Update: September 15, 2014
September 15, 2014
Portfolio Update
US equities are in “wait and see” mode as international events play out. It wasn’t long ago, the S&P 500 hit a record high over 2,000, while the Dow Jones Industrials climbing over 17,000. However, stocks have pulled back over the last week or so. The S&P 500 is still up roughly 9% on the year.
The biggest news last week came from Apple (AAPL), as the world’s largest company unveiled three brand new products. Between the two new iPhone 6 models, there have already been over 4 million preorders. That’s more than any other iPhone.
From an economic standpoint, the US economy continues to look strong. Retail sales rebounded from August as consumers regain their spending optimism. The biggest upcoming economic event for the US will be the Fed meeting. Will the Fed change its language a bit, giving some hint as to when interest rates will likely be hiked?
Finally, international events have settled into mostly an uneasy calm. The only major military action we’re seeing is America’s assistance against ISIS in Iraq. There’s popular support across developed nations to take the fight to the terrorist group. So, we may see further action in the coming weeks.
While equity markets have been calm, I don’t expect a major pullback in stocks anytime soon – unless something unexpected pops up. In the meantime, there’s no reason to doubt the bull market’s resilience.
Now, let’s take a look at the portfolio highlights…
Portfolio Highlights
Just a quick note: We won’t update every open position every update. I try to focus on the positions that have some significant news or price movement.
- Potash (POT) September 38 Puts – Looks liked we nailed POT. With this past week’s drop, the stock has now fallen below our exit point for aggressive traders. That’s just in time for September expiration at the end of this week. At peak, our options were 167% winners!
- SunPower (SPWR) September 35 Calls – SPWR went on an excellent run before pulling back in recent days. In fact, the stock flirted with $40 before the pullback. Moreover, the options have peaked (so far) at 112% gains. Aggressive traders who are still in the trade can keep holding to $42 per share.
- GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) December 19 Calls – Rarely does a trade go as spectacularly wrong as my GTAT prediction. Apparently, Apple abandoned plans to use GTAT’s sapphire screens on the iPhone 6 just a few weeks before last week’s unveiling. As you can imagine, without the massive production orders from Apple, the stock got absolutely hammered. Sapphire screens may yet be used on the next edition of the iPhone (and are being used on the Apple Watch). However, we’ve been taken out of this trade already for both conservative and aggressive traders.
Category: AOA Updates
