WOW - he's back. Coming back to writing reports after a 9 month absence. I have stayed away from market updates since the March 2020 correction based on lessons from the GFC. Read all about my rationale in a blog post I wrote in November. I will aim to write again once a week reporting activity in one portfolio, for now.
Options expiry time sees a flurry of action in one portfolio.
Portfolio News
Market Meltdown
I looked at some 2020 currency charts during the week. There is one move which is not getting a lot of attention - in currency markets drops like this are akin to meltdown. Oil price dropped as hard as 89% and is still 26% below its January highs. That is the context for the next chart which shows USD vs Norwegian Krone. Norway is the largest oil producer in Western Europe - its currency normally reflects the oil price
The sick puppy is US Dollar.
Cannabis Carnival Legalisation in more US states has pushed this hard
Alternate Energy Solar and Uranium have been big movers in 2020. Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) is up 360% since the March lows.
Bought
Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.DE): German Telecom. Exercised 15 strike call option from Jan 2019. Breakeven at €15.96. With closing price at €15.09 there is some way to go. Dividend yield 3.99%
iShares MSCI Poland UCITS ETF (IBCJ.DE): Poland. Averaged down with price showing it has cleared the October lows and breaking August highs.
Crown Castle International Corp (CCI): US REIT. Assigned on a strike 155 naked put. Jim Cramer idea to keep adding to small position I hold.
General Motors (GM): US Automotive. Assigned on a 41.5 strike naked put.
Sold
Assigned on covered calls
Aphria Inc (APHA.TO): Canadian Marijuana. 2% blended profit since April/September 2019. Did buy lower in early November.
Randstad NV (RAND.AS): Euroean HR Services. 33% profit since June 2020.
FireEye (FEYE): Cybersecurity. 8.7% blended profit going back to initial trade in September 2019. 33% jump in price in Friday trade surprised me given how hard the stock was hit when the cyberhack news broke.
Amyris, Inc US Specialty Chemicals. 17% blended loss since June 2018. Stock bought when it was added to Russell 2000. Disappointing to see price raise through sold call level ($3) and close at $4.37. I had averaged into the position to mitigate some of the losses.
Canadian Solar (CSIQ): Solar Power. 9.5% profit since October 2020.
Centrus Corp (LEU): US Uranium. 201% profit since July 2017. This is one of the downsides of writing covered calls - this stock closed ($24.14) almost double the sold strike ($12.50). There is no doubt the Biden election is impacting alternate energy stocks (uranium and solar)
NortonLifeLock Inc (NLOK): Cybersecurity. 9% profit since November 2020. Jim Cramer idea - I will add this back in small tranches (100 shares at a time).
VanEck Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH): US Oil Services. A big casualty of the rout in oil prices with a 66% blended loss going back to 2016. The ETF provider did a consolidation after the collapse in March which dropped my holding to only 30 shares. I topped up to 100 shares to average down last month at $134 vs sold strike of $150. This did help to mitigate some of the losses.
Posco (PKX): Korean Steel. 11% blended profit going back from February/May 2019 with an average down trade done last month. I will buy this back as my original thesis was to trade on the lithium interests in South America. These are not fully priced in.
iShares Silver Trust (SLV): Silver. 36% blended profit since December 2019/July 2020. I did roll up bull call spreads in the week. I will also replace these, 100 shares at a time. 100 shares is the profit made on this last trade.
iShares MSCI Thailand Capped (THD): Thailand Index. 4.8% blended profit since December 2019/January 2020 with an averaged down trade added in November. I will add this back as sourcing from SE Asia is a big driver once vaccinations begin to roll out.
United Parcel Service, Inc (UPS): US Parcel Service. 4.8% blended profit since October/November 2020. I will add this back as Jim Cramer still has this on his buy list.
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM): US Oil Producer. Another oil loser with 50% loss since April 2016. I have recovered 18% selling covered calls in that time.
SPDR S&P Oil Explorer/Production ETF (XOP): US Oil Producers. 7.5% profit since November 2020. I will buy this again and continue to write covered calls as premiums are better than on Exxon Mobil. I also write naked puts on this.
Shorts
Am using Gold Mining (GDX) and Silver (SLV) and Silver mining (CDE and HL) as hedge trades at present.
Expiring Options
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.SW): Swiss Bank. With price closing at Sfr 11.18, strike 23.16 call options bought in January and December 2016 expired worthless. It was hard to imagine in 2016 that we would have negative interest rates ever, let alone 4 years ahead.
UBS Group AG (UBSG.SW): Swiss Bank. With price closing at Sfr 12.44, strike 19.66 and 24 call options bought in January and December 2016 expired worthless.I did claw some back with a 10.5 naked put sold last month.
Aegon N.V (AGN.AS): Dutch/US Insurer. With price closing at €3.09, strike 6.4 call options bought in November 2016 expired worthless. I did write one naked put last month but trading costs are too high to make it worth while. Aegon has been one the of the serious under-performers in European insurance probably dragged down by their US exposure.
Allianz SE (ALV.DE): German Insurer. With price closing at €199.98, strike 240 call options bought in December 2017 expired worthless. Overall series of rolled up options trades since February have been profitable (80%)
AXA SA (CS.PA): French Insurer. With price closing at €19.88, strike 28 call options bought in late 2017 and a roll up in November 2019 expired worthless. The rolled up contracts were marginally profitable but the other ones bought were not.
Société Générale SA (GLE.PA): French Bank. With price closing at €17.04, strike 48/60 bull call spread bought in February 2018 expired worthless. Covered calls written during that time have recovered this loss plus 156%
ENGIE SA (ENGI.PA): French Utility. With price closing at €12.62, strike 15.55 call options bought in May 2018 expired worthless. Covered calls and naked puts written during that time have recovered this loss plus 300%
Income Trades
Covered Calls
AXA SA (CS.PA): French Insurer. Bought back December expiring covered call and sold a January. Trade remained profitable and new premium was over 1%.
Currency Trades
Outsourced MAM account Actions to Wealth have had to cease trading this account as Axitrader have stopped serving retail clients in Australia. Account has been closed and funds repatriated.
I sat a refresher course a few months ago to jack up my own trading. 1st month back was going fine until Friday trades long NZD and AUD all suffered as markets got nervous.
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. 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
December 14-18, 2020