Option to Profit
Week in Review
December 12 – 16, 2016
| NEW POSITIONS/STO | NEW STO | ROLLOVERS | CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED | CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED | CLOSED | EX-DIVIDEND |
| 0 / 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 / 0 | 2 / 0 | 0 | 2 |
Weekly Up to Date Performance
December 12 – 16, 2016
New Record, new record and more new records.
OK, that wasn’t really the story this week, but after so many new records, it’s quite an achievement just to hold your ground, especially after an FOMC interest rate hike.
There was a single new position opened this week and it was 1.5% higher, while the adjusted and unadjusted S&P 500 were both unchanged for the week.
Unfortunately, due to the weakness in commodities on the week, existing positions under-performed the market on the eek. That was only fair because it was those same positions that have helped the existing positions out-perform the market for most of the year.
There were 2 more closed positions, but that still has the year at only 33, a very paltry number for all of the effort..
Ordinarily I would have said tat this was a great week.
There was one new position, were 2 rollovers, 3 assignments, 2 ex-dividend positions.
Those would have ordinarily allowed me to overlook the 2 expired positions.
Unfortunately, existing positions really did poorly this week as commodities let me down, just as they have carried me through most of the year.
What this week did was to add even more to my cash reserve, which I actually do like, even as we continue to set new closing highs.
As much as I think that we are still going higher, I very much like the idea of having some cash to pick up bargains that I believe are going to come, even as there is every reason to think that markets are going higher.
With some more cash in reserve I don’t mind spending some of it in the coming week, even as we may be at near term highs.
That’s the nice thing about having cash. You can take some risks and still be able to bail yourself out.
With the FOMC now having weighed in, in just a few weeks we are all set to start earnings season all over
ag
ain.
This time around, it’s reasonable to think that those earnings are going to be better than expected, but those expectations are probably climbing, too.
Still, I think that the coming quarter is going to give markets a reason to move higher, as may the reality of the President-Elect becoming the President.
With a couple of expiring positions next week and cash on hand, along with one dividend position, there’s really not a compelling reason to add any new positions, but the volatility in commodities, as there is almost no volatility elsewhere, continues to be really hard to pass up.
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: CLF puts
Puts Closed in order to take profits: none
Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the next weekly cycle: MRO
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: none
Put contracts expired: none
Put contracts rolled over: CLF
Long term call contracts sold: none
Calls Assigned: HFC, HPQ, IP
Calls Expired: AGQ, ANF
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: M (12/13 $0.38), BBBY (12/14 $0.125)
Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: LVS (12/10 $0.72)
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.