TheAcsMan

Jan42016

Daily Market Update – January 4, 2014

Daily Market Update -January 4, 2015 (9:00 AM)

They say that the first week of the New Year determines the first month and that the first month determines the outcome for the who year.

Hopefully that’s not going to be the case.

No one really expected to wake up on the first Monday of the New Year to news than Iran and Saudi Arabia were at each other’s throats even more.

If this was 2015, we might have expected that any rise in the price of oil coming from the uncertainty associated with conflict in that region, would have resulted in the US stock market moving higher.

But late last week it seemed as if some normalcy was beginning to return to that relationship and so this morning markets aren’t going up in response.

Maybe, though, they’re just not going down as low as they might ordinarily have done, given what happened overnight in the Shanghai market.

With that market down 7% on halted trading, the contagion spread to Europe this morning.

If our own futures market had followed Germany, instead of looking at a loss of 300 points, we would be about double that amount.

Germany itself was only down about 60% of what transpired in Shanghai, so maybe it is that oil spike that’s giving us some cushion as we get set to begin the day.

Considering that some of our own weaknesses in 2015 were related to earlier sharp declines in Shanghai, there may be very good reason for concern as the year gets underway.

With a little bit of cash and a few positions expiring this week, I’m not too anxious to go and chase the market in what could be a bargain hunter’s delight.

I think that I would much rather sit back and see if there’s any truth to the contention that the year after a flat year is typically a good year.

You wouldn’t know that by the competing contention about the role of the first week of the year and the outcome of the rest of the year.

As the day does progress, if there appears to be some stability, I think that I would still be inclined to sit back and watch.

While in 2015 there were a number of days that large early losses were reversed during the course of the day, that’s not a typical pattern and very often a period of stability is followed by a second leg lower.

I’d rather not get caught in the second leg.

That wouldn’t be the most auspicious way to begin 2016.

While it may be a difficult first day and maybe a difficult first week, my eyes are going to be focused also on a fairly large number of positions that are set to expire next week as the January 2016 cycle comes to an end.

That coincides with the start of earnings season, so there may be lots of things to be thinking about as we try to sort out the international issues.

Jan42016

Dashboard – January 4 – 8, 2015

TheAcsManDashboard

MONDAY: China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. 2016 wasn’t supposed to get off to this kind of a start

TUESDAY: Asian markets moderated overnight, but US markets look as if they want to give back a big part of yesterday’s late session comeback. Strap on as 2016 continues.

WEDNESDAY: News that North Korea has an H Bomb, coupled with decreasing iPhone orders added to record cash inflows into mutual funds give the market plenty of reasons to worry. I think the last of those three may be the worst of all.

THURSDAY: Strap on again. China plummets overnight and taking Europe and US futures along the ride

FRIDAY:. There may be some rebound today, if the futures are any tell, but even a big rebound wouldn’t be enough to offset the first 4 days of the New Year

“SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK” APPEARS ON FRIDAYS

Jan12016

Weekend Update – January 3, 3016

TheAcsManWeekend Update

The "What If" game is about as fruitless as it gets, but is also as much a part of human nature as just about anything else.

How else could I explain having played that game at a high school reunion?

That may explain the consistent popularity of that simple question as a genre on so many people’s must read lists as the New Year begins.

Historical events lead themselves so beautifully to the "What If" question because the cascading of events can be so far reaching, especially in an interconnected world.

Even before that interconnection became so established it didn’t take too much imagination to envision far reaching outcomes that would have been so wildly different around the world even a century or more later.

Imagine if the Union had decided to cede Fort Sumpter and simply allowed the South to go its merry way. Would an abridged United States have been any where near the force it has been for the past 100 years? What would that have meant for Europe, the Soviet Union, Israel and every other corner of the world?

Second guessing things can never change the past, but it may provide some clues for how to approach the future, if only the future could be as predictable as the past.

Looking back at 2015 there are lots of "what if" questions that could be asked as we digest the fact that it was the market’s worst performance since 2008.

In that year the S&P 500 was down about 37%, while in 2015 it was only down 0.7%. That gives some sense of what kind of a ride we’ve been on for the past 7 years, if the worst of those years was only 0.7% lower.

