I walked into a bad time to have some time away from my computer and the markets. Since my job ended two Friday’s ago I haven’t had much time to sit at my computer and catch up on the markets and my holdings. I’d glance at the headlines on my phone when I could and see that I was down, but not until last night did I have time to really see the beating I’ve taken recently. I kept thinking I’d catch up after I got back from the mountains for New Year’s Eve, but then my uncle was hospitalized and I’ve been trying to help my parents find a nursing home that will take him. Apparently an alcoholic with dementia isn’t the ideal resident for many of these places and we continue to get rejected.
In the past two weeks I’ve gone from an account balance within $2-300 of $90k down to less than $85,500. My only saving grace is that I’m not fully invested right now, but what I have is certainly hurting me. Counting today, I should have two or three of these next four trading days left before my job starts to get myself back on track.
Today I’m checking what I have and what I can do to nurse my portfolio back to health. When I first opened my browser this morning I saw Boeing (BA) was down to 82.87. I’m kicking myself for buying my Jan 95 call back. At least I held onto my Jan 90 covered call. Now I’ll likely write a new covered call. It broke the possible 85 support line that was the low from January 2007, but only fell to the trend line of lower lows started in August 2007. That should give it a bounce today, but might be short lived. I still like BA long term, so I’ll most likely aim for farther OTM covered calls. It’s p/e is in line with competitors, but has a better PEG. The chart is what kills me though. It’s just ugly.
Caterpillar (CAT) is down, but doesn’t have such a broken chart as BA. It’s also only a little more than $1 under my covered call strike, so I’m fine there. I’ll let it ride.
DreamWorks (DWA) has been a disaster for me. I’m down something close to $1600 on it and that includes my option profits. I think the downside is finally limited as it broke it’s downward spiral, but is now just chugging along flat. I will likely write covered calls at 25 on it to get out. I’ll see how today goes.
Motorola (MOT) is just laughable. I wrote my last covered calls in the money and now the stock is $1 below my strike. I’m not dumping it though. The premiums are rich and I’ll keep writing covered calls on my 500 shares until it’s called away.
My last dog of a stock is NYSE Euronext (NYX). It’s always a choppy mover and I timed it poorly (again). I’m going to wait it out a little longer before panicking. At least the premiums are good, so I’ll continue to write covered calls on it if it is assigned to me at the January expiration.
I almost forgot Nvidia (NVDA). It’s below the lows from August now as it tanked after I sold naked puts on it. My four naked puts are for February and since I think it’s a decent long term play still, I’m waiting to see if it get work it’s way out of this funk.
Raytheon (RTN) is still holding on for me slightly. I have a slight profit on my Jan 62.50 naked puts still and the support level at 60 is still holding. I’ll keep letting this one ride. ADBE, CRM, MON, GME and DSX are also holding on OK for me too.
At least I seem destined to have some good losses to balance out my option premium capital gains in 2008. I have more cash to move towards this account, but since I’m not fully using what I have already, I’m letting it sit a little longer where I have it. That will also help ease the anxiety of taking two weeks off from work without pay and my wife’s rejuvenated desire to decorate our house.