| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED |
| 5 / 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 / 0 | 3 / 0 | 1 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
February 10 – 14, 2014
New purchases trailed the time adjusted S&P 500 this week by 0.5%, but lagged the unadjusted index by 1.1% during a week that saw a complete reversal of what had been considered to be the beginning to a correction.
The market showed an adjusted gain for the week of 1.6% and unadjusted gain of 2.3% for the week, while new positions gained only 1.2% as premiums were reduced, reflec
ting the steep drop in volatility from just the prior week.
For the 35 positions closed in 2014, performance exceeded that of the S&P 500 by 1.5%. They were up 3.2% out-performing the market by 88.3%. Those results remain unusually high and will be reduced if market performance continues higher.
While it was another quiet week on the personal trading front I can learn not to mind that if the general trend is higher and the bottom line reflects that trend.
While new positions couldn’t keep up with a surging market that has almost completely erased the “correction” in just 7 trading sessions, it was a good week overall in total performance and the kind of trades that were made in order to put the portfolio into a better position for subsequent challenges.
For the first time in what has felt to be too long there was an opportunity to resupply the cash reserves thanks to 6 assignments. Coupled with some rollovers and new cover the week was an antidote to the cold weather and snow that’s befallen many.
Another nice aspect of this week that appears to be on track for next week as well is a decent number of ex-dividend positions and the downstream cash they will generate. Of course, I tend to focus on the one that got away, so I mourn the loss of Walgreen, still wondering what it did besides passively embrace cigarette sales, to warrant its one week straight line climb higher. For the few that didn’t have their shares, or at least all of their shares assigned, you can’t possibly begin to understand.
Despite the fact that those shares fell about 2.5% today, I didn’t get too much satisfaction other than in knowing it may be drawing closer to a point that I would be willing to buy shares again.
Next week is a holiday shortened week and once again there isn’t really any reason to have a strong opinion in either direction. Unfortunately, volatility took a sharp decline in the past week, so there is little reason to look at longer term options, other than as a strategy to straddle expiration dates. The premiums just aren’t there, having disappeared almost overnight as the market just turned on a dime and demonstrated its resilience and resistance to correction.
With some more cash available to begin the week and the willingness to spend some of it, the only limiting factor is finding the cues to suggest that the market is a willing participant.and will, at the very least trade in a narrow range.
As with any week that the market rises very strongly, and 2.3% is pretty strong, it’s always a challenge to know where to begin the next week as relative bargains start to dry up. If the market can guarantee that it will keep going higher that’s not a terrible kind of problem to have.
Although there is no such guarantee, it’s still not a terrible problem to have. There is always something that has appeal, whether by virtue of recent under-performance, an upcoming dividend or fair option premiums.
While I’m still ambivalent about where assigned money will get recycled I am looking forward to next week, although premiums will be low due to a trade shortened week and the return to low volatility.
Additionally, as with many monthly cycles, as they come to an end there are many positions set to expire. Hopefully the coming week will continue with some additional strength in order to allow another week of assignments, rollovers and new covered positions for laggards.
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This week’s details may be seen in the Weekly Performance spreadsheet * or in the PDF file, as well as as in the summary.below
(Note: Duplicate mention of positions reflects different priced lots):
New Positions Opened: COH, IP, MA, MSFT, VZ
Puts Closed in order to take profits: none
Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle: APC
Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into extended weekly cycle:
Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle: ANF
Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle: none
Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cycle: none
New STO: APC, CLF, INTC, LOW
Put contracts sold and still open: none
Put contracts expired: none
Put contract rolled over: none
Calls Assigned: COH, HAL, IP, MOS, TXN, WAG
Calls Expired: AIG, APC, COP, WFM
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 (2/5 $0.225), MET (2/5 $0.28)
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For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts: AGQ, AIG,APC, C, CHK, CLF, COP,DRI, FCX, HFC,INTC, LB, JCP, LOW, LULU, MCP, MOS, MRO, NEM, PBR, PM, RIG, TGT, TXN, WFM, WLT (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.