But most everyone knows that the 0.7% figure is fairly illusory.

For me the "what if" game starts with what if Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and a handful of others had only performed as well as the averages.

Of course, even that "what if" exercise would continue to perpetuate some of the skew seen in 2015, as the averages were only as high as they were due to the significant out-performance of a handful of key constituent components of the index. Imagining what if those large winners had only gone down 0.7% for the year would still result in an index that wouldn’t really reflect just how bad the underlying market was in 2015.

While some motivated individual could do those calculations for the S&P 500, which is a bit more complex, due to its market capitalization calculation, it’s a much easier exercise for the DJIA.

Just imagine multiplying the 10 points gained by Microsoft , the 30 pre-split points gained by Nike (NKE), the 17 points by UnitedHealth Group (UNH), the 26 points by McDonalds (MCD) or the 29 points by Home Depot (HD) and suddenly the DJIA which had been down 2.2% for 2015, would have been another 761 points lower or an additional 4.5% decline.

Add another 15 points from Boeing (BA) and another 10 from Disney (DIS) and we’re starting to inch closer and closer to what could have really been a year long correction.

Beyond those names the pickings were fairly slim from among the 30 comprising that index. The S&P 500 wasn’t much better and the NASDAQ 100, up for the year, was certainly able to boast only due to the performances of Amazon, Netflix (NFLX), Alphabet and Facebook (FB).

Now, also imagine what if historically high levels of corporate stock buybacks hadn’t artificially painted a better picture of per share earnings.

That’s not to say that the past year could have only been much worse, but it could also have been much better.

Of course you could also begin to imagine what if the market had actually accepted lower energy and commodity prices as a good thing?

What if investors had actually viewed the prospects of a gradual increase in interest rates as also being a good thing, as it would be reflective of an improving, yet non-frothy, economy?

And finally, for me at least, What if the FOMC hadn’t toyed with our fragile emotions and labile intellect all through the year?

Flat line years such as 2015 and 2011 don’t come very often, but when they do, most dispense with the "what if" questions and instead focus on past history which suggests a good year to follow.

But the "what if" game can also be prospective in nature, though in the coming year we should most likely ask similar questions, just with a slight variation.

What if energy prices move higher and sooner than expected?

What if the economy expands faster than we expected?

What if money is running dry to keep the buyback frenzy alive?

Or, what if corporate earnings actually reflect greater consumer participation?

You may as well simply ask what if rational thought were to return to markets?

But it’s probably best not to ask questions when you may not be prepared to hear the answer.

As usual, the week’s potential stock selections are classified as being in the Traditional, Double Dip Dividend, Momentum or "PEE" categories.

For those, myself included, who have been expecting some kind of a resurgence in energy prices and were disbelieving when some were calling for even further drops only to see those calls come true, it’s not really clear what the market’s reaction might be if that rebound did occur.

While the market frequently followed oil lower and then occasionally rebounded when oil did so, it’s hard to envision the market responding favorably in the face of sustained oil price stability or strength.

I’ve given up the idea that the resurgence would begin any day now and instead am more willing to put that misguided faith into the health of financial sector stocks.

Unless the FOMC is going to toy with us further or the economy isn’t going to show the kind of strength that warranted an interest rate increase or warrants future increases, financials should fare well going forward.

This week I’m considering MetLife (MET), Morgan Stanley and American Express (AXP), all well off from their 2015 highs.

MetLife, down 12% during 2015 is actually the best performer of that small group. As with Morgan Stanley, almost the entirety of the year’s loss has come in the latter half of the year when the S&P 500 was performing no worse than it had during the first 6 months of the year.

Both Morgan Stanley and MetLife have large enough option premiums to consider the sale of the nearest out of the money call contracts in an attempt to secure some share appreciation in exchange for a somewhat lo0wer option premium.

In both cases, I think the timing is good for trying to get the best of both worlds, although Morgan Stanley will be among the relatively early earnings reports in just a few weeks and still hasn’t recovered from its last quarter’s poorly received results, so it would help to be prepared to manage the position if still held going into earnings in 3 weeks.

