Week in Review – December 19 – 23, 2016

 

Option to Profit

Week in Review


December 19 – 23, 2016

NEW POSITIONS/STO NEW STO ROLLOVERS CALLS ASSIGNED/PUTS EXPIRED CALLS EXPIRED/PUTS ASSIGNED CLOSED EX-DIVIDEND
0  /   0 0 4 0   /   0 0   /   0 0 3

 

Weekly Up to Date Performance

December 19 – 23, 2016

One week left to go in 2016 and we are knocking on the door of 20,000 on the DJIA.

Unbelievable.

The market was basically unchanged for the week and there were no new positions opened.

For the most part, I haven’t minded going along for the ride, although the past week was another one where commodities and retail were weak, so I didn’t care for that part of things.

What I did like was the ability to rollover a number of positions and getting my share of dividends, while still keeping cash at a level that gives me lots of options as 2017 arrives.

Even with the weakness in commodities, 2016 continues to have been a great year.

I’m really looking forward to 2017, especially since I don’t think that I was able to say the same thing for each of the past 2 years.

While there’s no volatility in sight, I think that the next year is going to bring lots of opportunity the old fashioned way.

That means no artificially induced buying from low interest rates and no indiscriminate repurchasing of shares to move them higher.

Instead, I think that we are finally getting to that point that corporate earnings are actually going to be good.

Of course, that has to be balanced with what may be an increasingly high interest rate environment, with upward pressure on rates coming faster than may have ever been expected.

That may be what’s in store as we look at the possibility of an already fully employed work force and the possibility of infrastructure projects coming, as promised.

That may be a good combination for the economy, but a quicker rate of upward pressure on wages and prices may not be the best thing for stocks, unless the stocks are materials and commodity centric.

So that’s why I’m excited about 2017 just continuing the overall story of my 2016 experience.

Hopefully, the 2017 experience will also include more trades, more income and a continued ability to beat the S&P 500 at its own game.

We’ll see about that.

But for now, the only thing that matters is that everyone be in a best position as possible to have the Merriest possible Christmas and to have a happy and a healthy New Year.

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:  MRO

Calls Rolled over, taking profits, into the monthly cycle: DOW

Calls Rolled Over, taking profits, into a future monthly cycle:  none

Calls Rolled Up, taking net profits into same cyclenone

New STO: none

Put contracts expired: none

Put contracts rolled over: CLF

Long term call contracts sold:  none

Calls Assigned:  none

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   LVS (12/19 $0.72), GDX (12/19 $0.055), DOW (12/23 $0.46)

Ex-dividend Positions Next Week: CY (12/27 $0.11), GPS (12/30 $0.23)

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.