Category Archives: Week in Review

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

May 30 – JUNE 3, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 30 – June 3, 2016

This may have been the week that the market grew up, but then realized that the adults in the room had no clue of what was going on.

That’s because they embraced the idea of higher interest rates coming as soon as in 3 weeks after having taken the bait laid out by FOMC members with all of their hawkish talk.

Instead, Friday’s Employment Situation Report didn’t exactly paint a picture of a vibrant and expanding economy.

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

As opposed to last week’s specacular market performance, this week was fairly mediocre, saved only by a series of comebacks that avoided erasing all of the previous week’s gains.

The S&P 500 ended the week finishing completely unchanged both an unadjusted and adjusted basis.

But still, there was a little good news as there was one rollover, one assignment and 4 ex-dividend positions.

On top of that, existing positions ended the week 1.8% higher than the S&P 500.

With one new assignments on the week those positions closed 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.

The market ended up the week going absolutely nowhere.

That was much better than the direction it had been headed during 3 of the week’s 4 trading days.

In those three days there were some pretty large losses, but if not completely erased on any of those days, they were greatly reduced.

The most surprising of the 3 days was the closing day of the week.

The market really didn’t like the disappointing Employment Situation Report, but it acquitted itself nicely as it prepared for a weekend of wondering just what is really going on.

I have no clue, nor any real idea of whether the FOMC is playing mind games with everyone, but am pleased with the week.

In addition to having more money, on paper, anyway, than the previous week, there was enough to keep me satisfied with both income flow and generation of some cash available for re-investing next week.

Now, with only a single position set to expire next week and a little bit of extra cash to spend, I also know that there are 6 ex-dividend positions to satisfy some of that thirst for cash.

With the likelihood of an interest rate increase coming in June pretty small and with earnings out of the way
, for the most part, there’s not too much to drive stocks, other than perhaps oil or some unexpectedly good or bad news from China.

I wouldn’t mind spending some money next week, but don’t really feel compelled with all of those ex-dividend positions.

I wouldn’t mind just being able to rollover the one expiring position next week and then simply see what the end of the June 2016 cycle will have to offer.

Of course, that is unless the FOMC really surprises everyone in the days before that expiration.

.

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: Holly Frontier

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:  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:   MOS (5/31 $0.275), ANF (6/1 $0.20), BAC (6/1 $0.05), COH (6/1 $0.34)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  BBY (6/10 $0.28), HPQ (6/6 $0.12),KSS (6/6 $0.50), NEM (6/7 $0.025), GM (6/8 $0.38), WY (6/8 $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.



 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

May 23 – 27, 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	3

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 23 – 16, 2016

This may have been the week that the market grew up.

That’s because they embraced the idea of higher interest rates coming as soon as in 3 weeks.

Although, if you remember what happened the last time the market grew up you might recall that embrace loosened very fast.

The market had a really spectacular week, with the S&P 500 gaining 2.3% on an unadjusted basis and 2.5% when factoring in the day in which that new position was opened.

Although the sole new purchase for the week gained 1.6%, it couldn’t keep up with the market’s performance and trailed the market by 0.7% on an unadjusted basis and 0.9% on an adjusted basis.

Existing positions, though, were only 0.7% higher, as they were the previous week. Their lack of relative performance was due to materials and precious metals having a rough week.

With no new assignments on the week those positions closed in 2016 were 8.2% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.6% higher. That represents a 418.2% difference in return on closed positions. Unfortunately, there are still very few closed positions on the year.

For the first time in a couple of weeks the market actually had a theme and it wasn’t oil.

This week the market embraced the idea that a slight increase in interest rates would be good for all involved.

With a slight upward revision in GDP and some decent earnings numbers as that season is coming to a close, there was maybe some reason to believe that the economy wasn’t so bad, after all.

Even with a more hawkish tone from Chairman Janet Yellen, markets were upbeat as the S&P 500 no stands only about 1.5% from its all time high.

Of course, that brings us back to the last time that the market embraced the idea of a rate increase coming soon.