By contrast, American Express reports on that same day, but all of 2015 was an abysmal one for the company once the world learned that its relationship with Costco (COST) was far more important than anyone had believed. The impending loss of Costco as a branded partner in the coming 3 months has weighed heavily on American Express, which is ex-dividend this week.

I would believe that most of that loss in share has already been discounted and that disappointments aren’t going to be too likely, particularly if the consumer is truly making something of a comeback.

There has actually been far less press given to retail results this past holiday season than for any that I can remember in the recent and not so recent past.

Most national retailers tend to pull rabbits out of their hats after preparing us for a disappointing holiday season, with the exception of Best Buy (BBY), which traditionally falls during the final week of the year on perpetually disappointing numbers.

Best Buy has already fallen significantly in th e past 3 months, but over the years it has generally been fairly predictable in its ability to bounce back after sharp declines, whether precipitous or death by a thousand cuts.

To my untrained eye it appears that Best Buy is building some support at the $30 level and doesn’t report full earnings for another 2 months. Perhaps it’s its reputation preceding it at this time of the year, but Best Buy’s current option premium is larger than is generally found and I might consider purchasing shares and selling out of the money calls in the anticipation of some price appreciation.

Under Armour (UA) is in a strange place, as it is currently in one of its most sustained downward trends in at least 5 years.

While Nike, its arch competitor, had a stellar year in 2015, up until a fateful downtrend that began in early October, Under Armour was significantly out-performing Nike, even while the latter was some 35% above the S&P 500’s performance.

That same untrained eye sees some leveling off in the past few weeks and despite still having a fairly low beta reflecting a longer period of observation than the past 2 months, the option premium is continuing to reflect uncertainty.

With perhaps some possibility that cold weather may finally be coming to areas where it belongs this time of the year, it may not be too late for Under Armour to play a game of catch up, which is just about the only athletic pursuit that I still consider.

Finally, Pfizer (PFE) has been somewhat mired since announcing a planned merger, buyout, inversion or whatever you like to have it considered. The initially buoyed price has fallen back, but as with Dow Chemical (DOW) which has also fallen back after a similar merger announcement move higher, it has returned to the pre-announcement level.

I view that as indicating that there’s limited downside in the event of some bad news related to the proposed merger, but as with Dow Chemical, Best Buy and Under Armour, the near term option premium continues to reflect perceived near term risk.

Whatever Pfizer;’s merger related risk may be, I don’t believe it will be a near term risk. From the perspective of a call option seller that kind of perception in the face of no tangible news can be a great gift that keeps giving.

Traditional Stocks: MetLife. Morgan Stanley, Pfizer

Momentum Stocks: Best Buy, Under Armour

Double-Dip Dividend: American Express (1/6 $0.29)

Premiums Enhanced by Earnings: none

Remember, these are just guidelines for the coming week. The above selections may become actionable – most often coupling a share purchase with call option sales or the sale of covered put contracts – in adjustment to and consideration of market movements. The overriding objective is to create a healthy income stream for the week, with reduction of trading risk.

Nov272015

Weekend Update – November 29, 2015

TheAcsManWeekend Update

We used to believe that the reason people so consistently commented about how tired they were after a big Thanksgiving meal was related to the turkey itself.

Within that turkey it was said that an abundance of the basic amino acid,”tryptophan,” which is a precursor of “serotonin” played a role in its unique ability to induce sleep.

More reasoned people believe that there is nothing special about turkey itself, in that it has no more tryptophan than any other meat and that simply eating without abandon may really explain the drowsiness so commonly experienced. Others also realize that tryptophan, when part of a melange of other amino acids, really doesn’t stand out of the crowd and exert its presence.

Then there’s the issue of serotonin itself, a naturally produced neurotransmitter, which is still not fully understood and can both energize and exhaust, in what is sometimes referred to as “the paradox of serotonin.”

From what is known about serotonin, if dietary tryptophan could exert some pharmacological influence by simply eating turkey, we would actually expect to find reports of people who got wired from their Thanksgiving meals instead of sedated.

Based upon my Thanksgiving guests this year, many of whom found the energy to go out shopping on Thursday and Friday nights, they were better proof of the notion that Black Fridays matter, rather than of the somnolent properties of turkey.

