Category Archives: Week in Review

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

NOVEMBER 14 – 18, 2016

NEW POSITIONS/STO	NEW STO	ROLLOVERS	CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED	CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED	CLOSED	EX-DIVIDEND
0  /   0	2	2	2   /   1	3   /   0	0	1

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

November 14 – 18, 2016

Well this week was pretty much the antithesis to last week.

Probably a good thing, though.

I was pretty happy with this week, even though I didn’t open any new positions.

The S&P 500 finished the week 0.9% higher and existing positions did well.

More importantly, there was again opportunity to put some idle positions to work and there were opportunities to add to the cash reserves thanks to some assignments and the expiration of some short puts.

There were also a couple of rollovers.

The only negative was that there were some expirations, as well, but as has been the case all through 2016, a little patience may pay off.

With 3 new closed positions this week, there are now 27 on the year.

That’s nothing compared to past years, especially when you consider that 11 of those closed positions were a single stock.

The average closed position in 2016 is 7.3% higher, as long as you conveniently omit MolyCorp. That compares to 2.0% for the S&P 500 during the various time periods of holding, representing a 256.6% differential.

There really wasn’t too much going on this week, other than more data to suggest that the FOMC will have an easy decision in a few weeks.

That’s because retail sales have been better than expected, as long as you don’t think too much about specialty retailers.

It’s also because the bond market has been doing the FOMC’s work for it as interest rates continue moving higher since the Presidential election.

I was very happy to have a nice combination of assignments, rollovers and call sales this week.

Mostly, I don’t mind getting more into cash as we look forward a few weeks to the FOMC meeting.

While we all expect action this time around, the expectation continues to be for just a 0.25% increase.

That’s probably what it will be, but in the back of my mind I think about the possibility of a 0.50% increase.

That would probably decimate traders.

Not likely to happen, but I don’t mind having some more cash than has been the case for quite some time.

Next week is a holiday shortened one and while I won’t mind dipping into cash, the premiums aren’t likely to be very enticing for just 4 days of trading.

I’m looking forward to a quiet week, but we all know that these light volume weeks can also bring some surprises, so even if there are few if any trades to be made, there will be reason to watch with some interest.

As earnings are now almost complete, the rest of 2016 will be an FOMC watch and thoughts about strategic selling.

While there haven’t been too many gains in 2016 for the overall market, even as we are at new highs, it has been a very good year, but I’ll still be happy to see it go.

.Happy Thanksgiving 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:  none

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:  M

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle: IP

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle:  none

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cycle:  none

New STO: CY, GM

Put contracts expired: MRO

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assig
ned:  MRO, MS

Calls Expired:  COH, GME, INTC

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:     MRO (11/14 $0.05)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: HFC (11/23 $0.33)

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.



 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

NOVEMBER 7 – 11, 2016

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

November 7 – 11, 2016

What a week.

It makes little sense to try and dissect out what happened this week, so I won’t even try.

The only thing I know is that the experts are more often wrong when it comes to that which can never be obey recognizable rules of order.

This week had no new positions opened, but I was happy just going along for the unexpected ride.

That ride took the S&P 500 3.8% higher on the week.

That ride also gave me the opportunity to sell calls on 4 uncovered lots and rollover the serial rollover position that has basically been the “go to” for 2016.

With an ex-dividend position on the week and those other income generating trades, I was pretty satisfied, but still have no clue what the rest of 2016 will bring.

For my part, I actually wouldn’t mind 2016 just continue, as is.

The only thing that i didn’t care for during the week was that existing positions couldn’t keep up with the market as they were weighed down by energy, although they still managed to gain 2.7% on the week.

There were, again, no new closed positions on the week and 2016 is looking like it will have fewer than 30 closed positions on the year.

There was so much going on this week and not too much of it lent itself to explanation.

The way the week ended, maybe with just a little whimper, has to make you wonder what the next week holds for us.

A week ago at this time we thought we knew what the coming week was going to hold, but that didn’t really work out.

The experts got everything wrong, including what the stock market would do in the event that they got the election prediction wrong.

After this week’ I and maybe a lot of Americans actually feel better about things, as there is still a cordial shift in power, after the most acrimonious of elections.

That has to count for something.

What we can also count on is that the rise in interest rates will make the FOMC’s decision moot in just a few weeks.

With no assignments this week and the decision to roll over the put position that could have expired, I don’t know where my mind will stand as we get ready to look at that record closing high on the DJIA.

I’d like to see energy do some catching up and I’d like to see interest rates take a little bit of a rest.

With this week’s earnings coming from retailers and their guidances, I think that we all know what to expect in a few weeks, so the question becomes whether we are ready to finally accept the inevitable.

I think that we are and I think that the economy will get a significant short term boost in the coming year as the party against big government goes on a big spending spree, with focus on infrastructure.

Ultimately, there will be a price to be paid, but not any time soon.

