Archive for October, 2009

New options trades: BA, NOK, EXPD, GPC & more!

The sell-off and increased volatility in the market this past week triggered several more of my limit orders to sell put options on selected stocks. The pullback so far is completely to be expected within the context of the market’s still intact intermediate-term uptrend.
However, I continue to be wary of the market’s current valuation. [...]

New options trades: LOW, CB, MBT, CFR, MDT & more!

With the market up 60% from its March lows and many stocks now trading at questionable valuations, I continue to remain wary about selling near-strike put options given the increased potential for a significant pullback (or worse) in the coming weeks and months. At the same time, I don’t want to miss out if [...]

October options trades and expiration: ERF, PGN, VIX & more!

This past week was October options expiration and I had the following short put options positions expiring:

Enerplus Resources (ERF: 23.37 0.00%, yld: 8.44%) – The October 17.5-strike puts I sold against ERF on 7/14/09 expired out-of-the-money (OTM) for a 3-month net return of about 5.9%.*
Sonoco Products (SON: 30.75 0.00%, yld: 3.51%) – The October 17.5-strike [...]

Options trades: HYG, CVX & D

The continued weakness and increasing volatility in the market this week triggered several more of my limit orders to sell put options on selected stocks. Here are the latest short put positions that I’ve initiated:
Chevron (CVX: 73.96 0.00%, yld: 3.64%) – On Thursday I sold some March 55-strike puts against CVX as the stock [...]