Option to Profit
Week in Review
MARCH 21 – 25, 2016
| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED | EX-DIVIDEND |
| 2 / 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 | 0 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
March 21 – 25, 2016
This was supposed to be a very quiet week as much of the world was getting ready to celebrate Easter.
There was very little on the economic news front and one less trading day, but still, lots can happen. There certainly was a lot that happened, but the impact of events in Europe haven’t translated into markets gone out of control.
Before those events I saw fit to open 2 new positions and it wasn’t the horror in Brussels to blame, but instead the downdraft in oil.
As a result new positions trailed both the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 by 1.2%.
Those new positions were 1.9% lower, while the S&P 500 ended the week 0.7% lower.
Existing positions were able to match the performance of the S&P 500 for the week as it was 1.3% higher, as the market finally undid the losses of the first 6 weeks of 2016.
This was thew first week in quite a while that the markets were lower.
Riding on the coattails of oil most all sectors have been moving higher since February 11th, but that came to a halt this week as oil was significantly lower and the market had to also deal with the kind of tragedy that we hope to never have to hear about, much less endure.
With news that more oil rigs were sidelined this week as inventories were rising, you can only imagine that the supply – demand cycle will continue to play out, as at some point the lack of drilling results in relatively lower supply and perhaps oil can find some footing again.
But predicting doesn’t usually work out very well, as anyone who had bet that interest rates would have by now been well on their way toward climbing higher and higher.
What this week did have was a rarity for 2016.
That being the opening of more than one new position.
Fortunately, despite the bottom falling out of the energy sector on Wednesday, there was still an opportunity to roll over that one expiring position and to at least generate a little more premium cash, while the volatility remains high.
What this week also will have, and it is another rarity, is the announcement of what may significant economic news coming on a day that there is no stock trading.
In this case, it’s tomorrow’s GDP, which could hold the keys to whether or not that next interest rate increase might be here before June.
Whatever will be that number, there’s not too much we can do but watch as the futures may react and leave us to wonder what Monday may bring.
Next week isn’t quite as quiet, particularly with a number of Federal reserve Governors hitting the streets to share their opinions, which often seem quite at odds with one another.
Beyond that, we do have another Employment Situation Report to contend with.
And then, there’s also that issue of oil and whether stocks will continue to follow, or perhaps do like they did this week and not be so predictable in their direction nor magnitude.
With some ex-dividend positions next week, but only one expiring position, I wouldn’t mind opening another new position or more, but I’ll be ve
ry curious to see what that GDP number will be like and how the markets may react if the number is surprising in whatever direction it may elect.
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: CY, MRO
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 (4/8)
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: none
Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: CY (3/29 $0.11), DOW (3/29 $0.48), EMC (3/30 $0.11)
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.