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Daily Market Update – December 23, 2015 (Close) With yesterday adding to a string of triple day moves and again sending the market higher, we were in easy grabbing distance of being able to end the year unchanged. That actually happened in 2011 when the S&P 500 really had no change at all for the year. As we got set to begin the morning that index was slightly less than 1% below the breakeven point and as the past 7 days of trading easily showed, that 1% can be erased or magnified in an instant. Today was just further proof as the S&P 500 is now a whisker over that breakeven point. This morning’s futures looked as if they may want to continue that streak and also continue in taking the market higher and they did. There is still some more economic news to come this week before the market closes for a Christmas break. We still have some home sales data to come and some jobs numbers and if yesterday’s GDP data shows, the market really wants something that’s neither too strong nor too disappointingly weak. Somewhere right down the middle, somewhere right in line with expectations would give the market a feeling that perhaps the singular increase in interest rates thus far can remain singular. Now with just 1 days remaining on the week, it’s really unlikely that I’ll be adding any new positions on, at least not any that are also expiring this week. With next week also being a 4 day trading week, today may be an opportunity to open new positions and attempt to get 6 days of premium in the process. More than that, though, I’d like to continue having the opportunity to either rollover whatever may be possible, particularly if I get a greater sense of security that some of the remaining positions may end up being assigned. I certainly wouldn’t mind having some more cash in hand as 2016 gets underway. So, the expectation was for more patient sitting around today and not too much action and I wasn’t too disappointed, especially being able to sell some more calls on another uncovered position and seeing some decent catch up advances in some beaten down stocks. With no ex-dividend positions this week I was happy to get the weekly income from whatever source I can, even if it means going for a longer term expiration when selling those calls into price strength, as was the case with Ford yesterday and Hewlett Packard Enterprises today. With the continuing uncertainty in the market, if the volatility starts to rise again and can inch up toward the 28 level or so, there may be much more reason to consider locking in some longer term premiums as was the case with a number of positions that expired last week. Those had options sold upon them using longer terms, the last time volatility spiked. I’ll be watching, but I’m not expecting too much for the rest of the week other than the hoped for rollovers and an assignment or two. |
