Just Another Manic Monday – Value Investing
by Phil - September 26th, 2011 8:27 am
Up, up and away!
As I mentioned in Friday’s morning’s post, we did a lot of bottom-fishing on Thursday as we began to develop Disaster fatigue with long plays on XLF at $11.50, shorting TLT at $123, shorting VXX at $49.50, TNA at $34.50, BRK.B at $65, AA at $10.20, VLO at $19, IMAX at $15.75, BA at $58.32, AGQ at $170, CHK at $27.50, DIS at $30.14 and ABX at $47.50. They were hedged, of course and, for the most part, you still had a nice chance to make those entries on Friday – but not so much this morning as the futures are up about 1.5% already (7:30).
Friday morning, in my Alert to Members, I reminded them that BCS looked like an excellent VALUE to me, no matter what the PRICE was ($8.75 after hitting $8.40 the day before) and this morning, that PRICE is up well over 10% in EU trading. Did the VALUE of BCS change materially over the weekend? Of course not, certainly not by the $4Bn their market cap gained – like the song, the VALUE remains the same – only the highly variable price of a share of BCS is undergoing ch-ch-changes…
I pointed out similar hedged, long-term plays could be made on GS ($94), MS ($13), BAC ($6) and C ($24). Of course we hedged them per our discussion in the morning post (TZA was our morning choice but we’re out over 650 on the RUT) but then we went long on EWG (Germany) again with the very aggressive Oct $16,18 bull call spread at $1.30, offset by the sale of the $17 puts for .90 for net .40 on the $2 spread. 10 of those in our virtual $25,000 Portfolio cost $400 and can return $2,000 in less than 30 days if EWG is over $18 and, guess what – they’re over $18 this morning!
Another bullish bet we placed was USO Nov $28/30 bull call spread at $1.30, selling the $27 puts for $1.10 for net .20 on the $2 spread with a 900% upside if USO simply doesn’t drop from where it is now. That’s what’s nice about options – you don’t need the market to go up to make money good money. On this trade idea, your worst-case scenario is owning USO at net $27.20, about 10% lower than it…
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DiggTGIF – Stop the Week, We Want to get Off!
by Phil - September 23rd, 2011 8:35 am
What a disaster!
Of course, that’s why we have Disaster Hedges, right? August 11th was the last time we did a "Hedging for Disaster" post which included a LONG trade idea on gold that’s done now (we’re short) after gaining over 300%. We’re a little mixed in our results on the other hedges but that means we can SWITCH HORSES – from the trades that have already worked to the ones that haven’t yet. That’s how we cash out our winners on a regular basis – it’s the pony express of investing. Our other Disaster Hedges from that post were:
- DXD Oct $23 calls at $2, selling Oct $27 calls for $1.15 and the Oct $19 puts for .70 for net .10. That spread is currently -.05 so down 150% so far and a nice horse to switch to, offering a .05 credit on the $4 spread.
- FAZ Oct $65 calls at $22, selling Oct $72 calls for $20 and selling JPM 2013 $20 puts for $2.05 was a net .05 credit as a backstop to our long financial plays. FAZ is now at $71.34 and the October FAZ spread is now $3.70 but the JPM puts are now $3 so net .70 is only up 1,500% so far. Should the financials stay low, we get the full $7 from the spread and we’re obligated to buy JPM for $20 (now $29.27) in 2013.
- SDS Sept $26 calls at $3.20, selling Sept $32 calls for $1.65 and selling VLO Jan $15 puts for $1.20 for net .35. SDS is only at $25.73 so far (not a disaster yet) and the spread is now net $1.25 and the short VLO puts are .17 so net $1.08 on this one is up 208% and we’re not even at goal – that’s pretty good! Note the spread is LOWER than when we started so this can also be used as a fresh horse with a different offset, like X Jan $15 puts for $1.20 for a net .05 trade.
- TBT was stopped out with a small loss at $24 (fortunately). My comment at the time, with TBT at $24.88 was: "Keep in mind though, that the Fed has said rates will stay low through 2013 so it would be wise to uses stops on the puts, at least, if TBT fails to hold $24!"
- EDZ
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Hedging Your Way To Healthy Dividends – Part 1
by Phil - May 23rd, 2009 8:14 am
We had selected 21 top dividend payers for trade ideas in Member chat last Tuesday.
Today Vitaliy Katsenelson of Active Value Investing sent me an excellent power-point he will be presenting at the CFA Society of Miami next Tuesday on Value Investing In Range-Bound Markets. I don’t want to spoil it for you but let’s just say that he agrees with our premise that dividend-paying stocks are, by far, the best choice to ride out a choppy market like the one we have – one that may persist for quite some time.
Using options to hedge our dividend positions can make them even more rewarding as we protect ourselves against the occasional downturn (not to mention the little dips stocks may take as they go ex-dividend). Another benefit of using our Buy/Write Strategy to purchase didvidend paying stocks is that, by decreasing our net entry price on the position, we are effectively raising our dividend yield – that is what they call a real win-win! Of course, hedging a position doesn’t mitigate all possible damage but it’s sure better than not hedging. The main problem with any dividend paying stock is that, if they announce they are suspending the dividend, they tend to drop like a rock so it’s important to stay on top of the company and pay close attention to news that may adversely affect the dividends down the road.
Of course, this disadvantage has a flip side and 1/3 of the dividend selections we discussed on Tuesday were companies that no longer pay a dividend, have taken a big hit but may go back to paying it again down the road.
LYG was one of the seven. From 2002 through Aug 2008, Lloyd’s paid a nice $2+ annual dividend but the bank suspended their March dividend this year and may not make the August payment either. Suspension of the dividend was the last straw for the already struggling bank and Lloyds fell from it’s 2007 highs of $45 to $20 in October of 2009 all the way down to $2.22 in March. Most of Lloyd’s troubles came from good, old-fashioned lending impairments relating to the housing crisis rather than exotic trading gambles that went bad and, of course, the UK government has stepped in under the Government Asset Protection Scheme (I love that they call them "schemes" in England – that word would not go…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
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