Dashboard – July 4 – 8, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

SELECTIONS

MONDAY:   Happy and safe Fourth of July to all

TUESDAY:   The markets, including oil, may be taking another breather today as the holiday shortened trading week ends with an Employment Situation Report and is interrupted mid-week with FOMC minutes

WEDNESDAY:  Oil was down yesterday, gold higher, interest rates lower and the dollar higher. All made for an environment to send the market lower for the first time in a week. This morning futures are again lower, although the market closed yesterday well off from its lows, but there isn’t much in the early going to give reason to continue yesterday’s relative late strength

THURSDAY:  A nice recovery yesterday afternoon and now the futures are flat, as we await tomorrow’s Employment Situation Report. That could do what it did last time and set off some fireworks or sow some confusion ahead of the next FOMC meeting.

FRIDAY:.  The Employment Situation Report comes this morning and a big bounce from last month is expected. What the reaction to that bounce will be is leading to some tentativeness in the futures this morning

 

 

 



 

                                                                                                                                           

Today's TradesCash-o-Meter

 

 

 





 “SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK” APPEARS ON FRIDAYS

Sneak PeekPie Chart Distribution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Summary

  

Weekend Update – July 3, 2016

We often have an odd way of accepting someone’s decision to change their mind.

A change of mind is frequently thought to be a sign of a poorly conceived conviction or a poorly conceived initial position.

Few politicians change their minds because they know that they will be assailed for weakness or for having caved in, as opposed to having given careful and objective thought to a complex topic.

Of course, then there’s also the issue of a politician changing their mind simply for political expediency or political advantage.

That kind of distasteful behavior, although perhaps pragmatic, just stokes our cynicism.

We sometimes get upset at a child’s frequent changes of mind and want to instill some consistency that ultimately stifles ongoing thought and assessment.

At the same time, as parents, we are often faced with alternating opinions as to whether we need to be consistent in application and formulation of the rules we set or whether there should be some ability to make the rules a living entity that is responsive to events and circumstances.

When I was a child, I attended a “Yeshiva,” which is a Jewish version of a parochial school. We were taught to abide by Biblical laws, include the law regarding Kosher foods.

One day, when I was about 10 years old, I found a package of ham in our refrigerator and confronted my mother about the blatant violation of a sacred rule.

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Week In Review – June 27 – July 1, 2016

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

June 27 – July 1, 2016

 

NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED EX-DIVIDEND
2  /  2 0 2 2   /   0 0   /   0 0 5

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 27 – July 1, 2016


Well, this was an interesting week.

Just when it looked like….

….It turned out not to be that at all.

In fact, it was the best week in 2 years, even with Monday’s big decline.

When it was all said and done, last week’s decline, which had taken the market back into negative territory for the year with its continued loss to open this week, was once again showing a gain on the year.

There were 2 new positions opened this week and along with most everything else, they went higher, just not high enough as the gains were constrained by the sale of call options.

Those positions were 2.2% higher, finishing 1.0% lower than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500. The basic index ended the week being 3.2% higher, as those 3 post-Brexit days mid-week changed everything.

With 2 new assignments on the week closed positions in 2016 were 6.8% h
igher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.6% higher. That represents a 337.7% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case, although the pace has been slowly increasing

This was a good week.

It’s always nice to see asset values rise, but i also like seeing activity.

This week had 2 new positions opened, 2 positions rolled over, 2 positions assigned and 5 ex-dividend positions.

It has been a long time since having that much activity and I enjoyed it immensely.

I also enjoyed seeing the week come to a close on a less effusive note, as it’s always more comforting to see support levels being established, rather than meteoric moves higher.

Those are hard to sustain, especially if there continues to be overhead resistance and there is definitely overhead resistance ahead.

With a couple of assignments this week, I would welcome some more opportunity to add new positions, but with volatility again dropping, it may be difficult to find anything suitable, especially with only 4 days of premium ahead of us next week.

Then again, I didn’t think that there would be much chance of spending money this week and things turned out very differently.

With only a single ex-dividend position next week and no positions set to expire, I might succumb to the desire to generate some additional revenue.

If so, that would mean having to recycle some of the money from this week’s assignments.

As has been the case lately, I wouldn’t mind recycling the money right back into positions that had just gotten assigned if there is any early price weakness as the week gets underway.

That has been a pretty good formula lately, especially in those positions that still had some reasonable volatility associated with them.

Otherwise, it may end up being a quiet week, as has been the case for much of 2016.

I hope that whatever next week brings, it does bring a happy and safe Fourth of July to all.


This week’s details may be seen in the Weekly Performance spreadsheet * or in the PDF file, as well as in the summary below

(Note: Duplicate mention of positions reflects different priced lots):



New Positions Opened:  EBAY, MRO

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle: none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into extended weekly cycle:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle: none

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle:  GDX, NEM

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cyclenone

New STO: STX

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  MRO

Calls Expired:  HFC

Puts Assigned:  none

Stock positions Closed to take profits:  none

Stock positions Closed to take losses: none

Calls Closed to Take Profits: none

Ex-dividend Positions   CY (6/28 $0.11), DOW (6/28 $0.46), EMC (6/29 $0.11), WFM (6/29 $0.14), GPS (7/1 $0.23)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: CSCO (7/5 $0.26)

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, ANF, AZN, BBBY, BBY, CHK, CLF, COH, CSCO,  CY, DOW, FAST, FCX, GDX, GM, GPS, HAL, HFC, HPQ, INTC, IP, JCP, JOY, KMI, KSS, LVS, MCPIQ, MOS, NEM, RIG, WFM, WLTGQ, WY (See “Weekly Performance” spreadsheet or PDF file)



* If you don’t have a program to read or modify spreadsheets, you can download the OpenOffice Suite at no cost.



Daily Market Update – July 1, 2016

Close 

 

 

Daily Market Update – July 1, 2016 (7:30 AM)


The Week in Review will be posted by 10 PM and the Weekend Update will be posted by Monday at Noon.

The following trade outcomes are possible today:

Assignments:  EBAY*, MRO*

Rollovers:   none

Expirations:   none

The following were ex-dividend this week:   CY (6/28 $0.11), DOW (6/28 $0.46), EMC (6/29 $0.11), WFM (6/29 $0.14), GPS (7/1 $0.23)

The following will be ex-dividend next week:  CSCO (7/5 $0.26)


* In the event that a rollover is possible and able to provide an additionally 1% weekly ROI, I would prefer to rollover those positions, rather than accept assignment.

Trades, if any, will be attempted to be made prior to 3:30 PM EDT.