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Thursday, April 25, 2024

Top Trades for Mon, 20 Oct 2014

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Top Trades for Mon, 20 Oct 2014
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I'm looking at what's cheap and attractive (with a potential catalyst) on the Buy List:  

Gold prices may go up. 

IBM wants to move more to the cloud, these guys are already there.  

China and Japan trying to restart their economies, Europe getting in on the act and, as Ned Stark says: "Winter is coming."

I suppose I'd want to own the stock and, after they spin off PayPal – I'd dump the Ebay and keep the Paypal – that's like participating in a PayPal IPO.  

These guys are 10% gold, 40% oil and gas, 5% refining and 45% copper.  Their attempt to diversify over the past few years essentially led them to buy a lot of assets at the top and now they are getting hit on all fronts.  Earnings are 10/28 and I'm hoping they miss and get an irrational sell-off from here – but they are getting interesting as a LONG-TERM hold below $30. 

GSK is accidentally paying a 6% dividend at $2.59 with the stock down to $43.47.  They are a good, solid long-term hold and I'd do a buy/write on them, buying the stock for $43.47 and selling the 2017 $40 calls for $4.75 and the $35 puts at $3 for net $35.72/37.86 so the worst case is you are assigned 2x at $37.86 (13% off) and knock another $5 off for 2 years worth of dividends while you wait.  If you get called away on the 1x entry, you get $5 in dividends and $40 cash for $45 back on $35.72 between now and Jan 2017, which is a very respectable 26% back on your cash and over 50% return on margin.  Let's put 5 of these in the Income Portfolio and this will be our first official Top Trade Alert!   

If there is any sort of housing stimulus, they will fly.  We already have them in our LTP.  As a new entry I'd grab the 2017 $2/5 bull call spread at $1.50 and sell the $3 puts for 0.85 for net 0.65 on the $3 spread.  

Still cheap.  

HAS just had good earnings today and, as I've mentioned, MAT is simply transitioning Barbie to a wider offering (cannibalizing their own sales).  That's no reason to hate them and $29.30 is a great entry and I like selling the 2017 $25 puts for $3.85 and buying the 2017 $28/35 bull call spread for $2 for a net $1.85 credit.  So the worst case is owning MAT at net $23.15 (21% off) or, best case, making $8.85 at $35.  Let's get 10 of these for the LTP.

Another accidental big dividend payer ($1.04 = 6%) at $15.85 and we can buy 1,000 shares of the stock for the Income Portfolio and sell the 2016 $15 calls for $1.80 and the $15 puts for $2.55 for net $11.50/13.25 so worst case here is owning 2,000 shares for net $13.25 and, if the $1 dividend keeps up, then it's 8.7% of the $11.50 we lay out and, if we get called away at $15 (up $3.50), that's another $3.50 (30%) for a very nice one-year return.  

Those are good for a start – light commitments and we'll see how round one goes.