Option to Profit
Week in Review
September 23 – 27, 2016
| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED | EX-DIVIDEND |
| 1 / 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 | 3 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
September 23 – 27, 2016
What a week this was.
Add to it the Friday close from the previous week and we had 6 consecutive triple digit moves, with the market finally ending higher on the week’
There wasn’t much in the way of a theme this week, despite about 17 scheduled appearances by members of the Federal Reserve.
What there was lots of back and forth.
There was one new position opened this week and it was one designed to capture a dividend and hopefully get assigned as its monthly option is due to expire.
That position was up 5.8% for the week, while the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were both only 0.2% higher.
With all of that movement, only 0.2%.
Imagine that.
Existing positions were again responsive to energy and commodity positions which were all over the place this week. When Friday’s rally finally settled, those existing positions were actually 0.6% higher than the S&P 500 for the week, despite the weakness in oil and commodities.
There were two new closed positions for the week, both old friends.
One, an old friend because it was held for about 529 days and the other, because it was one of 8 times that same stock has been closed out in 2016.
Positions closed in 2016 were 0.3% higher, as compared to the overall market, which was 5.6% higher during the same time frame. Of course, the defunct MolyCorp, whose positions were closed out this year are responsible for that adverse comparison, which is on a non-weighted basis.
Without those MolyCorp shares the remaining shares would have been 7% higher, versus 2% for the S&P 500.< /strong>
I wasn’t expected to do very much this week, as there was plenty of reason to expect confusion, with so many Federal Reserve members putting in their two cents.
It was an orderly confusion, though, as we basically went back and forth, albeit in relatively big chunks from one day to the next.
I was a little surprised to have opened a new position and very happy to have been able to see 2 others get cashed out.
Although I was pleased on a net basis for the week, I would have really liked to have had some opportunities to sell calls on uncovered positions.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying. It has just been that with the volatility so low, it’s really hard to justify selling the rights to shares for such pittances.
Still with 3 ex-dividend positions, including one with 3 lots and the other two with each 2 lots of shares, there was enough income generation for me, as long as 2016 is used as the baseline.
Of course, even by 2015 standards, which was already a fairly quiet trading year, 2016 has been a sleeper, even as net asset values are rising nicely.
It’s just that those increasing net asset values don’t necessarily materialize into realized gains and they don’t necessarily result in income production.
That, in part, explains the hunger for dividends, even as dividends really represent a zero sum game of sorts.
With cash being generated from 2 positions, one assigned short call position and one expired short put position, I do have some extra cash to spend in the coming week.
With no expiring positions next week and only 2 ex-dividend positions, I wouldn’t mind adding something to that mix, so I may be on the lookout for something on Monday morning.
Ultimately, it will likely be as it has been for what feels like the longest time.
I just want to sell some calls on uncovered positions and maybe see some assignments as the October 2016 contracts come to their conclusion.
That’s not asking too much.
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
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
Put contracts expired: MRO
Put contracts rolled over: none
Long term call contracts sold: none
Calls Assigned: BBY
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: CY (9/27 $0.11), DOW (9/28 $0.46), WFM (9/29 $0.135)
Ex-dividend Positions Next Week:
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.