KDK Fund Dec 28 Weekly Report (UUP, Year End)

KDK Fund had a quiet week. The UUP Jan 4th week (ending Jan 24) $21.50 call is still owned. UUP is currently trading around $21.50.  KDK will keep the trade on looking at the following events:

- employment numbers
- Yen actions
- Euro actions
- Fed Reserve actions

With 2013 done, KDK Fund is eagerly awaiting 2014. Lessons were learned in 2013. There were trades that made money but did not have great set ups and there were trades that lost money but had good set ups and exits. The lessons learned during 2013 will no doubt improve the skill and results of 2014.

May everyone have a healthy and successful investing and trading 2014.

You can also follow KDK Fund at its Facebook page (here), Twitter handle @kdkfund, and Google plus

**All posts on this blog are information and opinions only. They are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security. Please do your due diligence first before trading and investing.**

KDK Fund Dec 21 Weekly Report (IAU, UUP, REIT, and more)

KDK Fund had the busiest week in its existence so far. It was a whopping 2 trades :). KDK Fund sold its December IAU $12.00 Put. You can read about it here. It also bought a Jan 4th week UUP $21.50 call option.  You can read about the specifics including why the trade was made here.

KDK Fund also found a Real Estate REIT named Realty Corp. that it will purchase shares of in 2014. The dividend is currently at 5% and is given on a monthly basis.

**All posts on this blog are information and opinions only. They are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security. Please do your due diligence first before trading and investing.**

New Trade in UUP Jan $21.50 Call Option

A new options trade has been made for KDK Fund. The January week 4 UUP $21.50 call option has been purchased for $0.25. UUP is currently trading at $21.67. The goal for the trade is $0.75. The trade will end on Friday, January 24th. Reasons for the purchase are as follows:

- Recent Federal Reserve decision to taper QE

- Increased GDP points to further strength in economy and further tapering of QE

- Increased GDP of previous quarter points to possible upward revisions of current quarter.

- Possible double bottom forming a W formation (there are 3 W formations marked previously in the chart).

- Japan and Europe still in the middle of their own QE programs

- US Government passing actual budget that provides more stability to market and economy

- Cost of trade showed only $0.08 of time value when the trade was made.


 **All posts on this blog are information and opinions only. They are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security. Please do your due diligence first before trading and investing.**

End of IAU $12.00 Put Trade

The IAU $12.00 Put trade has ended. The put was sold for $0.35. That is a gain of $0.10 on the trade before commissions and fees. IAU was trading at $11.60 at the time of the options sale.

KDK will now look in the market over the next week to find another options trade.

**All posts on this blog are information and opinions only. They are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security. Please do your due diligence first before trading and investing.**

Importance of Dividends

Building a solid dividend base should be one of your first priorities when building a long term portfolio. The advantages include quarterly cash payments for each security, the opportunity to reinvest those cash payments (regularly at no cost) for increased wealth, regular cash flow, and more. KDK Fund will be finding securities with a decent dividend so as to be able to return a percentage back to investors.

Researching how to find stable securities with a growing dividend amount is not that hard. You can use most any financial web site like Yahoo! Finance. Dividendchannel.com is also a decent resource.

**All posts on this blog are information and opinions only. They are not to be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security. Please do your due diligence first before trading and investing.**

KDK Fund Weekly Update (IAU trade, and more)

- The IAU December $12.00 trade still continues into next week. The current price of the options is $0.10. The projection for the price of the option is still $1.00. IAU is currently priced at $12.01. IAU moved  $   for the week.

        - IAU is butting down against support.
        - The Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday and Wednesday that should have a significant impact
        - End of year tax selling should be occurring with Gold ETF's like IAU
        - Time Value still high on the option

** This blog is just information and opinion regarding a particular fund. It is not to be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own due diligence before trading or investing.**

Sticking To Your Plan - Analyzing Risk and Reward

Recently, an opportunity to take a position in 3D Systems came through for the fund. As written here before,  3D Systems looks to be on track past 80 and KDK Fund is not sure how far it could go in 2014. But the opportunity came with an added risk of needing capital that is currently assigned elsewhere in 2014. This was a big test for the fund. Take the risk for large gain or stick to your plan and gain less. The difference maker for this decision was the percentage amount the risk carried over the percentage gain difference that trading 3D Systems over other investments would have brought.

When this analysis occurred, it was made plain and clear that the trade in 3D Systems would have to wait just a little while longer. The potential loss would have been too great a burden on another part of the 2014 investing plan to warrant such a trade. This doesn't mean the trade will not happen in 2014. It most probably will happen. Just further down the road.