In the case of the relationship between the tryptophan in turkey and ensuing sleep, it may just be a question of taking disparate bits of information, each of which may have some validity and then stringing them together in the belief that their individual validity can be additive in nature.

Truth doesn’t always follow logic.

Another semi-myth is that when traders are off dozing or lounging in their recliners instead of trading, the likelihood of large market moves is enhanced in a volume depleted environment.

You definitely wouldn’t have known it by the market’s performance during this past week, as Friday’s trading session began the day with the S&P 500 exactly unchanged for the week and didn’t succeed in moving the needle as the week came to its end.

Other than the dueling stories of NATO ally Turkey and stuffing ally turkey, there wasn’t much this week to keep traders awake. The former could have sent the market reeling, but anticipation of the latter may have created a calming influence.

You couldn’t be blamed for buying into the tryptophan myth and wondering if everyone had started their turkey celebration days before the calendar warranted doing so.

Or maybe traders are just getting tired of the aimless back and forth that has us virtually unchanged on the DJIA for 2015 and up only 1.5% on the S&P 500 for the year.

Tryptophan or no tryptophan, treading water for a year can also tire you out.

The week started off with the news of China doubling its margin requirements and an agreement on a $160 Billion tax inversion motivated merger, yet the reaction to those news items was muted.

The same held for Friday’s 5.5% loss in Shanghai that barely raised an eyebrow once trading got underway in the United States, as drowsiness may have given way to hibernation.

Even the revised GDP, which indicated a stronger than expected growth rate, failed to really inflate or deflate. There was, however, a short lived initial reaction which was a repudiation of the recent seeming acceptance of an impending interest rate hike. For about an hour markets actually moved outside of their very tight range for the week until coming to its senses about the meaning of economic growth.

Next week there could be an awakening as the Employment Situation Report is released just days before the FOMC begins their December meeting which culminates with a Janet Yellen press conference.

Other than the blip in October’s Employment Situation Report, the predominance of data since seems to support the notion of an improving economy and perhaps one that the FOMC believes warrants the first interest rate hike in almost 10 years.

With traders again appearing to be ready to accept such an increase it’s not too likely that a strong showing will scare anyone away and may instead be cause for a renewed round of optimism.

On the other hand, a disappointing number could send most into a tizzy, as uncertainty is rarely the friend of traders and any action by the FOMC in the face of non-corroborating data wouldn’t do much to inspire confidence in anything or any institution.

For my part, I wouldn’t mind giving the tryptophan the benefit of the doubt and diving deeply into those turkey leftovers with express instructions to be woken up only once 2016 finally arrives.

Knowing that flat years, such as this one has been to date, are generally followed by reasonably robust years, overloading on the tryptophan now may be a good strategy to avoid more market indecision and avoid the wasteful use of energy that could be so much better spent in 2016.

As usual, the week’s potential stock selections are classified as being in the Traditional, Double Dip Dividend, Momentum or “PEE” categories.

A number of potential selections this week fall into the “repeat” category.

Unlike a bad case of post-Thanksgiving indigestion, the kind of repeating that occasionally takes place when selling covered calls, is actually an enjoyable condition and is more likely to result in a look of happiness instead of one of gastric distress.

This week I’m again thinking of buying Bank of
America (BAC), Best Buy (BBY), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Pfizer (PFE), all of which I’ve recently owned and lost to assignment.

Sometimes that has been the case on multiple occasions over the course of just a few weeks. Where the real happiness creeps in is when you can buy those shares back and do so at a lower price than at which they were assigned.

With the S&P 500 only about 2% below its all time high, I would welcome some weakness to start the week in hopes of being able to pick up any of those 4 stocks at lower prices. My anticipation is that Friday’s Employment Situation Report will set off some buying to end the week, so I’d especially like to get the opportunity to make trades early in the week.

Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, of course, stand to benefit from increasing interest rates, although I suppose that some can make the case that when the news of an interest rate increase finally arrives, it will signal a time to sell.

If you believe in the axiom of “buying on the rumor and selling on the news,” it’s hard to argue with that notion, but I believe that the financials have so well tracked interest rates, that they will continue doing so even as the rumor becomes stale news.

