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Daily Market Update – July 20, 2016 (Close) Yesterday the market was mixed, but the DJIA hit another new closing high. Today the market wasn’t mixed, but there was a definite spread between the S&P 500 and the DJIA. But one thing that made this day the same as most any other day of the past 2 weeks is that there was the occasion of yet another new high. So there was that. This morning, maybe on the heels of Microsoft’s nice earnings report, the market looked as if it’s set to resume the broader climb higher. It did, but just not as enthusiastically as you might expect when technology is doing well. With pretty good numbers from the financial sector, and a good start with the technology sector, you might have expected more excitement, but already being at the top may have taken some of that excitement down a notch. I was happy to have made some trades yesterday, including again rolling over the position in Marathon Oil, even as there still remained a number of days until the expiration date left to go. With their earnings coming up soon I may finally be interested in getting out of that position, but I think those earnings may be better than expected, so there may be reason to continue doing that trade. Also having an opportunity to sell some calls on an uncovered position and using an expiration date before its upcoming earnings gives an opportunity to get out of a long held position and raise some cash. With those trades done and with the market possibly looking to continue higher, I’m going to be looking for more opportunity to sell calls on uncovered positions. Today, though wasn’t the day for it, although I do have some in mind and am getting anxious to finally do something with some of those non-performers. As long as the market is moving higher, that may be a far better opportunity than trying to locate bargains. The rest of the week may simply be more of what 2016 has been like, even as I like the performance. What I don’t like is the inactivity in my accounts and the paucity of trades. I suppose that I can get over that lack of trading as long as the bottom line increases and as long as there is sufficient weekly income to keep me afloat, but it’s a little difficult to accomplish the latter if the number of trades isn’t up to my expectations. With earnings being relatively good, thus far, and Microsoft getting the very important technology sector off to its own good start, there’s reason to be optimistic about the bottom line, even as the prospect of getting good option premiums declined along with market volatility. The bottom line? The bottom line matters more, but only if you secure the profits and don’t let them slip away, unless you are using those positions for the generation of recurrent income at the same time and are able to capitalize on the ups and downs.
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