Category: Articles

I am definitely not a gold bug.

I definitely do hate bugs, though and I do like gold.

With the latter, only in moderation, but I’m liking gold more and more.

For each of my son’s college graduations they received some one ounce gold coins, representing the first time I had ever purchased gold in any form, other than jewelry.

Those turned out to have been good investments and some of those coins have already been cashed in and turned into other good investments.

But what I have really come to enjoy have been the gold miners. Continue reading “Not a Gold Bug”

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In the final 30 minutes of trading today, as the monthly option cycle was coming to its end, I made one last trade for the day.

I had already surprised myself by not paying attention to the strategy I was planning to execute this morning with Marathon Oil.

I further complicated matters by actually opening 2 new positions today, something I don’t do very often to end the week, unless one of those shares is going ex-dividend to start the coming week.

I also ate into my cash reserves.

Confusing.

Add to that the final trade.

Continue reading “Why Did You Do That?”

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Just a few hours ago I made a pretty good case for breaking one of my rules.

That rule was to treat individual lots of shares in a given stock as individual positions.

Doing that means selling calls on each position based upon its own strike price and profit goals.

I had my eyes on adding more shares of Marathon Oil today if it tested the $15.50 level.

With a $16.50 strike expiring this afternoon on shares that had a $15.60 break even, the idea was that if I did add more shares of Marathon Oil I would just combine the 2 lots, which happened to be of equal size and then look to sell $16 strikes on Monday. Continue reading “Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Next Week?”

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Does anyone remember this song from Mary MacGregor?

It raised a few eyebrows when it came out almost 41 years ago.

Putting fantasies aside for a moment, I’m torn between two loves at the very same moment, sitting here wondering what comes next.

That wonderment isn’t unusual. There isn;yt a day, and I don’t think there hasn’t been a day that I can recall when that wonder wasn’t in abundance.

Now that rates have risen for the second time in 3 months and as it seems that there is some ambivalence about continuing that post-election rally, I’m torn between the financing goals that appeal to me the most. Continue reading “Torn Between Two Lovers”

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About 5 years ago, maybe a little less, but at this point I don’t feel a sense of obligation to go through my data, I was way over invested in retail.

As someone who really does believe in diversity, I wasn’t too happy about carrying that much retail liability, especially as those shares weren’t faring too well.

Like just about everything else, there are periodic ups and downs.

Individual stocks behave that way, as do sectors.

Markets, too.

Continue reading “Retail Me Yes”

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If you like uncertainty, you may really love what’s ahead.

Of course, no one ever knows what is ahead, but I’m certain that it won’t be as certain as the market’s climb since Election Day.

Coming on the heels of Wednesday’s 300 point gain, today’s triple digit loss was muted, unless you were in metals and perhaps energy.

Those two certainly helped me out a lot in 2016 and had been pretty good to me in 2017, as well.

I put quite a bit of money into retailers in the past two weeks following the post-earnings swoons in L Brands, Target and Best Buy.

Abercrombie and Fitch, on the other hand, was just a lucky call, as it didn’t nosedive after poor numbers.

There was one other trade in the week that I didn’t report, because it was made in the final minute of trading on Tuesday and it didn’t involve the immediate sale of call contracts.

That was for Las Vegas Sands, which subsequently soared on Wednesday at which time I did sell some weekly calls, only to watch those shares give up much of their gain today.

But that’s the theme of what I really want to talk about.

If you don;t quiver too much, there have been some really good opportunities in some down beaten stocks.

You may have followed my recent trades in and out of Cliffs Natural Resources, for example. Continue reading “If You Like Uncertainty……”

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This may be a little hard to believe, but the past 2 weeks have been the first “real” vacation that I’ve taken since retirement.

That “retirement” was about 6 years ago.

While I have gone away during that time, including a nice trip to England, at which time I had the good fortune of surviving a heart attack, I never had my laptop away from my side.

My wife still jokes about how I was unplugging monitors in the hospital to plug in that laptop and cellphone.

I don’t find it as funny as she does, however.

One of the really nice things about having pivoted away from the old subscription service (I can’t use its name for a year) is that I don’t really have any obligation to write something every day.

And so, I didn’t for the past 2 weeks. Continue reading “Back From Vacation”

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Or, what now?

The market moved pretty decisively today as it finally broke through that elusive 20,000 barrier, that really wasn’t so very elusive.

It really didn’t take that long to breach the 20,000 level, but you do have to wonder what comes next.

Historically, if you are a covered option trader, your portfolio performs better, in relative terms during a downward trend.

I know that to be true in my own experience, but I have really been enjoying this post-election stock market celebration, even as I may not yet find anything to celebrate in the election itself.

Certainly not the process, but I’m still open-minded as far as what comes next. Continue reading “Now What?”

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I think I know how Joe DiMaggio must have felt.

After having made at least one trade for the first 11 trading days of the year, I doubt that I can keep it going for another 45 days, but I can dream.

I was hoping to get some trades done this week, but for the most part that hope was tied to do something with some of the many positions set to expire this week as the January 2017 option cycle was getting ready to come to its end.

I was hoping not to really be faced with a deluge of trades on Friday, especially since I have to have my attention focused on a few of those positions that had calls sold upon them at strike prices well below their purchase prices.

What surprised me is that I actually parted with some money in order to keep the streak alive.

I also tied that money up until next week.

I wasn’t planning for either of those things to happen, but very little really goes according to script.

The market did almost nothing today, as the DJIA moved a little bit further away from the 20,000 level.

Even a Janet Yellen speech today did little to shake things up, as she spoke mostly in academic terms and there was little for anyone to understand and to then act upon. Continue reading “Keeping the Streak Alive”

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The road ahead really is pretty unclear.

The stock market may have been expressing a little of the uncertainty that awaits as we get ready to see the proverbial rubber hit the road.

What may be coming clear to some is that the bluster may not have too much behind it.

Or maybe it will.

That’s the problem.

We are in such untested waters that it may be crazy to actually put anything at risk right now, especially as we still sit so close to all time highs.

As we await Inauguration Day and we will be back to having only a single President at a time, we may get to find out whether words will be finding their counterpart in actions.

What we know right now is that we probably shouldn’t have taken too many words with a literal meaning.

What we also know is that there may not be very much agreement between the President and the other elected officials across from him in the Capital.

Even ones in his own party. Continue reading “What Comes Next?”

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