Many of the stocks that I own and write Covered Calls upon also pay dividends.  Dividends happen on a regular basis and add significantly to my annual investment income.

On 9/26/09 I received the following dividends in IRA and Taxable accounts for a total of $5.36:

BAC dividends are way down from the past when they were .64 per share instead of the current .01 per shares.  I expect that the dividends will once again rise to a more respectable level.  I just don’t know when that will happen.

The huge basis for the 36 shares is because I received these BAC shares when BAC acquired Country Wide Financial last year.  My basis in Country Wide is transferred to my new BAC shares.

I use my basis per share, excluding dividends, to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.