It is one of the fund's beliefs that the value of good analysis sometimes comes from knowing what not to invest in or trade. But it is not easy to follow. The thought of large gains can have a big emotional effect on how investment and trading plans are made. It can even effect your psychological status about the trading plan. But they can also damage investment and trading plans that do not do the proper analysis on both possible gains and losses. When a large opportunity comes up, the fund will first do a time analysis of the trade. Stepping away from the trade button in order to analyze the trade fully can save your portfolio from destruction, which is far more important than gaining an extra percentage on the gain side.

Do you have any experience with this topic? Please share as this blog is looking to be a tool in developing a stronger investing and trading community.

Is 3D Systems The Next Tesla Stockwise

With the burgeoning business of 3D printing, a look at the companies stocks is necessary. 3D Systems is primed to take that great run of stock. The industry is growing by leaps and bounds. 3D Systems seems to be the lead company hardware wise.

This has the same feel as Tesla did last year at this time. A disruptive technology has been accepted by main stream media and consumers. There are large investments made in the industry. There will probably be buyouts.

KeaneVCC Idea Lab has written a couple of articles in regards to the development of 3D printing. You can read them here.

KDK Fund does not have a relationship with or own shares with any of the companies mentioned above at the time that this article was published. But it may in the future.

  ** This blog is just information and opinion regarding a particular fund. It is not to be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own due diligence before trading or investing.**

KDK Weekly Report (IAU Put Trade and More) 12/7

KDK Fund once a week will write about the week's performance, the thoughts on the future trades, and other financial information thought to be relevant to the account.

- IAU December $12.00 Put Trade - During the week, IAU dropped from a close of $12.13 last Friday to a close of $11.93 this Friday. The put price stayed the same at $0.20. There was positive news on the economic, employment, and manufacturing numbers that were instrumental in this week's drop. The likelihood of the drop continuing is high as the Federal Reserve meets on the 17th and 18th of December to discuss the possibility of tapering the $85 billion monthly QE. Gold is nearing the yearly low. There has not been a large volume day to indicate that a bottom has been reached. Technicals and fundamentals are suggesting a continuation of the down trend. There is still quite a bit of interest in the trade as the time value is higher than expected. Positives for gold include buying pressure from China. KDK Fund will continue with the trade as it is. The goal is still $1.00 for the put. The trade will end by December 20. The initial post of this trade can be found here.

- The fund is gearing up to make its first trade of 2014. It will be made in either the first or second week of January. The plan is to buy Verizon, Ford, Google, United Healthcare, and Costco (not order specific) during the year.

** This blog is just information and opinion regarding a particular fund. It is not to be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own due diligence before trading or investing.**

First Options Trade Made ($12.00 December Put)

The account just purchased the IAU December $12.00 put. The cost was $0.25 before commissions and expenses. The goal of the trade is to see the option sold at $1.00.

The trade was made based on the following fundamental and technical factors:

- Taper talk is back

- The chart is hitting the bottom of its range (strong possibility of breaking through to $11.00)

- Strong talk about capital rotation out of gold into other assets like stocks

- End of year sales of losers to gain tax advantages

Thanksgiving Gives A Peek Into Corporate Ethos (Walmart, Costco)

There are some stores that are now opening during Thanksgiving. Wal-mart is one of these stores. Costco, one of the KDK Fund's planned purchases for 2014, is not. The focus of this article is going to be on why these actions are happening including revenue generation needs by the companies, wage needs by the employees, and profit needs by investors. It is also important to note that in reality, finding a deal and shopping is far more appealing that spending time with family and friends for a large segment of the American population.

The need for more revenue in this economic environment is taking on a new paranoia for some companies. Wal-mart is one of these companies. The recent quarter showed a slowing of growth and the guidance was not good. Needing to be open on Thanksgiving is essential for the company to increase revenue. In comparison, Costco's revenues have been steady. Even as they know they might be missing out on some sales revenue, it won't affect their guidance for the quarter. This level of leadership shown is important in running the company. Employees, customers, and investors know that they are getting a satisfactory level of performance without having to open on Thanksgiving.

