Category Archives: Week in Review

Option to Profit

Week in Review

October 10 – 14, 2016

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 10 – 14, 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.

Again, it’s also a week in which I have no idea whether to be pleased or displeased about this week.

I was pleased to have made an opening position trade and to have been able to roll some positions over, but I was displeased with the performance of existing positions in an otherwise weak time period.

The single new position outperformed the adjusted S&P 500 by 2.2% and the unadjusted S&P 500 by 1.8%.

That position was 0.8% higher for the week, while the unadjusted S&P 500 lost 1.0% and the adjusted S&P 500 was 1.4% lower.

What was good was also the opportunity to rollover the week’s sole expiring position and to also rollover a couple of longstanding positions that have been retracing their price and instead of being in line for assignment next week are now continuing to be income producers for another few months, at least.

That’s OK by me.

There were no new assignments of shares to add to the closed positions in 2016 and, therefore, no new cash to add to the reserves, that i would still like to see grow.

With mostly good news to end the week, the market managed to give up most of the big gain that it had made on the day and ended up the week with a 1% loss.

The bad news on the week, at least as far as investors go is that the odds of an interest rate increase by December is now thought to be about 70%.

Investors don’t seem to like that kind of certainty, nor do they like the kind of opinion that was expressed in the release of the last month’s FOMC meeting.

So, despite good bank earnings, there wasn’t too much to cheer about and the market spent most of the week just following oil back and forth.

With another purchase this week of a speculative position, I was just glad to be able to roll it over and hope to be able to do so again next week.

I was also happy to be able to rollover one of those positions set to expire next week and has been the case for the past year, there was another opportunity to extend the expiration date, this time into 2017.

I had been looking forward to next week’s month ending expiration, but the sudden turn in pricing now makes some of those assignments and rollovers look much less likely.

I’m hopeful that earnings next week may buoy the market which is in need of some kind of a catalyst.

I still have some cash as the week is about to begin and with only one ex-dividend position coming up and perhaps the chance of no rollovers or assignments, I would like to find some way to generate some income.

That of course is balanced with wanting to preserve cash, but I’ve had a hard time resisting some of the recent opportunities.

Most of the time I’ve been happy to have not been able to resist, but there’s still the occasional trade that should have been resisted.

Fortunately, in the past year I’ve become more patient with some of those positions and can wait to make an income generating trade, rather than jumping at a less than appealing trade.

Next week will be a busy one ith earnings and we may also get a more and more clear idea of what December may bring.

If that’s the case, there may be reason to hang on tightly, unless markets come to their senses and realize that it may be time to celebrate.

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:  GDX (1/20/2017)

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: MRO

Long term call contracts sold:  none

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:     none

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  FAST (10/21 $0.30)

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 3 – 7, 2016

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 3 – 7, 2016

I have no idea what this week was all about, but something is brewing.

I also have no idea whether to be pleased or displeased about this week.

I was definitely displeased with the really poor timing in adding shares of a precious metal ETF.

I knew that there was a likelihood of continuing sharp volatility in that position, but I didn’t think that it would be sustained in a single direction.

That one position was 11.6% lower on the week, while the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were 0.7% lower.

Not even close.

What was better was how existing positions performed.

Existing positions were 0.1% lower on the week, but outperformed the S&P 500 by 0.6%.

That was mixed news, at best.

What was good was the opportunity to sell calls on multiple lots of two uncovered positions and doing so to try and capitalize on their healthy dividends and option premiums. Even though those positions were rolled out in time, all the way to January 2017, the opportunities that they presented still looked far better than the questionable alternatives that the market is offering.

There were no new assignments of shares to add to the closed positions in 2016 and, therefore, no new cash to add to the reserves, that i would desperately like to see grow.

What there was, however, was an assignment of the short puts position, which ended up deep in the hole for the week, but if that volatility continues may not be too big of a hole to dig out from under.

It’s really hard to know what comes next after Friday’s ambiguous Employment Situation report.

Stocks were basically all over the place for the week and were all over the place on Fri
day, as well.

Earnings season actually starts next week and that could take our mind off of the re-association between oil and stocks, interest rates, plunging precious metal prices and currency woes in Great Britain.

There is no greater clarity following this past week and unless corporate earnings or the guidance provided can do anything to clear things up, we may just be in store for more of this kind of annoying uncertainty and lack of conviction.

I still have some cash in reserve, but have no positions expiring next week and have no ex-dividend positions, so may very well be on the lookout for some opportunity to generate some income, but am very reluctant to do so with anything other than a quick hit.

However, that’s what I thought I was getting into this past week and those precious metals turned out to be a big, big disappointment.

At this point, I don’t particularly want any more disappointment, but I do want the income.

While we await earnings, we may get some cues from the many Federal Reserve speakers, especially since there is also a release of the FOMC minutes on Wednesday.

Before Janet Yellen wraps up the week, there is also a retail Sales Report and that could shed some light on what the consumer is up to, as the evidence may be mounting that the consumer is getting back into action.

Interest rates, anyone?

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:  AGQ 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: DOW, DOW (January 2017), LVS, LVS (January 2017)

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

Calls Expired:  none

Puts Assigned:  AGQ

Stock positions Closed to take profits:  none

Stock positions Closed to take losses: none

Calls Closed to Take Profits: none

Ex-dividend Positions:     GPS (10/3 $0.23), BMY (10/5 $0.38)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: none

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

September 23 – 27, 2016

Weekly Up to Date Performance

September 23 – 27, 2016

What a week this was.

Add to it the Friday close from the previous week and we had 6 consecutive triple digit moves, with the market finally ending higher on the week’

There wasn’t much in the way of a theme this week, despite about 17 scheduled appearances by members of the Federal Reserve.

What there was lots of back and forth.

There was one new position opened this week and it was one designed to capture a dividend and hopefully get assigned as its monthly option is due to expire.

That position was up 5.8% for the week, while the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were both only 0.2% higher.

With all of that movement, only 0.2%.

Imagine that.

Existing positions were again responsive to energy and commodity positions which were all over the place this week. When Friday’s rally finally settled, those existing positions were actually 0.6% higher than the S&P 500 for the week, despite the weakness in oil and commodities.

There were two new closed positions for the week, both old friends.

One, an old friend because it was held for about 529 days and the other, because it was one of 8 times that same stock has been closed out in 2016.

Positions closed in 2016 were 0.3% higher, as compared to the overall market, which was 5.6% higher during the same time frame. Of course, the defunct MolyCorp, whose positions were closed out this year are responsible for that adverse comparison, which is on a non-weighted basis.

Without those MolyCorp shares the remaining shares would have been 7% higher, versus 2% for the S&P 500.< /strong>