Dividend Tracking

Purpose

Read received-dividend records from the local DB transactions table (refreshed sync-first) and report Layer 2 income against target.

family_office.db is the system of record. The Dividends sheet and its Apps Script automation were retired 2026-07-31.

Step 0: Refresh (sync-first, mandatory)

Dividend records come from the DB, refreshed FIRST so income can never be stale. Follow the shared Sync-First + DB-Read pattern.

uv run python -m src.integrations.snaptrade.sync_transactions_db          # writes transactions
uv run python -m src.integrations.snaptrade.sync_transactions_db --show   # confirm freshness

Completion criterion: the sync command reports success before any dividend is read.

Do not gate on MAX(synced_at) advancing. The activities sync is idempotent via dedupe_key and only stamps rows it actually writes, so a run that finds no new activity leaves the timestamp untouched. Verified 2026-08-04: the sync reported 2690 fetched, 0 new, 2690 duplicates skipped and MAX(synced_at) stayed at the prior run's value. That is a healthy no-op, not a stale table.

Read the command's own output line instead:

N new greater than 0, timestamp advances → new activity ingested.
0 new, N duplicates skipped → already complete, timestamp correctly unchanged.
Command errors or reports nothing → genuine failure, stop.

Completeness is guaranteed by the dedupe key, not by the stamp.

Month-end lag: distributions post over several days, so the current month is incomplete until roughly the 3rd or 4th of the following month. On 2026-07-31, July read 30 payments at month-end; the month actually closed at 42 payments, about 17% higher. Never compare a partial current month against completed prior months, and never call a month-over-month decline until the month has closed.

Reading dividends

sqlite3 family_office.db \
  "SELECT date, symbol, amount, description FROM transactions WHERE type = 'DIVIDEND' ORDER BY date;"

Each row carries date, symbol, amount, and description. Null-symbol dividends already have a ticker resolved during the activities sync (parsed from the description, for example ... ETF (SCHD), mirroring the positions/options symbol fallback), so symbol is reliable.

Dedupe needs no external ledger: the activities sync is idempotent via dedupe_key, so re-running never double-counts.

Monthly analysis

Aggregate by ticker and month:

sqlite3 family_office.db \
  "SELECT strftime('%Y-%m', date) AS month, symbol, ROUND(SUM(amount), 2) AS received
   FROM transactions WHERE type = 'DIVIDEND'
   GROUP BY month, symbol ORDER BY month DESC, received DESC;"

Monthly total against the Layer 2 target:

sqlite3 family_office.db \
  "SELECT strftime('%Y-%m', date) AS month, ROUND(SUM(amount), 2) AS total
   FROM transactions WHERE type = 'DIVIDEND' GROUP BY month ORDER BY month DESC LIMIT 12;"

Evaluation standard

Judge holdings on trailing 12-month yield, not month-to-month distribution changes.
±5-15% monthly distribution variance is NORMAL for options-based funds. Do not flag it as risk.
Sell triggers are red flags only: sustained decline greater than 30%, NAV erosion, or a strategy change. Not normal variance.

Margin coverage

Dividend income against margin interest is the coverage ratio that drives the scaling triggers. See the margin-management skill; do not recompute the thresholds here.

CSV fallback

imports/Dividend_Positions_MMM-DD-YYYY.csv (the Fidelity dividend view export) remains a manual reconciliation source if the live activities sync is unavailable. It is not the primary path.

Reference Files

User Profile: user-profile.yaml
Sync-first pattern: .claude/skills/_shared/SyncFirstDbRead.md
Income vehicle framework: fin-guru/data/modern-income-vehicles.md

Educational purposes only. Not investment advice. Dividend distributions are not guaranteed, past yield does not predict future income, and options-based income funds carry risk of principal loss. Consult licensed financial and tax professionals before acting.

Skill Type: Domain (workflow guidance) Enforcement: SUGGEST Priority: High

dividend-tracking