Author Archives: TheAcsMan

Daily Market Update – June 21, 2016 (8:00 AM)

Yesterday was a day when almost everything came together in a positive way, including rising oil prices not putting downward pressure on stocks.

Basically, it was a kind of fantasy land and people were gladly buying, even though about 50% of the earlier gains in the US were lost and even at their peak they didn’t match gains in European markets.

The rest of the week has lots of talk, a big vote and not too much else.

Janet Yellen gives 2 days of mandatory congressional testimony and Stanley Fischer, he co-Chairman, who has been oddly quiet of late, also speaks.

Of course, the real big event is likely to be the vote on whether Great Britain should leave the European Union.

Based on recent polling, there seems to be a sudden shift against leaving and markets are finding reason to cheer.

Hopefully, even as that drives volatility lower, I hope that the reasons to cheer continue, as I don’t mind seeing my net asset value play some catch up, as oil and commodities make up a small bit of their immense lost ground.

I did make an opening trade yesterday and that may be it for the week.

That position goes ex-dividend early next week and I wouldn’t mind losing it to early assignment and [pocketing the entire month’s worth of premium for only 6 days of holding.

That would be nice, but trying to predict a week out is as useless as trying to predict today.

Ahead of Janet Yellen’s first day in front of Congress, the futures are again pointing higher, as there appears to be no one really thinking that the good news will stop, even as there’s really no good news.

What the market has been reacting to is a continued pause in interest rates and status quo in the European Union.

I suppose the absence of bad news is good news, although the continued pause in interest rates may reflect some actual bad news.

Following some real hedging inspired spin by Janet Yellen her past 2 appearances, it will be interesting to see how she is questioned today and tomorrow.

It can’t be easy to say nothing, but it must be even harder to play both sides of the room and try to end up balancing things out.

I hope that there continues to be some strength only so that I can see asset value climb and maybe get a chance to sell some new cover on positions adding nothing to my personal wealth.

Otherwise, I’m just tuned in and am prepared for a personally passive week.

Daily Market Update – June 20, 2016 (Close)

What a difference a poll makes.

Mid week of just a few days ago the numbers seemed to be increasing on the “exit” side of the vote. With the increasing certainty that a British withdrawal from the European Union was going to be the case, there was the usual disagreement about what that would mean and then how long it would take for anything to really happen.

As they were all debating those issues, London’s bookies were still leaning fairly strongly in the other direction.

As the week came to its close the sentiment was reportedly shifting, perhaps due to the tragic shooting of a member of Parliament in a country where shootings are exceedingly rare.

This morning, with just days to go the polls were catching up with the bookies and markets all over the world wee voting with their local currencies and buying stocks.

To me it seemed odd that so soon after being against Scotland’s withdrawal from Great Britain, there would even be discussion about withdrawal from the European Union. You would think that the reasons voiced against Scotland’s proposed move would hold fro Britain’s proposed move.

This morning all of the world’s market’s were much higher. Our own, as the futures were getting closer to the opening bell is actually the laggard, even as it was up by more than 1%.

Even as the market finished nearly 50% off from its intra-day highs, it was better than some of the alternatives.

I’m not one to buy stocks on a Monday when the market has such a climb, so my hope today was that the tide carries many along with it and perhaps offers some opportunities to sell calls on existing and uncovered positions.

Instead, I did get carried along, but while no opportunities to sell calls on uncovered positions came to be, there was one opportunity that seemed too good to pass up.

That was upon seeing the sharp decline in shares of Cypress Semiconductor after it announced the issuance of a convertible offering.

So often those initial reactions are so, so overdone. With its dividend coming up next week and earnings not until the August 2016 option cycle, I wouldn’t mind shares being assigned early, but can wait out the month, as well.

For one, I wouldn’t mind the first week of summer continuing the general pattern of 2016, even if that means no more days with the promise of broad big gains, such as today.

That hasn’t resulted in very much trading for me, but at least it has allowed some catch-up after the commodity and energy related losses in 2015.

With summer getting underway and perhaps both interest rates and “Brexit” being put to rest for a little while, I’d like to see some seasonal strength in energy prices drag the market higher, as they’ve been doing through most of 2016.

Daily Market Update – June 20, 2016 (9:00 AM)

What a difference a poll makes.

Mid week of just a few days ago the numbers seemed to be increasing on the “exit” side of the vote. With the increasing certainty that a British withdrawal from the European Union was going to be the case, there was the usual disagreement about what that would mean and then how long it would take for anything to really happen.

As they were all debating those issues, London’s bookies were still leaning fairly strongly in the other direction.

As the week came to its close the sentiment was reportedly shifting, perhaps due to the tragic shooting of a member of Parliament in a country where shootings are exceedingly rare.

This morning, with just days to go the polls are catching up with the bookies and markets all over the world are voting with their local currencies and buying stocks.

To me it seemed odd that so soon after being against Scotland’s withdrawal from Great Britian, there would even be discussion about withdrawal from the European Union. You would think that the reasons voiced against Scotland’s proposed move would hold fro Britain’s proposed move.

This morning all of the world’s market’s are much higher. Our own, as the futures are getting closer to the opening bell is actually the laggard, even as it is up by more than 1%.

I’m not one to buy stocks on a Monday when the market has such a climb, so my hope is that the tide carries many along with it and perhaps offers some opportunities to sell calls on existing and uncovered positions.

For one, I wouldn’t mind the first week of summer continuing the general pattern of 2016.

That hasn’t resulted in very much trading for me, but at least it has allowed some catch-up after the commodity and energy related losses in 2015.

With summer getting underway and perhaps both interest rates and “Brexit” being put to rest for a little while, I’d like to see some seasonal strength in energy prices drag the market higher, as they’ve been doing through most of 2016.