Category Archives: Week in Review

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

July 4 – 8, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

July 4 – 8, 2016

Well, this was another in a series of interesting weeks.

Once again, just when it looked like….

….It turned out not to be that at all.

In fact, it turned out to be another really good week on top of the previous week that was the best week in 2 years, even with Monday’s big decline.

When it was all said and done the week ended within easy striking distance of an all time high.

There was only one position opened this week and it was a familiar one.

That position ended the week 3.9% higher and was 2.6% higher than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500.

The S&P 500, itself, rose an impressive 1.3%

With no new assignments on the week closed positions in 2016 remained 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 dur
ing the same holding periods has been 1.6% higher. That represents a 337.7% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case, although the pace has been slowly increasing

This was another good week.

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

This week had only 1 new position opened and only a single rollover.

On top of that, there was only a single ex-dividend position, so there wasn’t too much income generation for the week.

Hopefully, some of that can change next week, as the July 2016 option cycle comes to an end and there are a handful of expiring positions.

While there are no ex-dividend positions next week, I do have some cash to spend and maybe some potential for rollovers, as well.

So, as we approach resistance, I’m wary, but still looking forward to the coming week.

Today’s Employment Situation Report was a big surprise, but this time it was a good surprise.

Compared to the horrific number in May, maybe it would be time to stop focusing on a single month’s report, but that’s never going to happen and who knows what next month may bring?

What today’s number could bring is an FOMC one step closer to be willing to pull the trigger and finally commit to raising interest rates.

The market seemed to like that idea today and may trade higher into the FOMC meeting even as those resistance levels loom overhead.

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 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: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  MRO

Calls Expired:  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:    CSCO (7/5 $0.26)

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

 

June 27 – July 1, 2016

 

NEW POSITIONS/STO	NEW STO	ROLLOVERS	CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED	CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED	CLOSED	EX-DIVIDEND
2  /  2	0	2	2   /   0	0   /   0	0	5

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 27 – July 1, 2016

Well, this was an interesting week.

Just when it looked like….

….It turned out not to be that at all.

In fact, it was the best week in 2 years, even with Monday’s big decline.

When it was all said and done, last week’s decline, which had taken the market back into negative territory for the year with its continued loss to open this week, was once again showing a gain on the year.

There were 2 new positions opened this week and along with most everything else, they went higher, just not high enough as the gains were constrained by the sale of call options.

Those positions were 2.2% higher, finishing 1.0% lower than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500. The basic index ended the week being 3.2% higher, as those 3 post-Brexit days mid-week changed everything.

With 2 new assignments on the week closed positions in 2016 were 6.8% h
igher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.6% higher. That represents a 337.7% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case, although the pace has been slowly increasing

This was a good week.

It’s always nice to see asset values rise, but i also like seeing activity.

This week had 2 new positions opened, 2 positions rolled over, 2 positions assigned and 5 ex-dividend positions.

It has been a long time since having that much activity and I enjoyed it immensely.

I also enjoyed seeing the week come to a close on a less effusive note, as it’s always more comforting to see support levels being established, rather than meteoric moves higher.

Those are hard to sustain, especially if there continues to be overhead resistance and there is definitely overhead resistance ahead.

With a couple of assignments this week, I would welcome some more opportunity to add new positions, but with volatility again dropping, it may be difficult to find anything suitable, especially with only 4 days of premium ahead of us next week.

Then again, I didn’t think that there would be much chance of spending money this week and things turned out very differently.

With only a single ex-dividend position next week and no positions set to expire, I might succumb to the desire to generate some additional revenue.

If so, that would mean having to recycle some of the money from this week’s assignments.

As has been the case lately, I wouldn’t mind recycling the money right back into positions that had just gotten assigned if there is any early price weakness as the week gets underway.

That has been a pretty good formula lately, especially in those positions that still had some reasonable volatility associated with them.

Otherwise, it may end up being a quiet week, as has been the case for much of 2016.