Employee wage needs are high in places like Wal-mart. Because the average associate wage is low, working on Thanksgiving affords the employee to pick up some extra hours and some extra wages. With the holiday season upon them, the employees of Wal-mart know all to well the stress of needing to get extra hours to pay for extras like gifts. This need for more wages is something that Wal-mart is banking on when staffing  stores open on Thanksgiving. Most employees literally cannot say no to working on Thanksgiving. Conversely, because Costco's associate wage level is higher, the need for stores to be open so employees can make more money is lessened. This way, Costco can continue to execute their business plan as well as take time off during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Investors (you and I) are hungry for more profits. Because of this demand that we put on businesses, some have decided to be open on Thanksgiving. Wal-mart's decision to be open on Thanksgiving has been given an endorsement by investors as there has been no negative reaction within the markets. Staying open on Thanksgiving will help meet investor demands for meeting profit expectations. There are pension funds, 401K funds, other retirement funds, and other investment capital that are depending on Wal-mart to be open on Thanksgiving in order to make profit numbers. On the flip side, because Costco's business plan is clear as to profit expectations, investors are regularly satisfied with the numbers both on the revenue side and profit side. It is interesting to see how the same stakeholders do not demand the same action from Costco as they do from Wal-mart.

When Thanksgiving comes, understand that stores that are open and stores that are not open are simply projecting their business ethos. It is a peek into what drives the decision making process at these particular companies. The combination of need for more revenue, wages, and profits drives companies like Walmart to be open on Thanksgiving. It is their business model and ethos and can be considered accepted and approved by all the stakeholders (management, employees, and investors) in the company. For now, Costco's business model and ethos allows it to stay closed on Thanksgiving. The company should still make their numbers, the employees still get the day off with enough wage earnings to enjoy the day, and investors can still feel confident that profits will be solid. That ability to execute on all three levels is admirable. Managers, employees, and investors who value the meaning behind Thanksgiving should be thankful for companies like Costco and question exactly what is going on at companies like Walmart that being open on Thanksgiving is more of a necessity for management, employees, and investors than anything else.

** KDK Fund does not have any current relationship with any of the companies mentioned in this article. It does plan to purchase shares of Costco in 2014. **

Options Plan for 2014

Hey all

The options plan for the KDK Fund will consist of using a portion of funds to speculate on stock and ETF options in order to capitalize on momentum moves. The focus of the options account will be to find options on stocks or ETF's that have the likely hood of a large enough move in either direction during a particular period of time so that it can produce 100%+ returns on the option purchased. After commissions, taxes, and fees are taken out of winning trades, 50% of the rest of the profit will be put into the stock/bond portion of the fund. A losing trades max loss will occur at the 50% level. A rules base is being created to find the options that will be traded.

There are many reasons why a particular option will be purchased. Technical and fundamental research will be used for analysis. News will be a big driver. Time frames on the options will vary. There could be an earnings release with plenty of volatility within the stock or ETF. There could be a government decision made that will affect currency and general stock markets. There could be a management shakeup. There could be a natural disaster. The stock or ETF could be in a very predictable trend. There could be speculation of a merger.

** This blog is just information  regarding a particular fund. It is not to be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own due diligence.**

Long Term Investments For 2014

Hello all

The fund has spent the last couple of months looking at what to invest in for 2014 and has come away with 5 companies. As of right now, the list includes Ford, Verizon, Costco, Google, and United Healthcare. The feeling is that this group of stocks provide a mix of strong dividend and stock price appreciation.

The fund is looking to invest in Ford primarily for its growth prospects. North American sales are good and Europe seems to be bottoming out. Ford also continues to be led by a very good management team and gives a 2%+ dividend (annual) in the third month of the quarter.

The fund is looking to invest in Verizon because of its leadership in the communications sector. It gives a 4%+ dividend (annual) in the second month of the quarter.

The fund is looking to invest in Costco because of its outstanding leadership and steady stock price growth. Costco gives a 1%+ dividend (annual) on the second month of the quarter.

The fund is looking to invest in Google because of its growth prospects in most of its product areas. Their innovative processes combined with their business plan execution shows a large promise of profit.

The fund is looking to invest in United Healthcare because of its growth prospects. The Affordable Care Act should help with new enrollment. The company gives a 1.5%+ dividend (annual) on the third month of the quarter.

All five of these companies have at least what can be considered strong balance sheets.

The trailing PE ratios are 11 for Ford, 20 for Verizon, 29 for Google, 13 for United Healthcare, and 26 for Costco.

 Purchases will begin in January of next year. Purchases and sales of stock will go through Sharebuilder.

Welcome

Welcome

This space will be used to describe the actions and trades made for the KDK Fund. For more information on the Fund and its investments, email keanevcc@gmail.com with KDK Fund in the title.

Happy Investing/Trading!

KDK Fund Team