As an added bonus, Bank of America is ex-dividend this week, although it’s dividend is modest by any standard and isn’t the sort that I would chase after.

Both, however, may have some short upside potential and have option premiums that are somewhat higher than they have been through much of 2015.

While both are attractive possibilities in the coming week or weeks, if forced to consider only one of the two, I would forgo Bank of America’s added bonus and focus on Morgan Stanley, as it has recovered from its recent earnings related drop, but now may be getting ready to confront its even larger August decline.

Bank of America, on the other hand, is not too far from its 2015 high point, but still can be a good short term play, perhaps even being a recurrent one over the next few weeks.

Also ex-dividend this week are two retailers, Wal-Mart (WMT) and Coach (COH) and together with Best Buy (BBY) and Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) are my retail focus, as I expect this year to be like most others, as the holiday season begins and ends.

While Coach may have lost some of its cachet, it’s still no Wal-Mart in that regard.

Coach has struggled to return to its April 2015 levels, although it may finally be stabilizing and recent earnings have suggested that its uncharacteristically poor execution on strategy may be coming to an end.

With a very attractive dividend and an option premium that continues to reflect some uncertainty, I wouldn’t mind finding some company for a much more expensive lot of shares that I’ve been holding for quite some time. With the ex-dividend date this week, the stars may be aligned to do so now.

I bought some Wal-Mart shares a few weeks ago after a disastrous day in which it sustained its largest daily loss ever, following the shocking revelation that increasing employee wages was going to cost the company some money.

The only real surprise on that day was that apparently no one bothered doing the very simple math when Wal-Mart first announced that it was raising wages for US employees. They provided a fixed amount for that raise and the number of employees eligible for that increase was widely known, but basic mathematical operations were out of reach to analysts, leading to their subsequent shock some months later.

Wal-Mart shares will be getting ready to begin the week slightly higher than where I purchased my most recent shares. I don’t very often add additional lots at higher prices, but the continuing gap between the current price and where it had unexpectedly plunged from offers some continued opportunity.

As with Coach, in advance of an ex-dividend date may be a fortuitous time to open a position, particularly as the option premium and dividend are both attractive, as are the shares themselves.

Neither Best Buy nor Bed Bath and Beyond are ex-dividend this week, although Best Buy will be so the following week.

That may give reason to consider selling an extended option if purchasing Best Buy shares, but it could also give some reason to sell weekly options, but to consider rolling those over if assignment is likely.

In doing so, one strategy might be to select a rollover date perhaps two weeks away and still in the money. In that manner, there may still be reason for the holder of the option contract to exercise early in order to capture the dividend, but as the seller you would receive a relatively larger premium that could offset the loss of the dividend while at the same time freeing up the cash tied up in shares of Best Buy in order to be able to put it to use in some other income producing position.

Bed Bath and Beyond is a company that I frequently consider buying and would probably have done much more frequently, if only it had offered a dividend or consistently offered weekly options for sale and purchase.

It still doesn’t offer a dividend, but sitting near a 2 year low and never being in one of their stores without lots of company at the cash register, the shares really have their appeal during the holiday season.

Finally, even with an emphasis on financials and retail, Pfizer (PFE) continues to warrant a look.

Having purchased shares last week and having seen them assigned, there’s not too much reason to believe that their planned merger with Ireland based Allergan (AGN), is going to be resolved any time soon.

While we wait for that process to play itself out, there may be fits and starts. There will clearly be opposition to the merger, as attention will focus on many issues, but none as controversial as the tax avoidance that may be a primary motivator for the transaction.

If the news for Pfizer eventually turns out to be negative and an immovable roadblock is placed, I don’t think that very much of Pfizer’s current price
reflects the deal going to its anticipated completion.

With that in mind, the upside potential may be greater than the downside potential. As long as the option premiums are reflected any increased risk, this can be an especially lucrative trade the longer the process gets stretched out, particularly if Pfizer trades in a defined range and the position can be serially rolled over or purchased anew.