I hope that whatever next week brings, it does bring a happy and safe Fourth of July 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:  EBAY, MRO

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, NEM

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

New STO: STX

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  MRO

Calls Expired:  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:    CY (6/28 $0.11), DOW (6/28 $0.46), EMC (6/29 $0.11), WFM (6/29 $0.14), GPS (7/1 $0.23)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: CSCO (7/5 $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

 

June 20 – 24, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 20 – 24, 2016

Last week it was hard to understand what had happened.

This week it was easy.

When it was all said and done today’s decline took 2016 negative for the year.

What may be sadder is that it only took a 3.6% loss to do that at this point in the year.

There was a new position opened this week and somehow it managed to stay above water. That position was 3.2% higher, finishing 4.8% higher than both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500. The basic index ended the week being 1.6% lower, as its good gain for the week was obliterated on Friday.

Existing positions were 0.7% higher than the S&P 500 for the week, however, that meant they still lost 0.9%.

With a single new assignment on the week closed positions in 2016 were 8.0% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.2% higher. That represents a completely ridiculous 593.8% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case.

Even as existing positions lost 0.9% for the week, it wasn’t entirely terrible.

It certainly could have been much, much worse, especially as oil was hit so hard to end the week, as well.

Still, the single new position opened on the week fared well and there were a couple of ex-dividend positions, as well as an assignment.

It also helped to see one uncovered position get some cover, although another position did end up ex[piring.

This week just showed how terrible investors, pollsters and everyone else happens to be.

The confidence exhibited by investors heading into the “Brexit” vote has to be way up there with the biggest mis-reads in the world.

Amazingly markets were driven higher on Thursday ahead of the vote as if there was immunity to disappointment.

That was definitely not the case as everyone get it so terribly wrong.

Politicians, pollsters, bookies and investors.

We will start the week with what look to be lots of bargains.

I will start the week with a little more cash from an assignment, but with about 5 ex-dividend positions on the week I may not feel much uregency to add any new positions.

The manner in which financials were hit to end the week, however, makes them very tempting, but those temptations may abound in other sectors, as well.

Why Macy’s had to feel the blow from Brexit, I may not fully comprehend, but there may be good reason to look critically at lots of things.

For now, though, I’m just going to think about the weekend and how good it is to be in the United States of America, without too much thought of any important state deciding to secede.

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:  CY

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: STX

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  MRO

Calls Expired:  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:    LVS (6/20 $0.72), JPY (6/20 $0.01)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: CY (6/28 $0.11), DOW (6/28 $0.46), EMC (6/29 $0.11), WFM (6/29 $0.14), GPS (7/1 $0.23)

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

 

June 13 – 17, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 13 – 17, 2016

Well, I don’t think anyone has any real clue of what happened this week.

I know I don’t, as there was certainly no theme for the week, other than more and more talk about the upcoming vote in Great Britain over continued membership in the European Union.

Last week we were left with nothing but uncertainty over what this week would bring and it only brought more uncertainty..

Somehow, with all of the uncertainty, I found a reason to part with a little bit of money, otherwise it would have been the third week in a row with nothing to really show for it.

Thanks to the strong showing by oil to end the week, that position ended the week 3.2% higher while the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were each 1.2% lower’

Thanks to a very strong premium and the ability to roll the position over, it ended the week 4.4% higher than the S&P 500.

Existing positions were 0.8% higher than the S&P 500 for the week, however, that meant they still lost 0.4%.

With no new assignments on the week closed positions in 2016 were 8.3% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.7% higher. That represents a 383.6% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case.

Even as existing positions lost 0.4% for the week, it wasn’t entirely terrible.

The single new position, which represented the third time that stock had been purchased in the past couple of months fared well.

There was also the opportunity to roll over 3 positions for the week and another 3 were ex-dividend.

That leaves next week, the first of the July 2016 option cycle having 2 expiring positions and another 2 ex-dividend positions, so there is a little less need to generate additional income.

AS in recent weeks, I would probably prefer the opportunity to rollover some of those expiring volatile positions, even if they are in the money. At this point, while I would like to raise some cash, I like the proposition of collecting a respectable dividend and still having a relatively large cushion in the event those shares do decline.

That was the situation on Monday, when I decided to roll the dice with the one of the 3 lots of the Gold Miners ETF i hold.

