Category Archives: Week in Review

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

August 8 – 12, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

August 8 – 12, 2016

When I thought that this week had the makings of a flat one, I didn’t realize just how flat it might be.

Despite all major indexes hitting a record high on the week, it wasn’t very exciting other than for some good retailer price action, even as the retail numbers themselves weren’t overly impressive.

Maybe not even impressive in the slightest.

This was another week of no new purchases and so there wasn’t too much to think or talk about.

That’s not exciting, either.

The S&P 500 was actually up 0.1% for the week after looking as if it would close perfectly flat until the final 20 minutes or so for the week.

Still it was a good week.

There were 2 ex-dividend positions and 2 rollovers, including a rare rollover of a short put position that was going to expire.

On top of that, even as the market was flat, existing positions again beat the S&P 500, this time by an additional 0.6%.

With  no  new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are still 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. As with every week in 2016, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of those closed positions to point toward. With such few closed positions for the year, the differential could just as easily have been in the other direction and of a similar magnitude, yet also signifying little.

I could get used to seeing 2017 being a repeat of 2016, at least year to date.

I definitely like seeing the increase in net asset value and would certainly like to see more in the way of trading activity, but there was enough this week to keep me from hitting the streets.

There was an opportunity to rollover the position in International Paper a week early in order to have a better chance of holding onto the very nice dividend.

Additionally, I found reason to want to rollover the short put position in Marathon Oil, despite it heading for an expiration.

The reason for that was the same as the reason for rolling over short call some positions that are likely to otherwise be assigned.

That’s because volatility makes the forward week premiums a bit richer than the expiring premium which ends up basically representing only intrinsic value.

Even with Marathon Oil being ex-dividend on Monday, the ROI for the additional week was another 1.3% and keeps the position alive and accumulating premiums.

At this point, that’s good enough for me.

If I can’t make it up in the volume of trades, maybe I can make it up in the lack of variety in the positions.

Marathon Oil has been just about the only play over the past 2 months or so.

But that works, too.

In fact, it almost totally takes the thought process out of the process, which makes it even better.

With 2 ex-dividend positions this week and another 2 next week and now 2 potential rollovers, there should be some cash coming in, but I would still love to be able to open some new positions.

Maybe even a single new position would be enough, given the paucity of trades lately.

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:  IP (9/2016)

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: MRO (8/19)

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:    AZN (8/10 $0.44), IP (8/11 $0.44)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: MRO (8/15 $0.05), HFC (8/19 $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

 

August 1 – 5, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

August 1 – 5, 2016

After a string of consecutive small daily losses, the market finally broke out and closed the week at another new record closing high.

That’s the sort of thing that it had gotten used to just a couple of weeks ago and did so back then on virtually no news of note.

This time, though, there was a catalyst.

It was the Employment Situation Report which ended up fueling a nearly 200 point rise in the DJIA as both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 hit their new closing record highs.

But for all of the excitement on Friday, the S&P 500 only closed 0.4% higher on the week.

With no new trades for the week, I did virtually nothing but watch the inaction for the first 4 days of the week and the excitement to end the week.

There was just a single new sale of calls on an uncovered position and only two ex-dividend positions, but there was still a little something for everyone, even as oil was weak for much of the week.

With  no  new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are still 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. As with every week in 2016, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of those closed positions to point toward. With such few closed positions for the year, the differential could just as easily have been in the other direction and of a similar magnitude, yet also signifying little.

It’s hard to know what to make of this week.

It’s clear that the market has said that it is finally ready to move on and can live with an increase in interest rates, as long as that means that the economy is finally heading in the right direction.

The Employment Situation Report gave another good number and at least that’s pointing in the right direction, even as the GDP isn’t

Next week begins retailer reports and this week wasn’t entirely kind to those companies that really depend on consumers, just as the GDP depends on consumers.

So we’ll see what the next 2 weeks bring and what kind of future is painted by the retail giants.

I have some money to spend and with only a single expiring position and 2 ex-dividend positions, I wouldn’t mind finding some additional source of weekly income.

But after this week’s big news, what’s left to push markets higher.

With earnings season just a bout over, maybe the real boost could come if the retailers can paint an optimistic picture over the next few days.

I don’t know if I want to get ahead of any of those earnings reports, though.

The recent losing streak and the small cumulative loss it created, may however, have been enough to create a base camp for the next climb higher, especially if retail plays along.

If it does, I don’t mind getting carried along and would especially like it if oil were to make up some of what it lost in the past couple of weeks.

That would really add to the nice personal gains so far in 2016.

 

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: WY (10/21/2016)

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

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:    INTC (8/3 $0.26), BP (8/3 $0.595)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: AZN (8/8 $0.44), IP (8/11 $0.44)

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

 

July 25 – 29, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

July 18 – 22, 2016

Maybe this week wasn’t another one of  one record after another, but it was still pretty good.

Even if the market really didn’t move very much.

In this week of an FOMC Statement release and the GDP, no new positions were opened.

While sitting around and conserving cash, the S%P 500 was down 0.1% for the week.

Again, not a very impressive week, but still enough to make me happy

That’s because existing positions again bested the S&P 500, this time by an additional 0.7%, in what was really a good week.

With  no  new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are still 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. As with every week in 2016, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of
those closed positions to point toward. With such few closed positions for the year, the differential could just as easily have been in the other direction and of a similar magnitude, yet also signifying little.

I could get used to repeating this week after week.