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:  none

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:  none

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cycle:  none

New STO: ANF, BAC, BAC, FAST

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: MRO 

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

< strong style="line-height: 20.0063037872314px;">Calls Expired:  none

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:      IP (11/10 $0.46)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: MRO (11/14 $0.05)

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.



 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

October 31 – NOVEMBER 4, 2016

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 31 – November 4, 2016

This week it was easy to know what was going on, which made it very different from the past few weeks.

This week there was nothing good going on, even as earnings weren’t so bad.

There was just no reason to be enthused about anything at all.

Still, I was happy this week, but only because it could have been much, much worse.

I was pleased not to have put any new money at risk, because I couldn’t find any reason at all to spend money.

The S & P 500 finished the week 1.9% lower, as it extended its daily losing streak to nine days.

By comparison, I suppose that existing positions being only 0.6% lower is a victory.

It was nice to also sell some calls on some uncovered positions and to have had at least one ex-dividend position on the week, but all in all, there wasn’t very much activity.

There were, again, no new closed positions on the week and 2016 is looking like it will have fewer than 30 closed positions on the year.

There was so much going on this week, but none of it helped markets.

There were no really bad days, since the market did have some recovery from the steepest of its losses, but there was barely any effort to go anywhere but lower.

With earnings not really being awful and the FOMC offering no surprises, the week ending Employment Situation Report did nothing to buoy markets.

Neither did it do anything to depress them.

What seemed to be depressing the market was every time it appeared as if Clinton’s lock on victory was less secure.

That may portend for a really, really bi
g move on Wednesday.

With everything being so very unpredictable this election season, that’s not a runaway train that I want to get in front of, no matter what the election outcome.

I would be more than happy to watch it go higher without putting any more money at risk.

Anything to put existing positions in better position would be just fine with me at this point.

With the large loss of this week, we are now about 5% below our all time high from just 2 months ago.

That puts us within easy striking distance of a correction, but it also is a good springboard for a rebound.

I’m not really a betting kind of person, but my guess is that we’re in for a rebound, but with the clouds hanging over people’s heads these days with one investigation after another, there may yet be shoes to drop.

The sidelines never looked better.

With an expiring position next week, I would actually like to roll it over, rather than see those short puts expire.

At least that way I would have something to do for the week.

Otherwise, it’s more of the same watching and waiting game.

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:  none

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:  none

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cycle:  none

New STO: AGQ, MRO

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

< strong>Calls Assigned:  none

Calls Expired:  none

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:      INTC (11/3 $0.26)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: IP (11/10 $0.46)

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.



 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

October 24 –  28, 2016

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 24 – 28, 2016

This was yet 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.

And the week before, too.

This time, though, I’m not certain whether I should be pleased or displeased. That wasn’t the case last week when I as pretty happy about the outcome..

I was again pleased to have made an opening position trade and pleased to be able to roll that over and still have it positioned to be able to take assignment of the short puts if necessary, immediately before its ex-dividend date.

That one new position ended the week 0.3% lower, but that was still 0.4% higher than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500.

The S&P 500 itself was down 0.7% for the week.

I was also pleased with all of the trading that I was able to get done, but existing positions trailed the S&P 500 by 0.5%, just as it beat by 0.9% last week.

Add to that the opportunity to sell calls on 2 uncovered positions and the 4 ex-dividend positions and I ended up being pretty happy, even as the overall positions lagged the market.

There were no new closed positions on the week and 2016 is looking like it will have fewer than 30 closed positions on the year.

There was actually a fair bit of news this week, but nothing really to move markets.

What news came from earnings was very much mixed and the really good news from the GDP was overshadowed by some political news.

On top of that interest rates moved higher and oil moved lower.

There was no trend and no really good news from companies offering their guidance.

The GDP, however, was stronger than might have been expected, given some of the numbers that are coming our way.

Maybe when the retailers start shedding some light on what they project we may finally see some real movement in the market.

What direction is still anyone’s guess.

The GDP release on Friday gave more reason to believe that the FOMC was going to have reason to act within the next 6 weeks or so, especially as interest rates are beginning their climb.

If traders are fearful, and the sudden interest in buyouts and mergers may indicate a fear that cheap money will be disappearing, the direction could be south, just as it was last year.

However, cooler and smarter heads prevailed, although it did take a month of pain for those smarter people to take control of markets.

WIth no assignments this week and no positions set to expire, I wouldn’t mind spending some cash to make cash, but I’m still wary.

That hasn’t stopped me before, but 2016 hasn’t exactly been one of robust buying anyway, even as it has been a good year for the bottom line and the overall income production has been acceptable, although not great.

It is time for great again, but I don’t think it’s coming next week.

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:  none

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cycle:  none

New STO: BMY, HPQ

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: MRO $14.50

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

Calls Expired:  none

Puts Assigned:  MRO $15

Stock positions Closed to take profits:  none

Stock positions Closed to take losses: none

Calls Closed to Take Profits: none

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

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  INTC (11/3 $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.



 

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 cycle:  none

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.