Traditional Stocks: Bed Bath and Beyond, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer

Momentum Stocks: Best Buy

Double-Dip Dividend: Bank of America (12/2 $0.05), Coach (12/2 $0.34), Wal-Mart (12/2 $0.49)

Premiums Enhanced by Earnings: none

Nov272015

Week in Review – November 23 – 27, 2015

TheAcsManWeek in Review

Option to Profit

Week in Review

NOVEMBER 23 – 27, 2015

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

Weekly Up to Date Performance

November 23 – 27, 2015

< strong>This was a week that may as well not even happened.

After 3 trading days in which the market didn’t move the needle and then a little break for Thanksgiving, the week closed on Friday without ever getting that needle to budge even the slightest bit.

There were 2 new positions for the week and they beat both the adjusted and undadjusted S&P 500 by 1.6%

Those positions were up 1.6% while the S&P 500 was unchanged.

Despite some continuing weakness in energy and commodities, existing positions out-performed the S&P 500 by 0.3% after a couple of weeks of having lagged, as those particular sectors were weak.

For the year the 74 closed lots in 2015 continue to outperform the market. They are an average of 4.6% higher, while the comparable time adjusted S&P 500 average performance has been 1.1% higher. That difference represents a 327.1% performance differential.

While this was yet another week in which there wasn’t too much in the way of real economic news, the market did get to test the resolve of traders.

That test came when the revised GDP was released and it showed even stronger growth. That likely means that the FOMC will be in a better position to justify an announcement of an interest rate hike in about 12 days from today.

Instead of a big sell off, which would have indicated an about face by traders who seem to have come to accept an upcoming increase and instead of a big rally, the market did nothing.

That was the story for the week, although if fine tuning the reaction, there was some initial disappointment and then that, too, got appropriately resolved.

Without the ups and downs that have characterized so many of the past weeks over the last 3 months, there wasn’t any real bouncing around, but it still turned out to be a decent week.

With 2 new positions opened, 3 rollovers, 2 ex-dividend positions and 3 assignments, there was a little for everyone.

I especially like those occasions when I can rollover the same position twice, as was the case this week.

Unfortunately, there was also a position that expired without assignment, nor rollover and that gets added to a much too long of a list of similar positions.

WIth a decent amount of cash getting added to reserves, I’m willing to use some or even all of it next week in the pursuit of generating some new income flow.

On the other hand, there are 2 positions set for expiration next week which could potentially be the source of some income, but more importantly, there are 6 positions going ex-dividend next week, include some that have multiple lots.

That means that there may be a little bit less of a need to look for income producing trades for the week.

Next week does have an Employment SItuation Report to end the week, but there’s not very much before then, other than lots of Federal Reserve Governors who are willing to share their opinions and will be doing so in the week prior to their next meeting.

The expectation has to be that the Employment Situation Report will deliver a solid number. With that comes the additional expectation that traders will take that number in a rational way and bid the market even higher.

It’s not too likely that there will be a disappointing number, but if there was
one, you could probably look for a marked sell-off, unless those FOMC Governors give strong reason to believe that the FOMC is now hell bent on getting that rate increase decussion made prior to 2016.

For me, the likelihood is that if the market doesn’t go down to open the week or at least not move much higher, it will be a very slow trading week for me. As we sit only about 2% below all time highs, the market is within easy striking distance of more new highs or a technical correction point.

Guessing where things go is really like flipping coin, but despite knowing that none of the previous flips has any predictive value for an upcoming flip, I’d still rather know that the market has come off of a decline before putting any new money at risk.

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: BBY, PFE

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 (12/24)

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

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle: HFC (1/15/16)

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

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: STX

Long term call contracts sold: none

Calls Assigned: BBY, KO, PFE

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: MAT (11/23 $0.38), KO (11/27 $0.33)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: HAL (12/1 $0.18), MOS (12/1 $0.28), HFC (12/2 $0.33), COH (12/2 $0.34), BAC (12/2 $0.05), WMT (12/2 $0.49)

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts: AGQ, ANF, AZN, BBY, CHK, CLF, COH, CY, FAST, FCX, GDX, GPS, HAL, JCP, JOY, KMI, KSS, LVS, MCPIQ, MOS, NEM, RIG, WFM, WLTGQ (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.