| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED |
| 3 / 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 / 0 | 2 / 0 | 0 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
March 23 – 27, 2015
This was another in a series of familiar kind of weeks.
Despite very flat days to begin and end the week, what was in-between wasn’t very good.
There were 3 new positions opened this week and they were able to beat both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500. Those positions beat the adjusted S&P 500 by 1.5% and surpassed the unadjusted S&P 500 by 1.7% in a week that the market really had no stories to follow, as almost nothing of interest happened this week.
As with a number of previous weeks lately, while the new positions did out-perform the S&P 500 they were still lower. Those positions were 0.5% lower for the week, while the unadjusted S&P 500 finished 2.2% lower and the adjusted S&P 500 was 2.0% lower
Due to the strength in energy this week the existing positions performed quite a bit better than the overall market, ending the week 1.5% higher than the overall market. However, those positions were still 0.8% lower for the week.
Positions closed in 2015 continue to out-perform the market. They are an average of 5.5% higher, while the comparable time adjusted S&P 500 average performance has been 1.7% higher. That 3.8% difference represents a 224.2% performance differential. That remains unusually high and is associated with the longer period of holding of those closed positions than is more typically the case.
This week started and ended fairly flatly.
As far as bookends go, Monday and Friday were just fine, even though Monday gave up a nice gain in the final 30 minutes.
It was really what was in-between that was the real problem as the market finished the week with another very disappointing performance, even though there wasn’t much in the way of disappointing news.
In fact, almost nothing happened this week and what did happen was barely noticeable.
There was no news to fuel inflation fears and there was no news to fear deflation fears. Lately that has been what’s been worrying the market, so it’s hard to understand what caused the market to trade so poorly this week.
While we all know what the impact is of the strengthening dollar and how it will reduce corporate earnings, we still have another two weeks until the new earnings season begins. Besides, to a large degree that impact should already be discounted by analysts in their expectations.
So it remains a mystery, but at least the market didn’t flounder further today as the GDP data was released. That data gave no indication of anything, neither positive nor negative, and played no role in today’s trading.
With all of the negativity the market is barely 2.5% below its highest point from the first trading day of this month.
With just 2 more days left to the month it has been a repeat of what January was like and the antithesis to what February was like. Hopefully that pattern will find itself continuing in April, but the challenge of earnings starts all over again in less than 2 weeks. Those two days will also determine whether this ends up being the first negative quarter in quite a while, as the S&P 500 is up only 0.09% YTD.
Next week is a holiday shortened week although the Employment Situation Report does come out on Good Friday. Stock markets are closed, although bond markets will be open. That could create some catch up trading the following Monday morning if there’s a significant reason for the bond market to make a big move.
But that’s an issue for another week.
With just a single assignment this week and another week with only a small number of expiring positions, I don’t expect the coming week to be a very busy one for opening new positions.
In all likelihood whatever new positions are opened will probably focus on using a weekly contract in order to have some opportunity to generate some more assignments in order to fund any trading for the following week. Those premiums, though, will be relatively small, as there are just 4 days of time value.
With this week being predominantly a negative one there was no opportunity to find new cover for existing positions. That still remains my top interest and right now, the best way to both conserve cash and still generate weekly income.
At the moment all of the positions expiring next week are in position to be assigned, but it doesn‘t take too much to change that possibility. At the very least, however, it would be nice to have those positions stay within the range of being rolled over.
I never ask for too much and try not to be unreasonable in those requests, but lately the market has been anything other than generous.
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: ABBV, ATVI, DOW
Puts Closed in order to take profits: none
Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle: MET
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: DOW
Calls Expired: ABBV, BAC
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: ATVI (3/26 $0.23), DOW (3/27 $0.42)
Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: EMC (3/30 $0.12)
For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts: ABBV, AGQ, ANF, BAC, CHK, CLF, COH, DOW, FAST, FCX, GDX, HAL, HFC, .INTC, JCP, JOY, LVS, MAT, MCP, MOS, NEM, RIG, WFM, WLT (See “Weekly Performance” spreadsheet or PDF file)
* If you don’t have a program to read or modify spreadshe
ets, you can download the OpenOffice Suite at no cost.