I thought about cashing in and perhaps either storing the cash or diversifying, but that combination of premium and cushion was just too enticing .

Next week, with just a little bit of cash, I’m still interested in opening some new positions, even as I may already have sufficient income opportunities.

All eyes are going to be focused on England as no one can agree where the vote will go, no what the impact of either direction would really be.

My guess is that the market would react negatively if England voted to leave and that would likely represent a buying opportunity once investors realize that nothing is going to change over night and there’s lots of reasons for both side of the English Channel to continue meaningful business and financial relationships.

Beyond that we may be back to oil and its big bounces, as we saw this week, but what we didn’t necessarily see was high concordance between stocks and oil.

Some days stocks followed the changes in oil very closely, including the intra-day changes and on other days the two completely ignored one another as other events, such as European Markets and FOMC news may have taken precedence.

Even as we look toward the mid-week vote, I think we may see as much confusion over where to go as we’ve seen the past 2 weeks.

For my part, as long as that drives up volatility and net asset value doesn’t suffer too much, I welcome any chance to get some premiums out of the action.

This past week did bring some uncovered positions closer to being able to get some cover as their premiums started rising.

Hopefully next week will continue that trend, as it’s hard to see any other trend developing

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 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:  GDX (7/22)

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

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

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

Calls Expi
red:  HPQ, UAL

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:    HPQ (6/6 $0.12), M (6/13 ^0.38), BBBY (6/15 $0.125)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: LVS (6/20 $0.72), JPY (6/20 $0.01)

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

 

June 6 – 10, 2016

 

NEW POSITIONS/STO	NEW STO	ROLLOVERS	CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED	CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED	CLOSED	EX-DIVIDEND
0  /  0	0	1	0   /   0	0   /   0	0	5

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

June 6 – 10, 2016

Well, that was a bad end to a week that started out so promisingly for no real reason at all.

After last  Friday’s Employment Situation Report and this past Monday’s comments from Janet Yellen, the market had no reason to think anything at all.

What we were left with this week was just more uncertainty about what comes next.

Anyway, this was another week that I was also too unsure about much of anything and once again made no new opening position trades.

This was also another week of market mediocrity, although the numbers were looking pretty good heading into the closing session for the week.

The S&P 500 ended the week finishing 0.1% lower on both an unadjusted and adjusted basis. That’s after having finished last week unchanged.

But still, just as in the previous week, there was a little good news as there was one rollover, although there were no assignments.

There were also 5 ex-dividend positions to make things a little bit easier to take.

The good news ended there, as opposed to last week when existing positions ended the week 1.8% higher than the S&P 500, this week they trailed by 0.2%

With no new assignments on the week closed positions in 2016 were 8.3% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.7% higher. That represents a 383.6% difference in return on closed positions. That would be much more impressive if there were many more closed positions in 2016, but that just hasn’t been the case.

Maybe next week as the June 2016 option cycle comes to its end.

The market ended up the week poorly as most focus will be on the FOMC next week.

The market deteriorated after it likely realized that whatever was interpreted as being good news from Janet Yellen, wasn’t really any news at all.

Fortunately, there were plenty of ex-dividend positions this week, just as in the previous week and a handful more next week.

With no one expecting any action from the FOMC there may still be reason for some large movements.

That may all depend on the wording of their statement when it is released on Wednesday afternoon.

I do have some money to spend, but once again, I’m not too anxious to do so.

With a few positions set to expire and a couple of ex-dividend positions, there may be enough to keep me happy, but I would still like to see some reason to spend some of the money sitting in the cash pile, as small as it is.

Once we get past the FOMC Statement release and now that earnings are essentially done, we may get back to oil ruling the markets, just as they did to end this week.

It has been a couple of weeks since oil took center stage, but there may not be too much competition for it doing so after Wednesday’s announcement.

.

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:  HFC (6/24)

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: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

Ca
lls 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:   BBY (6/10 $0.28), ,KSS (6/6 $0.50), NEM (6/7 $0.025), GM (6/8 $0.38), WY (6/8 $0.31)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  HPQ (6/6 $0.12), BBBY (6/15 $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.