GGT BECOMES A "FREE STOCK"

I've written about my strategy of "free stocks" in the past.  What I mean by "free stock" is any stock I no longer have cash out of pocket invested in.  GGT has become my latest free stock.  The way I accomplish this is by buying a stock, reinvesting the dividends and holding on until dividends and capital gains allow me to sell enough shares to get my original cash investment back, while still keeping a small position in the stock.  Stocks in my current portfolio that meet this criteria include UVE, HWBK and now GGT.  Selling shares and taking out my original investment allows me to reinvest the cash elsewhere, while still collecting dividend income on the free stocks.

My original cash investment in GGT will now be invested in monthly dividend payer GLAD.  While the dividend yield on GLAD of 8.96% is a little less than the yield on GGT, I prefer the monthly income and I believe there is more upside potential on the share price with GLAD.  I took advantage of UVE's recent run up in price to sell a few shares and free up cash to purchase a stake in JPS.  Both purchases are scheduled for next Tuesday and I should collect my first dividend from each in February.  This will bring my total number of dividend payments collected per year up to 516!

I've been doing a lot of research on covered calls.  While I used to find options trading quite confusing, I'm beginning to see that it's not quite as difficult as I once thought.  I'm especially interested in covered calls for the income they're potential income and for their relative safety.  Got more research to do, but I expect to be writing my first covered call before the end of 2018.