My Robinhood Stock Picks for October 2018

What a bear the month of October has been for everyone. Fortunately for me the only effect I’ve had has just been numbers on a screen. I can still feed my family, I can still pay my bills, and I still have my job. I’m in everything for the long haul.

With that, let’s see how I did on Robinhood in the month of October.

How I Choose What Stocks to Buy

To recap, here’s how I choose what stocks to buy:

• Stock price must be affordable - under $100, maybe even under $50. This is because Robinhood currently does not support buying fractional shares.
• The company must be a company I believe in - in terms of growth, ethics, technology, innovation, etc. So, no Wal-Mart, no tobacco companies, etc.
• There is a slight preference to companies I use.

Progress

So far, I’ve invested $463.94 into Robinhood. At the end of the day on October 31, my balance was only $448.85. That means I’m down $15.09, or 3.25%.

If you subtract from the $36 I spent on options in July and August from what I’ve invested, and also subtract the $3.51 free stock I earned from signing up with Robinhood and the $32 I’ve earned with options in the aforementioned months from my balance, I’m “only” down $14.60.

If it makes me feel any better, October was a rocky month for everyone in the stock market… Unless you invested in puts or sold at the beginning of the month, that is.

My Picks

I only bought one stock for the whole month of October:

• Keurig Dr Pepper

I had my eye on this one after I bought Coke last month.

I normally buy more than one stock a month, but with a rather large purchase in October, I wasn’t in a position to purchase as much as I would like. That, and I’ve been contributing to my solo 401k instead.

Dividends

I made a whopping 64¢ in dividends in October:

• GE → $0.12
• HP → $0.14
• Gamestop → $0.38

However, these three stocks only cost me $52.85, meaning these dividends effectively have a slightly more than four percent return:

($0.64 / $52.85) * 4 = 4.84%

These dividends are quarterly; that’s why I multiplied by four in the above equation.

Remember!

This money is money I can afford to lose - when I buy any stocks or options, I automatically assume a complete loss, at least as far as my budget goes.

Want your own free stock from Robinhood? Sign up using my Robinhood Referral link!