Option to Profit
Week in Review
August 1 – 5, 2016
| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED | EX-DIVIDEND |
| 0 / 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 | 2 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
August 1 – 5, 2016
After a string of consecutive small daily losses, the market finally broke out and closed the week at another new record closing high.
That’s the sort of thing that it had gotten used to just a couple of weeks ago and did so back then on virtually no news of note.
This time, though, there was a catalyst.
It was the Employment Situation Report which ended up fueling a nearly 200 point rise in the DJIA as both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 hit their new closing record highs.
But for all of the excitement on Friday, the S&P 500 only closed 0.4% higher on the week.
With no new trades for the week, I did virtually nothing but watch the inaction for the first 4 days of the week and the excitement to end the week.
There was just a single new sale of calls on an uncovered position and only two ex-dividend positions, but there was still a little something for everyone, even as oil was weak for much of the week.
With no new closed positions on the week closed positions in 2016 are still 6.8% higher, while the comparable performance for the S&P 500 during the same holding periods has been 1.9% higher. That represents a 267% difference in return on closed positions. As with every week in 2016, I’d be much more impressed if there were far more of those closed positions to point toward. With such few closed positions for the year, the differential could just as easily have been in the other direction and of a similar magnitude, yet also signifying little.
It’s hard to know what to make of this week.
It’s clear that the market has said that it is finally ready to move on and can live with an increase in interest rates, as long as that means that the economy is finally heading in the right direction.
The Employment Situation Report gave another good number and at least that’s pointing in the right direction, even as the GDP isn’t
Next week begins retailer reports and this week wasn’t entirely kind to those companies that really depend on consumers, just as the GDP depends on consumers.
So we’ll see what the next 2 weeks bring and what kind of future is painted by the retail giants.
I have some money to spend and with only a single expiring position and 2 ex-dividend positions, I wouldn’t mind finding some additional source of weekly income.
But after this week’s big news, what’s left to push markets higher.
With earnings season just a bout over, maybe the real boost could come if the retailers can paint an optimistic picture over the next few days.
I don’t know if I want to get ahead of any of those earnings reports, though.
The recent losing streak and the small cumulative loss it created, may however, have been enough to create a base camp for the next climb higher, especially if retail plays along.
If it does, I don’t mind getting carried along and would especially like it if oil were to make up some of what it lost in the past couple of weeks.
That would really add to the nice personal gains so far in 2016.
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: none
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: 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: WY (10/21/2016)
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
Calls Closed to Take Profits: none
Ex-dividend Positions: INTC (8/3 $0.26), BP (8/3 $0.595)
Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: AZN (8/8 $0.44), IP (8/11 $0.44)
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.