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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 29, 2014)

The SPX index barely moved this week, from a starting point of 1962.92 on Monday to a close of  1960.96 on Friday. This is really boring,.......but boring is good. The less you have to move your pieces the better, because it means time decay is working in your favor on your existing positions and it also means you're being less ripped off on commissions. Let's move over to the market conditions segment.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 21, 2014)

Well, June monthly expiration is in the past. Just to recap, I made two trades with June monthly options. I had a 920/930 RUT Put spread which was very easy to ride from the beginning and never got under pressure, and I also played a 1710/1715/1965/1970 Iron Condor whose Call side I had to close for a scratch to mitigate risk in a boring yet unstoppable bull market. Overall it wasn't a spectacular month in terms of portfolio growth, but a good one. Let's say a nice one. +2.18% overall portfolio growth after commissions and now I'm up +8.82% year to date. Half the year is gone, so if I am able to duplicate these results in the second half of the year, I will end up over +17% for the year. There's nothing spectacular about that. But there's no reason to be disappointed (I know I'm not). This has been a very low volatility environment much like 2013 which is the kind of environment that makes the lives of Options Sellers miserable. You can get better returns, yeah, sure you can, possibly +30%, but inevitably taking so much more risk that I'm unwilling to take! So, 12% last year,.....potentially 17% this year being rather conservative,.....that's pretty good. I'm pretty happy if these are the worst times! Better years will come for options sellers. And I'm gonna be there :) you bet I will. In the mean time, as the market goes up and insists in being boring, I'm reaping the benefits of my long term dividend growth oriented investments in stocks. There's always a reason to be happy and positive my friends.

Friday, June 20, 2014

August 2014 RUT Iron Condor

With 8 weeks to August expiration I entered this:

Buy 2 RUT August 1050 Put @4.40
Sell 2 RUT August 1060 Put @5.00
Sell 2 RUT August 1260 Call @2.75
Buy 2 RUT August 1270 Call @1.85

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 14, 2014)

The SPX Index went from 1948.97 down to 1936.16 this week for a 0.65% loss.
I'm writing this article in a hurry as we're going to meet a bunch of friends at the Toronto Islands today and I'm kind of late. By the way there is a nudist beach in one of the islands. Can you imaging talking about selling naked options being actually naked!??! That'd be cool.

This week I entered a 197 Put Calendar spread and I also sold the July 1805/1810 SPX Put spread yesterday as follows: 

Sell 5 SPX July 1810 Put @4.90
Buy 5 SPX July 1805 Put @4.60
Credit: 0.30 ($150)
Days to expiration: 35

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Jul/Aug SPY Put Calendar spread

Today I entered a 197 strike Put Calendar spread using July/August options:

This is essentially a Vega positive trade, that benefits form an increase in volatility. Along with the 191 Put Calendar spread this creates a 191/197 Double Calendar.

(Click on image to enlarge)

If SPY keeps going straight up and hits 200 I will be closing the whole thing for a small $120 loss.

Check out 2014 Track Record

Related Articles:
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 14, 2014)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 21, 2014)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 29, 2014) 
Closed 191/197 Double Put Calendar spread for profit on July 8, 2014


Go to the bottom of this page in order to see the Legal Stuff

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 7, 2014)

The SPX Index went from 1923.87 up to 1949.44 this week for a +1.33% gain. I had to proactively defend the July Iron Condor and take the Call side to a safer area. Although losses suck, they are part of the deal and mitigating their impact in the losing months is key for options sellers. I still think I can pull off a positive July cycle in spite of the low vol and the adjusted position.

July 2014 SPX Iron Condor adjustment

With the market making new high after new high, I conservatively adjusted the Call Spread side of the July SPX 1735/1740/1975/1980 Iron Condor. The market hasn't hit 1950 yet (25 points away from the short Call option), but with 6 weeks to expiration and a 30% probability of expiring in the money, it was time to act before things got out of hand. Here's my original tweet sent yesterday.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (June 1, 2014)

If only the Weekend Portfolio Analysis article was able to write itself the day I wanted! I helped a friend move over yesterday and I am total human waste today. But this is not LT's daily trials and tribulations. This is not a novel of my life type of blog. You're here for my weekend portfolio analysis, so here we go.

The SPX Index went from 1902.01 to 1923.57, for a +1.13% gain. We're still in the same uptrend channel that started on November 16, 2012 in spite of the thousands of 10% correction forecasts from gurus all over the world in the last year and a half. Don't pay attention to gurus, be your own guru.