1/28 Almanac

Thursday, Jan. 28, is 22 days before the February options expire, 50 days the March and 78 days the April.

Historically, it tends to be an up day of the week on an up (barely) day of the month in an up month. . . .

In this period my rules allow trades in February vertical, calendar, butterfly and diagonal spreads, as well as covered calls, and also March verticals. I'm trading April expiration options for unhedged call and put purchases. These economic reports will be released: Durable goods, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, a measure of whether consumers are confident enough to commit money to big-ticket items. Jobless claims, 8:30 a.m., the weekly number that give insight into the extent to which jobs are coming or going. Natural gas inventories, 10:30 a.m., main affects the UNG exchange-traded fund.

In this period my rules allow trades in February vertical, calendar, butterfly and diagonal spreads, as well as covered calls, and also March verticals. I'm trading April expiration options for unhedged call and put purchases.

These economic reports will be released:

• Durable goods, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, a measure of whether consumers are confident enough to commit money to big-ticket items.
• Jobless claims, 8:30 a.m., the weekly number that give insight into the extent to which jobs are coming or going.
• Natural gas inventories, 10:30 a.m., main affects the UNG exchange-traded fund.

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

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the regular session at $109.83, up half a percent from the prior day's close.

Mediawatch: Market stories credited the Fed's mild happy talk for the slight increase in the blue chip stocks, and AAPL's announcement of it's new tablet computer for a slight rise in the NASDAQ.

In total, 3.8 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges.

Good trading.




New to Private Trader? Check out the Reader's Guide.

Topics:
S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, natural gas, Apple Computing Macintosh iPhone iPod tablet iPad.