TIB: Today I Bought (and Sold) - An Investors Journal #502 - Semiconductors, Marijuana, US Banks, US Automotive, US Steel, Oil and Oil Services, India, Emerging Markets, Network Equipment, Agriculture plus

Catchup post for trade action coming through options expiry in one portfolio from last week (January 17). A few exercises, a few assigned and some hard lessons about options trading and time.

Bought

Genworth Financial Inc (GNW): US Insurance. With price closing at $4.30 Strike 3 call option assigned. Breakeven for the holding is $3.62 which represents an 18% possible gain. I can now write covered calls against this stock bought as the sold call restricted my ability to do that.

The updated chart shows price pushing above bought call (3) but stubbornly not wanting toe reach up to sold call (5) and well short of the $5.43 offer on Genworth from China Oceanwide. This offer is subject to regulatory clearance which is just dragging on and on.

FireEye (FEYE): Cybersecurity. With price closing at $17.13 Strike 15 call option assigned. Breakeven for the holding is $17.18 which is just above current price.

Sold

Assigned on covered calls. I am quite happy to see stocks move 5% and more in a month.

Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO): Canadian Marijuana. 15% profit since November 2019. Income (covered call) added 2.56%

ENGIE SA (ENGI.PA): French Utility. 5.5% profit since November 2019. Income (naked put and covered call) added 1.35%

Citigroup (C): US Bank. 18% profit since September 2019. Income (covered call) added 2.86%

Cronos Group Inc (CRON): Canadian Marijuana. 6.3% profit since January 2020 (one week). I covered this assignment possibility by adding stock earlier in the week. Income (covered call) added 1.46%

Marvell Technology Group Ltd (MRVL): Semiconductors. 4.3% profit since July 2019. I did buy back half the calls to keep a position. Income (covered call) added 0.57%

Qualcomm Inc (QCOM): Semiconductors. 5.7% blended profit since November 2019. Income (covered call) added 1.20%

Sunrun Inc (RUN): Solar Power. 11% loss since June 2019. As the closing price was below my initial purchase price, I will buy the stock again. Income (covered call) added 6.46%

Twilio Inc (TWLO): Cloud Computing. 8% blended profit since November/December 2019. Income (covered call) added 2.97%

Uber Technologies, Inc (UBER): Ride Sharing. 27% loss since June 2019. As the closing price was below my initial purchase price, I will buy the stock again. Income (covered call) added 8.47%

This set of assignments is opening out a different strategy - buy stock with high implied volatility that I would be happy to own if it does not get assigned - examples: Uber; SunRun; FireEye; marijuana stocks.

Shorts

SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) Interest Rates. $110.17 equivalent of post split price of $36.72 just above the strike 36 put option. Was not really paying attention to this because of the split adding noise - slipped my attention. A quick update of the chart which shows the trade (with a restated strike) as a red ray.

The trade went very strongly right. The recovery from those lows which coincides with the December 2018 selloff is when I should have closed the trade. Another example of falling foul of a "hold to expiry" philosophy imbued by my investing coach from those times

Expiring Options

Long list of options expiring out-the-money with 3 big themes failing - agriculture rebound, tariffs helping steel producers, oil prices affecting oil services especially and shale oil, and a few old time sectors falling on hard times.

AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS): US Steel. $3.12 close for 4/7 bull call spread.

Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP): US Shale Oil. $8.84 close for strike 11 call option

Allegheny Technologies (ATI): US Steel. $18.67 close for 27.5/35 bull call spread. Updated chart to show how tariffs did not work.

Price zigzagged the bought call strike (27.5) for most of 2018 and collapsed lower in the October 2018 selloff and never came back. Tariffs did not work OR the China trade story got in the way of demand drivers which kept stock depressed. Time will tell if those tariffs work.

WisdomTree India Earnings Fund: India Index. (EPI) $25.64 close for strike 30 call option. India options trades started in June/July 2016 and were progressively rolled up profitably till January 2018 - then started to track back. Overall sequence of options trades is loss making. However stock trades that have closed leaves the trade idea (India) profitable overall.

The updated chart shows that price has only reached above $29 once in 2018 - got nowhere close since.

Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO): US Network Equipment. $49.02 close for a strike 57.5 call option.

Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA): Agriculture. $16.50 close for Strike 19 call option and 20/24 bull call spread. Agriculture in 2019 has been horrid - who would want to be a farmer? But people need to eat.

3D Systems Corporation (DDD) 3D Printing. $11.41 for sold strike 8 put option. This was sold put leg of a call spread risk reversal that did not pass the bought call strike (12) that I had closed out the week before.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM): Emerging Markets Index. $46.23 got really close for strike 47 call option.

Ford Motor Company (F): US Automotive. $9.16 close for strike 15 call option.

General Electric (GE): US Industrials. $11.81 close for 15/22 for bull call spread.Recovery is happening but not in time for this trade.

J. C. Penney Company, Inc (JCP): US Retail. $0.85 close - how wrong could one get for a 3.5/7 bull call spread?

VanEck Vectors Oil Services ETF Oil Services. (OIH) $12.67 close for 26/35 bull call spread. The oil patch got ugly with price not wanting to move higher.

Weatherford International plc (WFTLF) Oil Services. $32 close - options converted to warrants on Chapter 11 in October.

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF Oil. (XOP) $22.37 close for 35/50 bull call spread.

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

January 17, 2020