Are we in a bull market (within a secular bear)? Fear of the Euro has died down, for now, and the market is drifting sideways/up. With lower volatility comes lower premiums.
Precious metals and commodity stocks are on the rise. Is it time to get on the train or will the prices drop back down? I like to sell puts on weakness, not strength...can an old dog learn new tricks?
Blue chip dividend stocks only look good for trades 60 days out. The September strike has premiums that are too low in my opinion. But 60 days is a long time for there to be no event that brings the market down....and a correction is due since we're overbought, right?
To trade or not to trade, that is the question. Thoughts include: Swing at the fat pitch vs. don't miss the train. It's hard not to enter at least one trade a week when I've got more powder in the keg then I've had in a while...Stocks just seem so darn expensive.
Do you all have any thoughts to share??
I dont think anybody can predict the market future but to make money you need a toe in the water. As long as you dont mind owning a good stock at least two toes could be an acceptable risk
ReplyDeleteMark
Hi Mark, I agree that's why I did the recent MCD trade....I think the drop at the end of today combined with the recent low volume may lead to more down days. If so, I'll pull the trigger on some Dividend Champion...We'll see...stay in touch, Chester
ReplyDeleteI keep about 10% of my equity in a separate brokerage account where I make slightly riskier trades that helps relieve my boredom during times like this where there is very low volatility. I've been trading laddered weekly OOM FB puts mostly in this account, as I'm a longer term bull on FB. I've had some shares put to me at 22 and am selling 22 calls on those. I mirrored your MCD trade, mostly because I was itching to make some trades. Normally I like to be 15% OOM with < 5% probability of strike, but hard to find any premium lately. Thanks for your blog -- I have a similar strategy, but am not quite as patient. Your blog and FullyInformed helps keep me grounded.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I was thinking about FB myself but didn't pull the trigger.
ReplyDeleteFully Informed is fantastic. I'm a huge fan of hers.
Stay in touch and good luck to you.
P.S. The futures are down a bit so maybe we'll see a little fear/opportunity sometime soon.