2/8 Almanac

Monday, Feb. 8, is 11 days before the February options expire, 39 days the March and 67 days the April.

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session at $106.66, up 0.2% from the prior close.

In total, 4.4 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges. That's about 2 percent more than the day before.

Mediawatch: News reports says the European debt crisis and the government's U.S. employment report caused shares to decline. Repeat after me: The debt crisis is not new. Employment is a lagging indicator. Not new. Lagging indicator. All priced into the market before, unless traders are terribly, terribly stupid. 

On the jump, rules, econ reports, portfolio and a good book . . .

My rules allow trades today in March iron condors and covered calls, along with butterfly, calendar and vertical spreads. I'll start looking at March  covered calls and diagonals. I allow myself to trade unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in April or later. No economic reports are scheduled for Monday release. My portfolio consists of: CVS, iron condor, p28/-p31/-c34/c36 ERTS, iron condor, p15/-p16/-c18/c19 MCO, covered call,  s/-c30 PALM, covered call, s/-c13

Enjoy the weekend!


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