Jun202014

Week in Review – June 16 – 20, 2014

Week in Review

 

Option to Profit Week in Review
June 16 – 20,  2014
 
NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED
3 / 3 4 3 11  / 0 1  / 0 1

    

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 16 – 20, 2014 

New purchases for the week trailed the unadjusted S&P 500 by 0.2% and surpassed the adjusted index by the same 0.2%

The market finished higher for the 6th consecutive day, which is often a difficult situation to compete with, but it wasn’t one in which anyone was left in the dust. 

New positions were 1.2% higher while the overall market was up 1.3% on an unadjusted basis and 1.0% on an adjusted basis.

Existing positions lagged the S&P 500 by 0.4% for the week, with many positions having reached their strike levels, after having out-performed the market by 0.9% the prior week.

Performance of positions closed in 2014 continue to out-perform the S&P 500 performance by 1.4%. They were up 3.4% out-performing the market
by 69.7%. 

Lately I’ve found plenty of reason to be dis-satisfied with the process of looking at the week just passed.

I tend to dwell on those things that didn’t go as planned and usually gloss over the things that worked or did go as expected, or more accurately, hoped.

Typically, I try to remind myself that the process doesn’t really matter, it’s the bottom line each week, as well as the ability to put the portfolio to work and by doing so keeping me from having to work. I’ve grown accustomed to having positions function as my annuity and don’t even mind having to work  at it to make them keep doing so.

Sometimes, getting my hands on the premium and dividend cash makes me temporarily look the other way if the bottom line wasn’t as healthy as I would have liked, although then I remind myself that its performance shouldn’t be measured in a vacuum.

When doing that, I usually feel better, even though there are those frustrating individual positions that often don’t seem to be getting better.

This week I’m actually pretty happy.

It was another week of very few new positions being opened and I’m actually not thrilled about that, but now that it’s all said and done I can live with the lack of activity, as it did at least keep up with the overall market.

What I’m happy about is the number of assignments that occured, as that helped to meet one of my goals for the past few months, which was to decrease the total number of positions in the portfolio.

The assignments also helped to replenish the cash reserve that had been getting drained the past few weeks and to some degree was also responsible for a deliberate  decrease in purchase of new positions.

There was also the opportunity to sell some new cover for existing positions, as well as the chance to rollover a handful of positions.

Maybe best of all was seeing the assignment of Weyerhauser. I’ve been anxious to see that go for quite a while, but crazily enough, once it finishes its spin off of its housing and real estate unit, I may want to add it right back.

Go figure.

But really, most of all, it’s still the bottom line.

So for next week there’s cash in hand and already a number of positions with June 27th expiration dates, so the emphasis should be to look for diversifying those expirations by looking for some expanded weekly options.

With the volatility still being so low those expanded weekly options aren’t always very appealing, but perhaps combining them with dividends may work to get an ROI that has some reason to take the associated risk.

That’s what continues being the issue at hand as more and more record closes come and then get surpassed.

It seems that while the account grows, so too does risk.

Because of that I’m not entirely excited about re-investing too much of the significant piece that is being returned over the weekend as all of these positions are being assigned.

But as always also seems to be the case it’s hard to completely remove yourself from the equation or not take part of the activity.

So I expect another week or relatively slow personal trading trying to get a feel for whether to try and balance new positions with short term and longer term expirations in order to protect against any short term downward movement in markets.

That seems to be an unending objective, but for some reason feels more so to me, as this nice week has come to its end.

 







 

     

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

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



New Positions Opened:  LOW, LVS, MA

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:  HFC (7/3), LVS (7/3)

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

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

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

New STO:  BMY, EBAY, HFC, PFE

Put contracts expired: none

Put contract rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  BX, CY, CY, FAST, GME, IP, LO, LOW, MET, RIG, WY

Calls Expired:   DRI

Puts Assigned:  none

Stock positions Closed to take profits:  none

Stock positions Closed to take losses: none

Calls Closed to Take Profits: SBGI

Ex-dividend Positions: LVS (6/18 $0.50)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  none

 

 

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, BMY, C, CLF, COH, EBAY, FCX, HFC, JCP, LULU, MCP, MOS,  NEM, PBR , RIG, TGT, WFM, WLT (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.