That optimism vanished very quickly and took us into the first 6 weeks of 2016.

That wasn’t pretty.

This past week was another in a series of very quiet trading weeks.

While I am overloaded on energy, I couldn’t resist adding more shares of another in the sector, mostly to capture its dividend and the expectation that it was in a bottoming out pattern.

In fact, in the coming week, the only 2 expiring positions are both in the energy sector and I wouldn’t mind continuing to roll them over, even if they end up being in the money.

I may change my mind on that as the week progresses.

That’s because I still may be able to find a reason to add some new positions in order to generate some income and I also have 4 positions that are ex-dividend next week.

I’d be more inclined to roll an in the money positions over if I didn’t open any new positions, as I wouldn’t have quite the same need to replenish cash.

With a holiday shortened week coming up and volatility dropping, there may not be too many appealing premiums out there for a weekly contract, so I may be looking more at extended weekly options or even adding to the names that already have monthly June 2016 contracts coming up for expration.

For the next few days I won’t think about any of those things too much.

Happy and safe Memorial Day 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:  Holly Frontier

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

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

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: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:   HAL (5/27 $0.18), HFC (5/25 $0.33), IP (5/25 $0.44)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  MOS (5/31 $0.275), ANF (6/1 $0.20), BAC (6/1 $0.05), COH (6/1 $0.34)

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

 

May 16 – 20, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 16 – 20, 2016

Unbelievable. Two consecutive weeks with some trades.

The market again had no clue of what it wanted this week, but at actually had some decent earnings news and did overcome the stress of the possibility of an interest rate hike in June.

There were no new positions opened this week as the S&P 500 ended the 3 week losing streak with a 0.3% gain.

While the market did gain a little, existing positions had a pretty decent week.

Those positions gained 0.7% on the week.

With 2 assignments on the week those positions closed in 2016 were 8.2% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.6% higher. That represents a 418.2% difference in return on closed positions. Unfortunately, though, even with 2 assignments this week, there are very few closed positions on the year.

There was again absolutely no theme to the week.

Again.

The market did just what it did last week. It either made no move at all, or really big moves.

Stocks did and didn’t really follow oil and they didn’t nercessarily follow retail earnings.

It seems that they were more concerned with what may be a rising price environment that could offer the FOMC reason to push their own rates higher.

When Friday was all said and done, the week ended a three week losing streak and brought may 2016’s option cycle to an end.

I was reasonably happy for the week, mostly because there were some rollovers, some assignments and one paltry ex-dividend position.

Unfortunately, there were also some positions that expired and aren’t contributing any income beginning on Monday.

With the assignments, though, there may be some more reason and ability to go and spend money.

Still, I’d rather put the laggards to work, even as there may be some bargain looking positions out there.

With no positions expiring next week and only 2 ex-dividend positions, I would definitely like to have an opportunity top generate some income, but I don’t feel like getting reckless.

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 (6/3)

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

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle:  CSCO (7/2016), FAST (9/2016)

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: CY, HPE

Calls Expired:  BBBY, M, STX

Puts Assig
ned:  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 (5/16 $0.05)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:  HFC (5/25 $0.33), IP (5/25 $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

 

May 9 – 13, 2016

 

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

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 9 – 13, 2016

Unbelievable.

Finally a week with some trades.

The market had no clue of what it wanted this week, but at least it survived some horrible retailer earnings performance.

There was one new position opened for the week and despite it being in the money, I elected to roll it over.

That position was 6.6% higher than the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 on the week.

It was 6.1% higher, while both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were 0.5% lower.

Existing positions, having taken advantage the past couple of months of the strength in oil and commodities, continued to give gains back from the previous 4 weeks.

With no assignments, closed positions continue to be 7.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 2.7% higher. That represents a 189.2% difference in return on closed positions. Unfortunately, though, there are very few closed positions on the year.

There was again absolutely no theme to the week.

They either made no move at all, or really big moves.

