The Dividend Calendar

 

Inflation continues to be the bad word as August, 2022 draws to a close and the schools open for another year here in Canada. Inflated prices puts more stress on a lot of people as supply and demand continues to drive the cost of the essentials up like groceries. I'm sure some prices go up "just because" the topic of inflation rules for now and for no other reason.

Other factors such as employees in unionised workplaces demand more of an increase when contract time rolls around. Other companies raise salaries slightly to keep employees so they add that onto their product prices.

Meanwhile, a lot of folks adjust their spending to keep rising expenses inline as best they can and put off extras and with the wired world, that means less Tech stuff, which affects quite a few Tech related stocks.

With the stocks, I continue to concentrate on oil/pipeline, banking, insurance and telecom stocks and September is a busy month for some of these Canadian stocks the have ex-dividend dates coming up.

With several stocks on the current BTSX portfolio, going ex-dividend in September

Too many to mention here but there are many sites that list ex-dividend dates per weekday, per week or month to receive cash distributions from stocks. One decent source is Investing.com and it's Dividend Calendar where one can filter by country and date range. My bank's investing resources also has a dividend calendar.

Folks can build their own calendars on spreadsheets. I'm more of a pen and paper guy so I buy large calendar books with monthly pages and add my stock's ex-dividend dates as well as those that are on my Watchlist.

Before adding a stock, I look at a stock's dividend history that several sites have recorded and I go to the source ... the stocks website for that investor information. 5 years back or more looking for no gaps or missed distributions. If so, I normally move on and forget that outfit. 

Stocks that have a modest increase in distributions over time is what I like to see.

Overall, heading into September, the markets (and most likely crypto) are waiting for an idea of what the next interest rate hike moves from the Feds will be like. A lower percentage or the same as the last hike.  

 

The Need for Heat in Mid-August?

 

It's Mid August, 2022 and the daylight hours are getting shorter on this side of the world, quicker cooling in the evenings. 

For Europe, they would like to slow down this natural process but the clock is ticking and the Ukraine - Russia war will cause heating issues when colder weather hits and into the winter. The demand for Natural Gas will make it more expensive as Europe turns back to using more coal and oil. 

Meanwhile countries like Germany are seeking more supply of energy sources. They are in favor of having a natural gas plant in Nova Scotia pumped from western Canada to supply tankers to cross the Atlantic. Hydrogen power is a fairly new form of energy and a facility will be built in Stephenville, Newfoundland where there is no shortage of wind and water to create 'Green' power for shipping.

These will take time to bring on stream so in the meantime, oil will rule and that's my reason for favoring energy stocks. Some enjoyed huge cash infusions when oil pushed over a $100 a barrel this year.

Over the years as electric, battery and hydrogen power become more typical, oil will continue to have it's uses and will probably have more demand for it where less could be pumped from the ground and oceans as companies develop alternative power sources. But that's all years ahead while many countries in the world have a timeframe in years/decades to go more green. Such as phasing out gas cars for hybrid and electric vehicles over time.

There are a number of quality dividend paying stocks and ETF's that hold energy related stocks. Top of my list is Enbridge (ENB.TO) and Pembina Pipelines (PPL.TO) among others.

These stocks tend to move with the price of oil and the general "goings on" in the daily stock market fluctuations but have a decent record of steady dividend distributions to holders.

Ethereum or Ether (ETH) is my top watched crypto these past couple of years as it heads to the transition from 'Mining" to 'Proof of Stake' where a minimum of 32 ETH and higher will reward a 'validator' for processing transactions. Another form of going 'Green', moving away from power sucking computer rigs in Mining facilities.

Ether follows the price of Bitcoin the majority of times and both seem to be tied to the moves of the stock market these days. Particularly the 'tech loaded' NASDAQ this year.

ETH has moved from below a grand USD this year to doing a chin-up to the 2 grand level recently so over a 100% gain for those who bought low. The word of the day is volatile so don't bet the farm but some decent gains can be had by playing on the cautious side.

Gas, Stocks and The Hack

 

It's still high but gas has fallen by 10 cents a liter where I live where Oil is down below $100 USD for now. That's a break on the ol' wallet expenses but general Shop prices remain high and continue to climb despite what the Feds do to try and control it, groceries especially.

In general, the past few days starting August of 2022, has been slow moving in stock and crypto land. 

It's kind of the norm for Bitcoin watchers to see it sell off some when it hasn't moved up in several days, or stalled. Not always, but a dip in price brings on 'Bottom Price" buyers and BTC has risen beyond it's past short term high.

The De-Fi sector of crypto ... I tested that when it first started but soon found out it wasn't for me for various reasons. On of the biggies was ... I'm gaining interest but if a token drops in price too much there is no gain, which of course happened big time this year. Fees to move or exchange coins also factored in to my dislike.

These days there is even more added risk as crooked hot shots that know programming and coding spend their days trying to break into these automated De-Fi or Exchanger/Wallet Provider scripts. People monitoring the scripts for errors probably see these hackers get quickly get in and out, while syphoning a few million or more out. What just happened? as they try and close the entry points the crooks use.

Like bank robbers planning and breaking into sophisticated vaults. Once in, the hard part is over and then have access to money, jewels, etc. Like crypto thieves, the clock is ticking to get out with the loot before they are stopped.

                        Courtesy of Cointelegraph

There is constant speculation from big firm money analyst's, fund/ETF managers, to DIY investors concerning the stock market. Is it getting better today, worse or is a recession coming? ... or is it already here? Online and on TV it's the constant debate that creates the greed and fear that moves the markets.

On my end, I just concentrate on dividends/cash distributions and prefer to buy the premier companies/banks that have a history of steady distributions plus the bonus of increases over time like the top ten in yield on the TSX and other decent stocks below that.

It's always ideal to buy at a lower price than I bought before but timing the market can't be done on a consistent basis although some say they can.

Overall, not the August breakout I would like to have seen so far. What will mid August bring? I'm also looking forward to the end of these high humidity heatwaves here on the east coast of Canada.