Jun132014

Week in Review – June 9 – 13, 2014

Week in Review

 

Option to Profit Week in Review
June 9 – 13,  2014
 
NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED
4 / 4 1 6 0  / 0 3  / 0 0

    

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 9 – 13, 2014 

New purchases for the week beat the unadjusted S&P 500 by 2.2% and surpassed the adjusted index by 2.1%

The market finished lower for the first time in the past four weeks and that’s usually an invitation to out-perform.

New positions were 1.5% higher while the overall market was down 0.7% on an unadjusted basis. 

Existing positions out-performed the S&P 500 by 0.9% for the week.

Since there were no assignments this week, performance of positions closed in 2014 continue to out-perform the S&P 500 performance by 1.5%. They were up 3.3% out-performing the market by 89.6%. 

I’m not really certain how to characterize this week.

Ultimately, it’s always about the bottom line and the bottom line was better this week than last wek, but there’s also the path taken that has to be considered.

This week just didn’t have very much in terms of activity to get from Point A to Point B so to a large degree it’s a question of just being taken along for the market’s ride, which closed surprisingly strongly, given the real geo-political uncertainty that may accelearate over this weekend.

During the week there wasn’t the kind of opportunity to get new cover, as I had hoped, as we saw two consecutive triple digit losses for the week and no really strong days. All in all, it was a mediocre week, which itself wasn’t much of a surprise, since there was really little economic news delivered.

That may be different next week as we have both an FOMC release and a Chairman’s press conference, both coming just days before the monthly expiration.

For me, that’s always a reason for concern. At the moment it appears as if a fair number of positions are in line to be assigned or rolled over, but that can change with just an errant word or two.

Given that there were no assignments this week that immediately makes me less likely to eagerly spend down cash reserves in the coming week, particularly as tensions are increasing in Iraq.

So what was good about this week? The process wasn’t very good, but the outcome was acceptible.

It did get us one week closer to the monthly expiration and leaving only one more week for breath holding.

New purchases fared well as did existing purchases and of course, there were more dividend inflows.

With existing positions doing well and with a number currently being in the money that also means being in a better position to withstand market weakness, although it also means potentially benefitting less in the event of market strentgh next week.

From those persectives I might be happy as far as the way the week transpired, but I would have liked much more trading activity. In hindsight that’s always easy to say, especially those weeks when the new psotiions fare well, as they did this week.

On another positive note, although a very tiny one, volatility did creep up just a little but, but not really to the point that anyone would really notice much in terms of everyday boosts to option premiums. Still, any sustained and slow increase in volatility could be very helpful, not only in getting more in exchange for selling options, but more choices in the time frames used in those sales.

For next week I don’t expect too many new positions to be opened, although some of the weakness this week has made some positions more attractive. The weekend’s events in Iraq may have something to say about how widespread some of those “bargains” may become or may tell us whether there’s reasonable reason to believe that a near term floor to prices has been set or not.

Instead of thinking too much about new psoitions next week and spending down too much cash reserve, I’m hoping it will be a week of assignments, rollovers and most of all, newly covered positions.

That would cap off the month in a nice way, but first we have to get past the FOMC hurdle and the occasional mis-spoken word of phrase that can spook traders.



 







 

     

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

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



New Positions Opened:  GPS, LO, LVS, RIG

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle:  GME

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into extended weekly cycle:  C (6/27), EBAY (6/27), FDO (7/11), FDO (7/11), GM (6/27)

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:  HFC

Put contracts expired: none

Put contract rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:   none

Calls Expired:    EBAY, HFC, PFE

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: KSS (6/9 $0.39), FDO (6/11 $0.31), NEM (6/10 $0.025)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  LVS (6/18 $0.50)

 

 

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, BMY, C, CLF, COH, EBAY, FCX, HFC, JCP, LULU, MCP, MOS,  NEM, PBR ,PFE, RIG, TGT, WFM, WLT (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.



