I’ve been fairly quiet with my account over the past six weeks of market declines. I like to consider it patience more than paralysis by fear. Based on the way I structured my account this year using longer dated options, mostly out of the money I don’t have to chase the markets in either direction….
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
S&P 500 Chart – June 3, 2011
I charted the S&P 500 index ($SPX) after it finished the week at 1,300.16 on Friday, June 3, 2011, just above the key psychological round 1,300 mark. This week marks the end of the first five week losing streak since July 2008 for the index. Back then it fell almost nine percent in the same span….
End of the Month Summary – May 2011
Last month I started out my summary pointing out that we were going to have a down month soon. I didn’t realize it was going to start on the first day of the month and carry through for four uninterrupted weeks (so far), but it has and could keep going. The weakening fundamentals are in…
Sold UUP Put Spread
The biggest threat I see to this bull market is a strengthening US dollar. In some ways it’ll be good for us since a stronger dollar will drive down oil prices and slow inflation (in theory). In more direct ways it’ll reduce profits of US companies with a strong overseas presence. It will lower the…
Sold AFL Option Straddle
I mentioned on Friday that I was going to be assigned 100 shares of AFLAC Inc (AFL). Those hit my account this morning and I waited about an hour before deciding that I should go ahead and sell the option straddle I was considering. After I planted the seed in my mind last week AFL…
DJIA – 1 Year Chart
I charted daily prices for the past six months on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($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…