The chart below shows the daily prices for the past year on IWM, the iShares ETF that tracks the Russell 2000 Small-Cap Index, after closing the week at $162.16 on October 5, 2018. Small-caps outperformed most indexes in the first half of this year because they were viewed as a safer alternative to large-cap stocks that…
Month End Summary – September 2018
While the indexes gained more ground in September, my account lost some value again. My paper losses came from GS and FB shares yet again. I’ve sold calls on both lots and am slowly lowering my average cost per share, but not quite keeping up with the price drop yet. Eventually, they will both turn…
Sold FB Naked Call
I own 100 shares of FB that I bought when my naked put was assigned at $200 in August. I sold an October $180 covered call on that options expiration Friday and have seen FB sink further since then. I received $448.43 after commission for the October covered call and could buy it back for…
Sold ADI Naked Put for November
I’ve been looking for a good entry point for ADI again after I closed my September $95 naked put early last Wednesday. After a brief bounce higher over the past three days, ADI fell to $90.56 in the first 20 minutes of trading today. I didn’t have an order in place before the day’s trading…
Options Expiration – September 2018
I had two options expire today and one assigned last night. As I mentioned yesterday, I thought my FEZ September $40 naked put and my XLB September $60 covered call would be assigned last night. My XLB shares were called away last night, but my FEZ put was not assigned. I was rushing through my…
Sold New FEZ Covered Call
A few days ago, when FEZ was trading close to $38, I decided I didn’t have much of a chance to close my FEZ September $40 put for a profit and I’d just accept the option assignment at the end of this week. Based on that belief, I entered a limit order to sell what…
Closed ADI NP
One week ago, ADI plunged nearly $4 from the previous day’s closing price to an intraday low of $89.35. A lot was going on to cause fear in the markets in general, but it seems temporary, so I waited to react. Within a couple of days, ADI was back to where it had been the…
Sold New GS Covered Call
My GS position has been anything but good for me so far. As of this afternoon, I’m down over $3,600 on the shares. Since I’ve used options from the beginning of this series of trades, I have reduced my cost per share by $20.36 or $2,036.45 total, including the premiums I received today. Yesterday afternoon…
Month End Summary – August 2018
August was good to all of us who were long stocks. My account gained nearly $2,000 by the end of the month and was worth even more briefly as I saw it top $104,000 for a few days. GS did some heavy lifting to bring my balance higher before faltering the final few days of…