Jun62014

Week in Review – June 2 – 6, 2014

Week in Review

 

Option to Profit Week in Review
June 2 – 6,  2014
 
NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED
3 / 3 3 5 5  / 0 4  / 0 0

    

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 2 – 6, 2014 

New purchases for the week badly trailed both the  unadjusted and adjusted S&P 500 by 2.2% and 2.1%, respectively, as two of the three positions fared very poorly in a week that just set one new high after the next.

The market finished higher for the third consecutive week and set new closing records and did so without any unexpected or unexpectedly good news. New positions were 0.8% lower while the overall market was up 1.4% on an unadjusted basis and 1.3% on an adjusted basis.

Performance of positions closed in 2014 continue to out-perform the S&P 500 performance by 1.5%. They were up 3.3% out-performing the market by 89.6%. 

More records this week as the market received no unwanted surprises and simply ran with it. 

This would have been a good week to have thrown caution out the window and just anticipated that the market doesn’t really seem to need a catalyst to go higher. It just needs the lack of a deterrent.

Despite having a decent number of assignments,  accumulating a fair number of dividend positions this week and being able to rollover some positions and also doing so to secure some dividends, there wasn’t much to be happy about this week.

As usual, it’s bottom line related.

I don’t mind going lower in a given week, as long as it’s not lower than the market. I do mind, however, trailing the market, especially when it goes higher without real reason or without taking a break while doing so.

I’m usually less happy than most when the market simply goes higher and this week was a perfect example of getting left behind as the market advanced another 1.2% for the week.

For those that criticize a covered option strategy this would be the week to point to and say “I told you so.”

With all of those in the money positions the existing positions trailed the market by 0.9% this week. Luckily, I’m not prone to beating my dog.

For perhaps only the second time this year the out-performance of closed positions compared to the market decreased. For much of the year I had been saying that the out-performance was too high to be sustained, at least by my historical standards. Recently that out-performance exceeded 100%. Now it is down to about 90%, as even the 5 assigned positions either didn’t fare as well as the market during their period of holding or just barely exceeded that performance.

Still, not bad, but reflective of a market proceeding without me the past week.

Seeing a fair number of positions now in the money and with still time remaining on their contracts, it’s easy to understand why I wouldn’t mind a little bit of a give back of all of these gains.

Ultimately, that kind of give back would improve the comparative results in the same way that an unchecked advance detracts from it.

Firstly, being in the money means that there’s a cushion to be given back without actually detracting from the bottom line, as long as the decrease still keeps the position in the money.

But more importantly, a broad decline would at least nudge up volatility a little, although at this point t has gotten so low that a little wouldn’t offer too much advantage. What a significant move higher in volatility would accomplish, even if only returning to a VIX of 15, which would have been low by all time historical standards, would be to increase premiums.

But more importantly it would start making longer term options, such as the expanded weeklies and monthlies, more attractive. At the moment, for so many positions there is essentially no additional reward for adding additional time.

Option buyers see little possibility of sudden or drastic moves coming in the future. They are more likely to perceive such a move now, but not tomorrow.

Also, there is essentially no premium for intrinsic value. When volatility is high option buyers pay for intrinsic value. Now they aren’t and subsequently it’s difficult to roll over in the money positions, particularly the deeper in the money they happen to be. Instead of intrinsic value having the added bonus of time value added to it, that time value is almost non-existent.

When volatility is high those kind of rollover trades are easy and much more profitable than they are now.

Additionally, it seems that as the market to profit from buying and selling options decreases for the deep in the money positions, the option buyer is much more likely to exercise early to capture a dividend, since there’s much less likelihood of creating profitable trades on the options contract itself once that time value has been completely discounted, even when substantial time may remain.

The key difference in a high volatility environment is that you do much better by simply rolling over positions, even if they’re in the money. Some long time subscribers will remember that we used to routinely roll over those positions rather than letting them get assigned.

Besides the profit from the roll overs there was less need to find replacement stocks, many of which would also likely be trading at or near highs.

But, at least there’s always next week for some mini-disaster to strike.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

OK, I’m not quite that curmudgeonly yet, but I would like to see some kind of break in this new daily record setting environment.

With some cash from assignments and all of those in the money positions, that would just be exquisite timing and could get me into a buying mood again.



