Week In Review – October 17 – 21, 2016

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review


October 17 –  21, 2016

NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED EX-DIVIDEND
0  /  1 2 2 0   /   1 4   /   0 0 1

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 17 – 21, 2016

This was another one of those weeks in which I had no idea what the week was all about, but I still think that something is brewing.

I said that last week, too.

The difference was that for me it was easy to know whether to be pleased or displeased this week.

More or less.

For the most part, I was pleased.

I was pleased to have made an opening position trade and pleased to be able to turn that back into cash by the end of the week.

That one new position ended the week 1.8% higher, which was 1.4% higher than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500.

The S&P 500 itself was up 0.4% for the week.

I was also pleased with all of the trading that I was able to get done, as well as how existing positions were able to finish 0.9% higher than the S&P 500 for the week.

What I wasn’t too happy about were the positions that expired and now need to have new calls sold on them.

A week ago I though most if not all would either get assigned or be rolled over.

So much for that.

With another assignment this week, there are now 24 closed positions. They will forever be forever overshadowed by MolyCorp, when I look at their performance on the year, but as a group without MolyCorp, those positions have done very well versus the S&P 500. There just are too few of them for 2016.

There really wasn’t much news this week.

What there was happened to be mixed and there was also a tendency to overblow both the good and the bad when it came to earnings.

For my part, i was a happy camper.

There were rollovers, new short positions opened, an assignment and a dividend.

The cash flow was better this week and the account wasn’t drained.

Next week is another big earnings week and I’m hoping to do more of the same as this week.

I don’t mind opening any new positions and I wouldn’t mind selling more calls.

However, with 4 ex-dividend positions on the week, the same urgency isn’t there to generate income as it may have been on other weeks that had no positions available for rollover.

So I may sit back next week more than was the case this week.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed this week, which hasn’t been the case very often, even as 2016 is shaping up to have been a very good year.

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:  MRO puts

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:  IP (11/20)

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cyclenone

New STO: BAC, UAL

Put contracts expired: MRO $14

Put contracts rolled over: MRO $15

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

Calls Expired:  BMY, CY, HPQ, WY

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    FAST (10/21 $0.30)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  F (10/25 $0.15), KMI (10/28 $0.125), MS (10/27 $0.20), WY (10/26 $0.31)

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 – October 21, 2016

 

 

Daily Market Update –  October 17, 2016 (7:30 AM)


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

The following trade outcomes are possible today:

Assignments: none

Rollovers: MRO $15 (puts)

Expirations:   BMY, CY, HPQ, MRO $14 (puts), WY

The following were ex-dividend this week:    FAST (10/21 $0.30) 

The following are ex-dividend next week:  F (10/25 $0.15), KMI (10/28 $0.125), MS (10/27 $0.20), WY (10/26 $0.31)

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

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Daily Market Update – October 20. 2016 (Close)

 

 

Daily Market Update –  October 20, 2016 (Close)


With a lot of earnings already out early this morning that painted a mixed picture with regard to the past quarter and more importantly of the coming quarter, we still may be in a position to beat a 2 week losing streak in the market, despite that small loss today.

That would be nice, but there’s still a lot of news ahead in the coming weeks as we get ready for the earnings crescendo that typically comes as retailers report their earnings.

This season, we will also be paying really close attention to their Christmas season guidance, as their impression of the consumer is probably something that is always weighing heavily on the minds of the members of the FOMC.

Coincidentally, they may have a big decision on interest rates due at just about the same time and the big missing piece to the puzzle keep being the reluctant consumer.

There are some signs that may be changing, but no one has the pulse better on that sort of thing than the major retailers.

I’m now counting down the last hours for the week hoping to be able to either keep some positions alive or at least avoid the transaction costs of a rollover and have those positions close enough on Monday’s opening to be able to do something to allow them to generate some revenue, even if having to go out into 2017 to do so.

Why not, as I now have a position set to expire in March 2017.

That would have been unthinkable just a short time ago, other than for my LEAPS kind of buy and hold positions.

So far, this has been a better week than I thought that it might turn out to be and this morning’s sale of so,e calls on an uncovered position helped even more.

We’ll see what opportunities may come from the mixed messages that may continue to come tomorrow.and after.

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Daily Market Update – October 20, 2016

 

 

Daily Market Update –  October 20, 2016 (7:30 AM)


With a lot of earnings already out this morning that paint a mixed picture with regard to the past quarter and more importantly of the coming quarter, we still may be in a position to beat a 2 week losing streak in the market.

That would be nice, but there’s still a lot of news ahead in the coming weeks as we get ready for the earnings crescendo that typically comes as retailers report their earnings.

This season, we will also be paying really close attention to their Christmas season guidance, as their impression of the consumer is probably something that is always weighing heavily on the minds of the members of the FOMC.

Coincidentally, they may have a big decision on interest rates due at just about the same time and the big missing piece to the puzzle keep being the reluctant consumer.

There are some signs that may be changing, but no one has the pulse better on that sort of thing than the major retailers.

I’m now counting down the last hours for the week hoping to be able to either keep some positions alive or at least avoid the transaction costs of a rollover and have those positions close enough on Monday’s opening to be able to do something to allow them to generate some revenue, even if having to go out into 2017 to do so.

Why not, as I now have a position set to expire in March 2017.

That would have been unthinkable just a short time ago, other than for my LEAPS kind of buy and hold positions.

So far, this has been a better week than I thought that it might turn out to be and this morning may help it along a bit.

We’ll see what opportunities may come from the mixed messages that may come today and tomorrow.

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Daily Market Update – October 19, 2016 (Close)

 

 

Daily Market Update –  October 19, 2016 (Close)


The financial sector is now done with earnings, at least as far as the major players go.

For them even without a rising interest rate environment as had been expected, things are going well.

That doesn’t always translate into things going equally well, or even well, for the rest of the economy.

So far, although it’s very early in the reporting process, the same kind of performance isn’t being seen more widely.

While it’s nice that the big banks are doing well and it’s nice that a streaming entertainment service is doing well, those aren’t what’s really important.

There have already been some significant losers and some winners in these early days, but the optimistic guidance outlook that so many thought might be coming with this quarter’s announcements, haven’t come yet.

There’s still time, but for now, I think that I’m shifting back to observer mode.

With a new position this week, a rollover and the sale of calls on an existing position, I may be ready to call it a week, except for the fact that there are a number of positions in line for expiration and I would rather see them in line for assignment or rollover.

I don’t give up hope of either of those two latter outcomes, but we will need a couple of strong days to finish this week to see those happen.

This morning didn’t look as if it was going to be one of those strong days higher, so my eyes were focused on the final 2 days of the week.

I would have gladly taken any of the opportunities that came along today, though and kick off early for the week, but that’s not going to happen.

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