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Daily Market Update – October 17, 2016 (Close) There’s not too much scheduled this week outside of earnings, so we may actually get a chance to focus on fundamentals. There aren’t even very many Federal Reserve speakers this week, so those earnings and especially guidances, may really be front and center. What everyone is looking forward to is a break to the past 6 quarters of sub-par earnings and tepid guidance. I had been looking forward to this week, as it was going to be the successful conclusion to the October 2016 option cycle, but now that “successful” qualifier is at real risk. Barely a week ago I thought most of the week’s expiring positions were likely to either be assigned or rolled over. Now, it doesn’t seem that way, although one of those originally set to expire this week was rolled over last week and I did get to roll over another position today, once again going long, by adding another month onto the existing contract. Still, that changes things if the expiring positions aren’t going to contribute to my well being this week, even if they might yet again do so. With less prospects for developing rollover revenue from those expiring positions, there was some need to add to existing positions. However, with minimal prospects of having assignments and replenishing cash, I also had a reluctance to dip into those reserves at a time that I would mind seeing them grow. Such dilemmas. Usually, I spend the money if there is anything that looks remotely attractive and this week would probably be no different. It wasn’t, as I went back yet again to the well, more precisely the oil well, and repeated the trade of last week and some 8 other times in 2016. What will probably be no different is that the trading during the rest of the week will likely be sparse, as there is also very little reason to get out ahead of the market on the long side, at a time when there may be need to simply get out of the market. With a new position and a roll over already, along with one ex-dividend position, maybe I should call it a week. While the market was exceptionally flat through most of the day, there’s still some hope for something good to hit the tape as companies report this week and may give markets a reason to be optimistic. Today wasn’t really that day, as Netflix isn’t yet a market leader and IBM continues to not crush it, as it claimed victory by reporting flat revenues. That’s been the story for lots of companies for far too long. . |