 

     

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

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



New Positions Opened:  BMY, HFC, LB

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle: EBAY ($51), EBAY $51.50), GME

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into extended weekly cycle:  KSS (6/27)

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

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle: FDO (7/11)

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

New STO:  BX, C, DRI

Put contracts expired: none

Put contract rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:   GM ($35), GPS, JPM, LOW, MET

Calls Expired:   BMY, BMY, EBAY, 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: COH (6/4 $0.34), GM (6/6 $0.30), GME (6/2 $0.33),  HFC (6/4 $0.32),  LB (6/4 $0.34MOS (6/4 $0.25)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  FDO (6/11 $0.31), KSS (6/9 $0.39), NEM (6/10 $0.25)

 

 

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, BMY, C, CLF, COH, EBAY, FCX, HFC, JCP, LULU, MCP, MOS,  NEM, PBR ,RIG, TGT, WFM, WLT (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.



May232014

Week in Review – May 19 – 23, 2014

Week in Review

 

Option to Profit Week in Review
May 19 – 23,  2014
 
NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED
4 / 4 9 6 6  / 0 2  / 0 0

    

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 19 – 23, 2014 

New purchases for the week trailed the S&P 500 for the week that saw a 1.2% gain, while  those new purchases matched the performance of the time adjusted S&P 500, which were both 1.0% higher for the week.

The market finished higher for the first time in 3 weeks and did so with a bit of confidence as it even moved nicely higher prior to the FOMC report and then lost none of the steam it had built up after a large loss the prior day.

Performance of positions closed in 2014 continue to out-perform the S&P 500 performance by 1.6%. They were up 3.3% out-performing the market by 101.5%.

This week was a little more like it after a couple of weeks of very little trading and dashed expectations as the market reversed course, and not in a good way for the latter parts of the past couple of weeks.

The combination of very few assignments and very few rollovers, especially like last week is one that I don’t particularly like to see, but it appears as if the decision to defer rollovers in the hope that this week would be somewhat better did work out. It’s just not the kind of decision I want to be in a position to make more than once or twice every five years.

This time around the week reversed course in the good kind of way.

WIth all of the concerns we had this time last week it was another week of talking about new records as the week came to a close. Unlike some previous weeks we didn’t see a collapse in the latter part of the week and instead saw unexpected strength, despite the lack of any catalyst.

As a result this week you could count those chickens before they were hatched and not end up overly disappointed.

This week had a nice combination of assignments, rollovers, newly covered positions and new purchases. It seems as if it has been a while since those all came together. I was especially happy to find some new cover and get some laggards to start earning their keep.

As a result of that combination of assignments and rollovers the cash reserve is restored somewhat and available for new purchases. With only 5 positions set to expire next week and with volatility so low the greatest likelihood is that next week’s new purchases will look at a preponderance of weekly option contracts, rather than expanded weekly contracts. However, with the coming week being a shortened one due to the Memorial Day holiday, I may look at some expanded option poossibilities, if only to make up a little for the lost day of premium for the coming week.

With another new record high set to end the week despite having money to burn, you still have to be mindful of how precarious it can be at the top and how far that fall can be. Most everything is a balance between consideration of risk and reward. However, as we climb so hgh it seems reasonable to believe that the continued upside reward is decreasing relative to the downside risk.

For that reason, although the money is there and there are now six fewer positions to stock the portfolio, I’m not terribly interested in replacing all six during the coming week. With so many rollovers and newly covered positions some of the upcoming week’s income has already been realized and that removes some of the need to find new sources of revenue.

Of course, as with every week, the plan may be great, but it can all change with the first opening bell of the week.

WIth the portfolio having lost some positions I wouldn’t mind a little bit of a decline to start the week on Tuesday and the potential opportunity to repurchase some of the recently assigned positions.

The longer you do this the less boring it gets to keep doing the same thing over and over again.

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day.

