I decided to switch to using VWO instead of EEM for my international exposure. They both attempt to track the MSCI Emerging Markets index, but VWO has an expense ratio of 0.27% while EEM is nearly triple that at 0.72%. EEM’s yield is slightly higher at 1.33% compared to VWO’s 1.2%. EEM’s volume is more…
Rolled IWM Naked Puts
As the market continues to edge higher my naked puts continue to move farther out of the money and drop substantially in value. Today I simply sorted my positions by ask price from lowest to highest to see what I should consider buying back and selling another contract farther out on the calendar (aka rolling). …
Added January Naked Puts to UCO Position
I’ve been working my UCO position since March and have at least another seven weeks in it. My January $10 covered calls are almost $2 in the money and look like they’ll be called away next month, but UCO can drop that much in a week let alone seven weeks. Even with that in mind I decided…
S&P 500 Chart – December 3, 2010
I charted the past eight months of the S&P 500 ($SPX) after the markets closed on Friday, December 3, 2010 when the index finished the week at 1,224.71.
Sold MDY January Naked Put
I mentioned yesterday that I freed up some more cash from my exit from ITRI. After seeing the pitiful payroll data this morning I thought today would build into a steeper decline and then after I saw some support come back in I decided not to be so timid. Instead of adding another individual stock I…
Dumped ITRI After Goldman Downgrade
I thought Itron (ITRI) was going to find some stability once the market righted itself, European worries eased and the risk trade came back on, but the reverse happened. ITRI fell hard with Goldman Sachs’ downgrade today. I saw it drop, but thought it could stabilize after the first 30 minutes. 20-25 minutes after that it…
End of Month Summary – November 2010
November was a good month in some ways. My wife and I had our 14th wedding anniversary and we also paid off the car we bought 11 months ago, at the end of December 2009. Even though we had a low interest rate we decided to pay it off quickly and keep our fixed expenses down rather…
Added Some Risk with ITRI and EEM
I mentioned on Friday that I needed to add some more exposure and took advantage of this morning’s extended slide to sell more naked puts. I started with Itron (ITRI). After I rolled my covered calls lower a week ago I started wondering if ITRI might be in a sweet spot where its downside was…
Sold AFL Naked Put
I’ve been eyeing Aflac (AFL) for weeks, but couldn’t bring myself to jump in without a pull back during this recent run up. I entered the order a few days ago based on the chart that looked like it had some more room to drop towards $50, but with the belief that $51.00 might be…