>  <C or P><whole dollar strike, no leading zeros><”.” if fractional strike> <decimal with no trailing zeros>) .  Another example would be “-QHD100417C32.5″  for a call with a strike price of $32.5

Posted in Advanced Topics, Options, all | View Comments

Free option charts

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

One of my ongoing frustrations has been the lack of options charting capabilities on Schwab and Fidelity trading platforms.  Perhaps that capability is there, but it is certainly not easy to find, or charts become unavailable as soon as an option expires.    Recently I discovered that  BigCharts http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/ offers free options charts and they are pretty good!

BigCharts uses  the new standard option symbols, not the Fidelity or Schwab flavors.  If you hold your mouse over their “quote” word in their options chains it will show the correct symbol.   The standard option symbol format is:  <ticker><YYMMDD><C or P> <5 digit strike price> <3 decimal strike fraction>.       So SPY 116 April calls would be:  ”SPY100417C00117000″ –obvious, right?    It wouldn’t be so bad if everyone used the same format, but my head spins looking at the at least three flavors I am aware off.

The ticker symbol still varies depending on strike price ranges for most options, but over the next few months they will all be rationalized to use the standard ticker where possible.

BigCharts avoids the huge issue of charts not being available after the options expire.  But it looks like it still suffers from the problem that intra-day information becomes unavailable soon after the options expire.  They need to allow a range of dates to be displayed, not just assume that you want everything referenced back in time from today’s date.

The other thing they need to do is to chart bid/ask values if actual trade values are not  available.   Since many options are lightly traded their charts are deserts of information.  Bid / ask history would be much better than nothing.

Posted in Advanced Topics, Covered Calls, Options, VIX, all | View Comments

Where have all the sellers gone? Is fear in cash?

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

This bull run has been going on since the 8th of February.  A very long time without a correction in these uncertain times.   In watching the market action I have been surprised at the down days.   In-spite of the late January scary correction and market shocks that I would expect to send the S&P 500 down a percent or two, the market has shown remarkable resilience.

In conversations with my friends, most of which are not active traders, I have noticed a pattern. Most of them are out of the market, expecting a double dip recessi0n.   Perhaps this is the overall situation.   Overall there are a lot of bulls remaining, but for the most part they are buy and hold types, not trying to time the market.   Are the people that are likely to get scared after a long bull run-up and sell on scary days already be on the sidelines?    If this is the case this market might have some upside left in it.

250 Days of SPY, click to enlarge

250 Days of SPY, click to enlarge

Posted in Mainstream, all | View Comments

SPY covered call using quarterly options

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Bought SPY at 116.84, sold to open quarterly options, expiring 31-March at 116 strike price at 1.42,  (RDQ100331C116)  for a net debit of 115.42.

Posted in Covered Calls, Mainstream, all | View Comments

Dividend History

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

DIA dividend history

DVY dividend history

JNK dividend history – Fidelity web site

LQD dividend history – Fidelity web site

SPY dividend history

TIP dividend history

XLP dividend history – Fidelity web site

XLU dividend history

Want dividend history on another ETF/Stock?  Click this link to go to Fidelity’s web site. For starters the page will have XLU dividend history info, but you can substitute your own symbol.

Posted in Mainstream, dividend | View Comments

Equity option expiration dates –2010

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

The expiration dates for 2010 Equity options are:

January 16th, 2010
February 20th, 2010
March 20th, 2010
April 17th, 2010
May 22nd, 2010
June 19th, 2010
July 17th, 2010
August 21st, 2010
September 18th, 2010  – Next
October 16th, 2010
November 20th, 2010
December 18th, 2010
The last day of trading is the day before (Friday) the dates above.
Source:

Posted in Advanced Topics, Covered Calls, Dividend Capture, Mainstream, Options, dividend, ex-dividend | View Comments

Next SPY ex-dividend, distribution/pay dates

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

The next SPY ex-dividend date is 17-Sept-2010, I am estimating the dividend will be $0.55 per share (2009′s Sept dividend was $0.51). The distribution / pay date for that dividend is 29-Oct-2010

The last SPY ex-dividend date was 18th of June 2010.  The dividend was $0.53 ( I estimated $0.51)   The next payout / distribution date will be 30-July-2010.

See the SPDR website for the official scoop.  You must buy the ETF at least the day before to be eligible for the dividend.

SPY dividend history for the last 6 years is shown here.

Interested in SPY dividend capture?

Looking for ex-dividend information for other ETFs?   Check this page.

Posted in Dividend Capture, Mainstream, all, dividend, ex-dividend | View Comments

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