The biggest threat I see to this bull market is a strengthening US dollar. In some ways it’ll be good for us since a stronger dollar will drive down oil prices and slow inflation (in theory). In more direct ways it’ll reduce profits of US companies with a strong overseas presence. It will lower the…
Month: May 2011
Sold AFL Option Straddle
I mentioned on Friday that I was going to be assigned 100 shares of AFLAC Inc (AFL). Those hit my account this morning and I waited about an hour before deciding that I should go ahead and sell the option straddle I was considering. After I planted the seed in my mind last week AFL…
DJIA – 1 Year Chart
I charted daily prices for the past six months on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJIA, $INDU, $DJI) after it closed on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 12,512.04. The decline over the past three weeks has felt more severe to some of us than it really has been. We’ve only seen the DJIA drop 2.8%…
Options Expiration – May 2011
Two days after I posted my plans earlier this week for my expiring options Aflac (AFL) got spanked and lost 6% after issuing poor guidance. This morning I took an option assignment a day early on my AFL May $55 put and now have 100 shares in my account with no AFL options on either…
Current Portfolio – May 17, 2011
I’ve been slow to open new positions since the first couple of puts I sold at the beginning of May. I was planning to let that be the beginning of my road to increased exposure, but with the tentative nature of the markets in May I’ve eased off of that plan. I only have three…
S&P 500 Chart – May 13, 2011
I charted the S&P 500 ($SPX) after it closed for the week on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 1,337.77. I used four of the same trend lines from my last SPX chart two weeks ago. I replaced the longest trend line of higher highs with the shortest trend line of lower highs in this weekend’s…
Dow Jones Chart – May 6, 2011
I charted daily prices for the past six months on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJIA, $INDU, $DJI) after it closed on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 12,638.74. The middle of the week felt like we were about to roll over and head much lower after disappointing data on Wednesday and Thursday, but then Friday…
Is Oil Close to a Floor?
In a comment yesterday I mentioned that I thought about selling a new naked put on UCO all day, but every time I looked at the chart for the ultra oil ETF it was down another 20 or 30 cents (and that was while I was checking frequently). I really debated it all the way…
UWM Chart + Sold More Naked Puts
The draw of the decent premiums for somewhat measured risk drew me back to UWM again today. Actually I was drawn in yesterday, but the order hit today. As I mentioned in my April summary yesterday I was planning to increase my exposure. After spending more time on individual stocks and focused ETFs in April…