Busy replacing stocks the week after options expiry in my other portfolios. Themes look like Europe (especially France) and flows on of the infrastructure bill in renewables and steel.
Portfolio News
In a week where S&P 500 rose 1.55% to touch an all time high, this portfolio rose 3.26% - even more than the pension portfolio. This rise was driven mostly by rises in US listed stocks across the board. Biggest percentage risers were Wynn Resorts (WYNN) (+14.4%), Canadian Solar (CSIQ) (+14%), US Natural Gas (UNG) (+13.8%), Couer Mining (CDE) (+12.3%), Global X Uranium (URA) (+11.3%)
Biggest move of the week was Yooma Wellness (YOOM.CN) up 84%.
Now there was some news in the week - but it was not the driver. Price went back to exactly where it was the next day - going to guess a finger trouble trade was reversed.
Bought
L&G Hydrogen Economy Ucits ETF (HTWO.SW): Hydrogen. Redeployed the proceeds of Linde (LIN) sale into this hydrogen power ETF averaging down my entry price. Linde is a big producer and purveyor of hydrogen.
ENGIE SA (ENGI.PA): French Utility. Replaced and rounded up stock assigned on covered call at 2.6% premium to assigned price.
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (ABN.AS): Dutch Bank. Replaced stock assigned on covered call at 10.1% premium to assigned price. Wrote a covered call at 1.2% premium with 3.8% coverage.
Carrefour SA (CA.PA): French Supermarket. Replaced stock assigned on covered call at €0.01 above assigned price. Wrote a covered call at 1.3% premium with 2.9% coverage.
Coverage on these last two covered calls is a bit tighter than I normally like.
Capital Product Partners LP (CPLP): Oil Shipping. Stock was assigned in June expiries for profits and I chose then not to replace it as the chart was turning over. With the spike in shipping stocks in the last week, I went back to the charts and saw that CPLP had broken the downtrend and made a higher high.
I bought a small parcel of stock. Covered call writing is challenging because strike increments are 2.50 at a time - what I will do is write either a naked put or a covered call at the strike furthest away from current price. With trade price at $11.83, this would mean selling a strike 10 put in the first month. When price is at the midpoint, I will write both sides.
Livent Corporation (LTHM): Lithium. Replaced stock assigned on covered call at 11.4% premium to assigned price. Wrote a covered call at 1.0% premium with 19.8% coverage. I also wrote a naked put with 25% coverage.
United Parcel Service, Inc (UPS): US Logistics. Rounded up my small holding at a slightly higher price to be able to write covered calls. Jim Cramer idea to add back to UPS. Wrote a covered call at 0.6% premium with 3.4% coverage. This is a little tight.
United States Steel Corporation (X): US Steel. Replaced stock assigned on covered call at 15.5% premium to assigned price. This feels like a bit of a stretch but steel stocks will be big winners from the infrastructure bill. I did only replace one fifth of the stock - plenty of scope to average into the position and to be aggressive in writing naked puts.
Sold
United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG): Natural Gas. Trading error. Thought I was writing a 15 strike covered call. Instead I sold a 15 strike call option that I was long in for a 75% loss = an ugly $54 mistake.
Shorts
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT): US Treasuries. With price opening at $147.97 (Aug 26), I bought a September expiry 147/144.5 ratio put spread. This offers protection for a price drop between 0.66% and 2.4%. The 2 to 1 ratio made the trade just cash neutral
Income Trades
In this portfolio, 47 covered calls written (US 38, Europe 7, Canada 2) and 15 naked puts (US 14, Canada 1)
I use naked puts from income and also to make a trade on stocks appearing on the buy list at Action Alerts Plus. This way I can participate in the stock ideas without having to commit full capital up front. In this week, I wrote the following in this portfolio
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): US Semiconductors
Abbott Laboratories (ABT): US Pharmaceuticals
Linde plc (LIN): Speciality Chemicals (esp hydrogen)
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): US Semiconductors
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL): Payment Services.
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 credited below the 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. Crypto tickers come from TradingView
Charts: http://mymark.mx/TradingView - this is a free charting package. I have a Pro subscription to get access to real time forex prices
August 23-27, 2021