 

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

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

New Positions Opened:  HFC, IP, KSS, UA

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle:  EBAY, LOW, MET, PFE

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into extended weekly cycle:  EBAY (6/6), HFC (6/13)

CallsRolled 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:  CY, EBAY, FAST, GM, LLY, MET, RIG, SBUX, TXN

Put contracts sold and still open: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contract rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:   CMCSA, IP, MA, SBUX, TXN, UA

Calls Expired:   GM, JPM

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:  TGT (5/19 $0.43), CLF (5/21 $0.15), IP (5/21 $0.35)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  RIG (5/28 $0.75), HFC special dividend (5/28 $0.50)

 

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, BMY, BX, C, CLF, COH, CY, DRI, FCX, FDO, GM, JCP, LULU, MCP, MOS,  NEM, PBR, RIG, TGT, WFM, WLT, 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.

May162014

Week in Review – May 12-16, 2014

Week in Review

 

Option to Profit Week in Review
May 12 – 16,  2014
 
NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED
2 / 2 2 1 2  / 0 11  / 0 0

    

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 12 – 16, 2014   

There were only two new purchases for the week and they beat the time adjusted S&P 500 by 0.6% and also surpassed the unadjusted S&P 500 index by a smaller 0.1% during a week that ended much better in the final two hours than the previous two days would have suggested to be the case..

The market broke its pattern of 10 straight weeks of alternating weekly gains and losses and posted a second consecutive losing week with an unadjusted  loss this week of 0.1% and with an adjusted loss  0.5%. The two new positions gained 0.1% during the time period.

Existing positions also showed a 0.1% advantage over the market, eking out a small gain.

With only two assignments for the week the performance of positions closed in 2014 didn’t change much as they continued to exceed the S&P 500 performance by 1.7%. They were up 3.3% out-performing the market by 102%.

Another discouraging week for the markets as it put together two really bad days on top of getting the week started on a really sour note. Ordinarily a strong up day to start the week after you’ve rolled up a number of positions the previous week is something that I like to see, especially if not really keen on spending new money. to spend. But this week the early strength just wasn’t very convincing and couldn’t lure me into much new buying. I wasn’t literally or figuratively buying the mood of that first day and I couldn’t really get very comfortable with spending much to create new positions.

In hindsight that may have been fortuitous because for the rest of the market was marked not only by losers but by the magnitude of the losses.

On a positive note the market didn’t completely fall apart on Friday, which could easily have been the case on a monthly option ending day.

Having gone through about 5 years of trading this was my slowest week during that entire time. Not only with the number of new purchases, but also with the combined number of rollovers, new covered positions and assignments.

It was also only the second or third time that I believed that it was warranted to let contracts expire rather than rolling them over. That was due to the relatively high costs associated with rollovers and the belief that some kind of  a bounce is likely to occur after what was a fairly unprovoked drop this week.

Given how low the premiums would be to sell entry level strikes after having to buy back existing contracts, there was very little excitement about doing so.

If there’s any positive spin to be had at all, it’s regarding the final two hours of trading that brought the market to a respectable close and didn’t allow it to take the easy way out. During that final recovery I made almost as many trades as for the entire week, with two new covers established and one unexpected assignment. Of course, just a few days earlier I had already been counting all of the assignments and rollovers I thought were sure to come.

What all of this means for next week is that there is less new new money to replenish cash reserves, although not much was spent this week, either. However, the real focus has to be on selling new call options and first creating another weekly income stream before thinking too much about the possibility of capitalizing on what may be relative bargain prices.

That can be hard to do as some of the prices do look really appealing.

Ultimately, I’m glad this week is over and I’m happy to have escaped reasonably intact. after it was all said and done it was as if this week didn’t even happen. I suppose that’s better than one of the two alternatives.

 

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

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

New Positions Opened:  CMCSA, LLY

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle:  

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

CallsRolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle:  none

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

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

New STO:  FCX, FDO, GM, LOW

Put contracts sold and still open: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contract rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:   SBUX, STX

Calls Expired:   BMY, CY, FAST, FCX, FDO, GM, LLY, MET, RIG, SBUX, TXN

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:  LLY (5/13 $0.49), STX (5/12 $0.43)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  TGT (5/19 $0.43), CLF (5/21 $0.15), IP (5/21 $0.35)

 

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, BMY, BX, C, CLF, COH, CY, DRI, FAST, FCX, FDO, GM, JCP, LLY, LOW, LULU, MCP, MET, MOS,  NEM, PBR, RIG, SBUX, TGT, TXN, WFM, WLT, 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.