This was another good week in what continues to be a good year, despite not opening any new positions this week.

It’s always nice to see asset values rise some more, but I still prefer to have some activity accompany the gains and this week there was plenty of activity.

It almost felt like the good old days.

This week had 3 rollovers and 3 positions had calls sold on them.

On top of those, there were 3 ex-dividend positions, so it was a fairly good week despite the market itself doing nothing of consequence.

Being still so close to at all time highs I’m not eager to put too much at risk in the chase as next week is set to begin.

The only problem is that there are no expiring positions next week and only 2 ex-dividend positions, so I’m hoping that something else will pop up.

I’d especially like to add to the list of positions with outstanding short calls written against them.

I’ve been patiently waiting for a long time for that to be the case and am happily seeing the end result of all of the hoping and crossed fingers.

Next week may be a quiet one, but if oil can reverse course, it could be the lift that the market needs to break through its recent highs and I wouldn’t mind continuing along for the ride.

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:  MRO (8/26)

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle: HPQ (10/21)

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

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: MRO (8/12)

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:    F (7/27 $0.15), MS (7/28 $0.20), KMI (7/29 $0.125)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: INTC (8/3 $0.26), BP (8/3 $0.595)

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

 

July 18 – 22, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

July 18 – 22, 2016

Records, records and more records.

That’s how last week ended and so did this week.

In the post-Brexit world this was just another in a series of good weeks.

Once again, there was only one position opened this week and it was also once again a familiar one.

That’s also exactly what I said last week, but that’s actually the ideal way a covered option strategy would work and it has been a long time since really being able to serially execute trades in any positions, so it does feel more rewarding than has been the case of late.

That position ended the week 0.6% higher, but could do no better than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500.

The S&P 500, itself, rose another 0.6%.

Maybe not as impressive as previous week, but still enough to make people happy, especially the people that matter most.

Me.

Existing positions bested the S&P 500 by an additional 0.3%, in what was really a good week.

With  no  new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are still 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. As with every week in 2016, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of those closed positions to point toward. With such few closed positions for the year, the differential could just as easily have been in the other direction and of a similar magnitude, yet also signifying little.

This was another good week in what continues to be a good year, despite very little additional trading this week.

It’s always nice to see asset values rise some more, but I still prefer to have some activity accompany the gains.

Once again, this week had only 1 new position opened and only two rollovers. Unfortunately, despite having some feelers out there, I couldn’t find any buyers for uncovered positions to supplement the scant dividend income for the week..

With only a single ex-dividend positions this week, I would have liked to have had more income generating opportunities, but all in all, I was pleased.

With only one new purchase this week and still having cash from assignments the previous week, I do have some discretionary cash to put to work.

However, we’re still at all time highs and I’m not eager to put too much at risk in the chase.

With 2 positions expiring next week and 3 ex-dividend positions, there may already be sufficient opportunity for income generation to tread lightly, but I’ll still keep an open mind as the FOMC sets the stage for the coming week.

While that does take place on Wednesday, the real event to get some notice may turn out to be Friday’s GDP report.

A strong GDP may give some reason to believe that the FOMC will make an interest rate increase announcement as early as August, even though there is no meeting scheduled and no press conference.

That would catch some off guard and might be construed as more than just mildly inflationary.

But that’s attempting to be logical and logic hasn’t had much of a home for a year or more.

Lots more.

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:   MRO

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: 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:    FAST (7/22 $0.30)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: F (7/27 $0.15), MS (7/28 $0.20), KMI (7/29 $0.125)

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

 

July 11 – 15, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

July 11 – 15, 2016

Records, records and more records.

In the post-Brexit world this was just another good week.

Once again, there was only one position opened this week and it was also once again a familiar one.

That position ended the week 1.7% higher and was 0.2% higher than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500.

The S&P 500, itself, rose another impressive 1.5%. Existing positions bested that by an additional 0.9%, in what was really a good week.

With  3  new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are now 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. Still, even with 3 newly closed positions, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of those closed positions to point toward.

This was another good week in what is shaping up to be a good year, despite very little trading.

It’s always nice to see asset values rise, but I still prefer to have some activity accompany the gains.

Once again, this week had only 1 new position opened and only two rollovers, but at least it also gave an opportunity to sell some calls on an uncovered position, as well.

With no ex-dividend positions this week, I would have liked to have had more income generating opportunities, but all in all, I was pleased.

With 2 assignments this week and one expired short put, it will be one of those rare weeks ahead where I’ll have substantially more free cash than in a long time.

The real challenge is deciding what to do with free cash after the market has had such a sharp climb higher in such a short period of time.

Even as we had two breathers during the past week, it would have been nice to have seen some profit taking.

I’d be much more inclined to spend some money on Monday if there was some of that profit taking at hand.

With earnings season doing reasonably well as it began, the next 2 weeks will be busy ones and then we get an FOMC meeting to end the month.

Two things that I did this week reminded me of 2012 and 2011.

That was rolling over positions that were headed for assignment.

I did that a lot in those years as the forward volatility was high enough to warrant adding onto the premiums rather than trying to re-invent the wheel and finding new stocks to take their place.

With 3 closed positions this week, I felt that there was enough new cash coming in to allow the rollovers.

Hopefully, that will be something that I won’t regret.

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:   MRO

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

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: MRO

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  CSCO, CY

Calls Expired:  M, 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:    none

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: FAST (7/22 $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.