TIB: Today I Bought (and Sold) - An Investors Journal #473 - Payments Technology, Biotechnology, Oil, Wheat, Soybeans, Oil Services, Offshore Oil Drilling, Marijuana, Video Gaming, Europe Banks

Markets absorb the oil price spike remarkably calmly. The pullback in prices does give a good opportunity to tackle exposed covered calls in oil and European banking. Agriculture commodity prices continue to improve on good vibes from China trade discussions.

Portfolio News

Market Flip Flop

US markets opened lower and then clawed back quite a bit.

Biggest winners were oil stocks especially shale oil, with Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Apache Corporation (APA) the biggest movers in my portfolios up 15.8% and 16.9% respectively.

With energy providing 7% of the S&P 500 Index, the shock was absorbed by these strong rises. On average my US portfolios ended positive but the European portfolios were negative (less energy exposure).

Treasury yields did dip but there was not a full scale rush to safe havens.

Bought

AdAlta Limited (1AD.AX): Australian Biotechnology. My son sent me announcement that AdAlta announces a licensing deal with GE Healthcare (GE) for their i-body technology

The licencing deal will see the two companies develop i-bodies for diagnostic imaging which could help identify molecular markers of activated T-cells and could potentially help in the selection and monitoring of patients receiving immunotherapy.

https://smallcaps.com.au/adalta-licencing-deal-i-body-platform-ge-healthcare

What I liked was the shape of the chart. Price has been pushed down steadily since the peak after IPO. This announcement provides the catalyst for the break out and upwards. I bought a small parcel with the proceeds from sale of Afterpay below.

Harvest One Cannabis Inc (HVT.V): Canadian Marijuana. Averaged down entry price in one portfolio.

Bought stock to cover likelihood of being assigned on covered calls on the following stocks

• Commerzbank AG (CBK.DE): German Bank. Price has grown strongly after the ECB stimulus program was announced
• Fluor Corp (FLR): Oil Services. My sense is oil prices will stay higher for longer than markets imagine. Already we are hearing from Saudi Aramco that repairs could take months
• Apache Corporation (APA): Oil Producer. Oil stocks, especially those invested in US shale, made a big jump on the Saudi drone attacks. Decided to buy stock to cover the calls rather than buy them back.
• SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Explor & Prodtn ETF (XOP): Oil Exploration and Production.
• Kohls Corporation (KSS): US Retail.

Capital Product Partners LP (CPLP): Oil Shipping. Oil shipping stocks moved higher as well. Rounded up my holding

Soybeans Futures (SOYB): Added one new contract on 4 hour reversal.

Sold

Tidewater Inc. (TDW): Offshore Oil Drilling. Oil price rise drove all oil services stocks higher - 6.88% for TDW. Am holding December 2024 strike 100 call warrants. Partial fill on long standing pending order hit for 11% profits since December 2017. Still some way to go to fill the order.

Afterpay Touch Group Limited (APT.AX): Australian Payments Technology. Sold half holding to raise cash for AdAlta purchase for116% profit since July 2018. Afterpay is a leader in the "buy now pay later" market (what used to be called lay by). This has been a rocket ship based on growing penetration in US and UK markets

Chicago Wheat (WEAT): Wheat Futures. Opened one new contract on 4 hour reversal. Started to trail stop loss which was taken out for $1.10 per contract profit (0.23%). Maybe a little impatient in trailing the stop so soon.

Expiring Options

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA): Video Gaming. I am holding a 100/105/75 call spread risk reversal expiring this week. Price has moved up from $90 a month ago reaching a high of $101.78 on September 10 and closing at $99.12. With the pullback in markets on Monday, I just do not think this is going to reach the $100 strike for the bought call. So I closed that leg down for an 86% loss since June 2019. I feel quite confident that price will not pass the sold call (105) or drop below the sold put (75) at expiry - that will make the overall trade only lose 6%. There is risk left with a naked put and a naked call open - but only one could be triggered on a big price move.

The updated chart shows how price has been trapped in a range below the $105 level since March 2019 and has only twice suck its head above $100 twice.

Income Trades

First new covered call written for October expiry with spike in natural gas prices driving up implied volatility.

United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (UNG): Natural Gas. Sold October 2019 strike 26 calls for 1.45% premium (1.21% to purchase price). Closing price $22.73 (new trade). Price needs to move another 14.4% to reach the sold strike (new trade). Should price pass the sold strike I book a 5% blended capital loss.

Pull back in European stock prices gave me an opportunity to buy back covered calls on a slice of European banks - not quite ready to exit at a loss in each case. Bought back calls in

• Societe Generale S.A. (GLE.PA): French Bank
• Commerzbank AG (CBK.DE): German Bank.
• Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (DBK.DE): German Bank
• ING Groep N.V. (INGA.AS): Dutch Bank

This reduced average premium received for the whole portfolio for the month from 1.32% to 0.95%. 0.95% still works for me.

Cryptocurency

Bitcoin (BTCUSD): Price range for the day was $318 (3.1% of the high). Price chooses to move below the lows of the triangle but closes only a little lower than the open (i.e., inside the triangle range). If price can pass the prior day high, this will be a reversal and a higher low poised to drive to test $10,500 and maybe even $11,000

Ethereum (ETHUSD): Price range for the day was $11 (6% of the low). Price keeps pushing higher to test up to resistance just above $200.

I trailed stop loss better than breakeven on my one in-the-money contract

Ripple (XRPUSD): Price range for the day was $0.00696 (2.7% of the open). Price trades either side of $0.26 all day but is not able to take out prior day high. There seem to be plenty of sellers in the $0.26500-0.26600 range

CryptoBots

Profit Trailer Bot No closed trades

New Trading Bot Trading out using Crypto Prophecy. No closed trades

Currency Trades

Outsourced MAM account Actions to Wealth closed out 5 trades on NZDJPY, XAUUSD and AUDNZD for 1.08% losses for the day. Trades open at weekend on NZDJPY closed profitably. Trades open on EURUSD and XAUUSD (0.34% negative). Trader giving away the good work of the last two weeks.

Cautions: This is not financial advice. You need to consider your own financial position and take your own advice before you follow any of my ideas

Images: I own the rights to use and edit the Buy Sell image. News headlines come from Google Search. All other images are created using my various trading and charting platforms. They are all my own work

Tickers: I monitor my portfolios using Yahoo Finance. The ticker symbols used are Yahoo Finance tickers

Charts: http://mymark.mx/TradingView - this is a free charting package. I have a Pro subscription to get access to real time forex prices

Bitcoin: Get started with mining Bitcoin for as little as $25 http://mymark.mx/Galaxy

September 16, 2019