First Post / December Recap

This is my first post, I guess my blog is now live.  I will be making changes and revising this when I figure out how it all works.  It took me forever to even figure out how to make categories.

December Recap:

December was an interesting month.  One of my holdings, TC Pipelines, changed its ticker from TCLP to TCP, I sold a position that failed to raise its dividend, I purchased one new position, wrote a covered call on INTC, and am now sitting on a mountain of cash.  I have more cash on hand than usual, I guess that's a good thing.  In late November I decided that since my job is guaranteed I would be safe reducing the size of my emergency fund and transfered $3,000 into my brokerage account.  Between that, my sale, and a lack of enticing entry points I have way too much cash. 

New Purchases:
28 shares Emerson Electric (EMR) providing $44.80 annual income.  I picked this up under $46/share and am open to buying more in the future.

Sales:
268.078 shares Citizens Holding Co (CIZN) reducing $235.91 annual income.  This company was my only financial stock left after HGIC was bought out.  CIZN was due for an dividend increase this month, which didn't happen.  I found out the bad news early in the month, kept it till the ex-date, then put in a limit sell order.  The limit order was filled 30DEC2011, the last trading day of the year.  Maybe failing to increase is not necessarily a bad thing and everything is fine, but I'm not going to stick around to find out.  It didn't meet my expectations so I kicked it to the curb.  I am looking at other financial stocks to fill this void.  Currently looking at BLK, WPC, SBSI, but I need to do more research.

New Capital:
$600 in December, pretty standard for me (my take home pay is only $1850 a month).  I am expecting a small raise in 2012 and will start adding $610 per month.

Dividends Received: $271.67
ConocoPhillips (COP) - $23.76
Intel (INTC) - $6.30
Chevron (CVX) - $23.49
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - $22.80
Coca Cola (KO) - $18.33
Exchange Income Corp (EIFZF) - $16.74
Avista (AVA) - $28.60
Unisource (UNS) - $44.52
Citizens Holding (CIZN) - $58.98
LTC Properties (LTC) - $28.15

I had a covered call of INTC called at $24 and consequently missed the exdate in November.  I used the proceeds to buy 102 shares at a lower price.  The deal worked out well, I received the premium plus picked up 2 shares, but missed out on $21 of dividends. 

Options/Bonus:
$23.02 received for writing a covered call on INTC for $27 that expires 21JAN2012.  I do not think INTC is worth $27/share so if it gets called I don't care.  I originally bought the company at $19 and change.