Week In Review – October 26 – 30, 2015

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review

 

October 26 – 30, 2015

 

NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED EX-DIVIDEND
2   /   3 0 1 1   /   1 0  /  0 0 4

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

October 26 – 30, 2015


This was a week that didn’t know what it really wanted and ended up with no conviction following a strong FOMC related move forward.

There were 3 new positions opened for the week and they surpassed the unadjusted S&P 500 by1.0 % and the adjusted S&P 500 by 0.8%.

Those positions were 1.2% higher for the week while the unadjusted S&P 500 was 0.2% higher and the adjusted S&P 500 was 0.4% higher.

Once again energy and commodities continued their weakness, despite making up some ground on Friday to end the week.

It just wasn’t enough to let existing positions surpass even a mediocre broader market.

For the year the 68 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 319.3% performance differential. 

The big news for the week was the FOMC Statement release.

Prior to the release and for the two days after the release, the market was basically comatose, although it went for a wild alternating ride in the 20 minutes surrounding the release.

Earnings reports for the week made very little difference.

All of that leads to us next week and wondering what will be there to move markets, particularly since the really important retail sector doesn’t report until the following week.

< span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 1.538em;">This past week was a decent one in that there were some good opportunities to open positions and collect some dividends.

It would have been nicer if there were some opportunities to sell calls on existing positions, but at least there were some assignments and a rollover for the week, in addition to those ex-dividend positions.

With some of that money getting put back for recycling, I wouldn’t mind being able to make the same trades as were made this week, taking a look at Morgan Stanley and Seagate Technology once again, just as a few weeks earlier it had been Bank of America and General Electric that were in play for a number of consecutive weeks.

That’s boring, but it can be a really good type of boring.

With the money to spend, I would really like to see the week open on a decline. If it does so, I’d be inclined to add as many new positions as in the past few weeks. Otherwise, I’d be happy to hold onto my money and look for any opportunity to sell calls on those existing, non-performing positions.

Next week may just be one big question mark and unless there’s some big or unexpected news, that may be the theme until the December FOMC meeting.

 

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:  F, MS, STX, (puts)

Puts Closed in order to take profits:  none

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

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 cyclenone

New STO:  none

Put contracts expired: STX

Put contracts rolled over: none

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned: MS

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 PositionsKMI (10/29 $0.51), WY (10/28 $0.31), MS (10/28 $0.15), F (10/28 $0.15)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:   

For the coming week the existing positions have lots that still require the sale of contracts:   AGQ, ANF, AZN, CHK, CLF, COH, CY, FAST, FCX, GDX, GPS, HAL, HPQ, INTC, 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.