Stocks did and didn’t really follow oil, but they did really follow retail earnings.

At least for a day.

And lately, a one day streak may be just about all anyone can hope for.

This was an interesting week.

I think it has been about 3 years or so, since the last time rolling over a well in the money position.

I used to do that much more regularly when volatility was much higher.

In those cases, the forward week premiums were so much better than the costs of closing the positions and it made lots of sense to keep the position open.

Hopefully, I’ll still believe that next week, but with some deep liquidity, continued adverse price moves in oil could still leave that position as one that I’d like to hold onto, just to get more and more premium.

Even if that position gets assigned early later today, because it is ex-dividend on Monday, the return would be a good one.

If only I had many, many more shares.

With no ex-dividend positions this week, it was at least nice to generate some income from that single new purchase, its rollover and then jumping the gun on a rollover of a position expiring next week.

Next week will be the end of the May 2016 option cycle and for the first time in a while, there are a number of positions expiring.

Hopefully, some of those will at least be in range for rollovers or maybe even assignment.

I don’t expect to be in a buying mode on Monday, but am open to the idea.

The risk is that there more retail earnings may weigh heavily again on the market.

If so, there may be reason to once again look at forward month option expiration dates for the rollovers, as was done with Best Buy, today and has been the case for much of the past 6 months.

Unfortunately, much of the market lately has been a waiting game and the waiting has gotten longer and longer.

For certain, the market hasn’t been in a forgiving mood for a long time and it has had a much longer memory than it used to have whenever it has been disappointed.

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: BBY (9/15)

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

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:  MRO (5/16 $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

 

May 2 – 6, 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	3

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

May 2 – 6, 2016

Two weeks ago was one of the best weeks that I could remember in a long, long time.

Last week was alright, but it’s all very relative, especially as compared to this week, last week would have been great.

For the market it was a mediocre week, at best, with lots of ambivalence and indecision.

It was another week where I had a very hard time justifying parting with any money.

When it was all done, following Friday’s decision to move higher after a few hours of real indecision, the S&P 500 finished the week 0.4% lower.

Existing positions, having taken advantage the past couple of months of the strength in oil and commodities, gave lots of the gains back the past 2-3 weeks of gains back this week.

There was absolutely no trading this week and other than the 3 ex-dividend positions, there was no ability to generate any income.

With no assignments, closed positions continue to be 7.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 2.7% higher. That represents a 189.2% difference in return on closed positions. Unfortunately, though, there are very few closed positions on the year.

There was absolutely no theme to the week.

Stocks didn’t really follow oil and they didn’t really follow earnings.

They also didn’t really follow the ADP report nor the Employment Situation Report.

With those numbers being on the weak side it has to raise questions about whether much is going to happen between now and the June FOMC meeting to warrant an interest rate increase.

That leaves traders to ponder whether that’s good or bad for them and whether that’s good or bad for the economy.

The latter is probably easier to answer, but traders don’t really care about the economy.

This week I did absolutely nothing other than to wait for something to happen and nothing really happened.

There was no compelling reason to buy anything and no real opportunity to sell anything on existing positions.

If not for 3 ex-dividend positions it would have been like being in suspended animation for the week.

Next week is just another chance to ask the same questions: 

Next week? Who knows?

What could make next week interesting is that retailers are going to start taking center stage.

While GDP seems to have taken a breather and now oil prices are moving higher and employment growth is slowing down, where is any spending going to come from?

Good question.

You would have to think that the question has already been asked and that a discount in share prices has already been taken.

Who knows?

With no assignments this week and no positions set to expire next week, I’d still really like to do something with what little cash I have in reserve, especially since there are no ex-dividend positions next week.

Since I have a feeling that I may not be reaching too deeply into my pockets next week, i wouldn’t mind a little more of a shave off from the top, as we’re still less than 4% away from those all time highs.

You wouldn’t know it, but we are.

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: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned: MAT, MRO

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:   BP (5/4 $0.595), INTC (5/4 $0.26), STX (5/6 $0.63)

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.