2/18 Almanac

Thursday, Feb. 18, is 1 day before February options expire, 29 the March and 57 the April.

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session at $110.26, up 0.5% from the prior close.

In total, 3.1 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges. That's about the same as the prior day.

Mediawatch: Putting away the gyros and baklava, Greece forgotten, reporters returned the narrative to the old meat and potatoes fare, earnings and economic reports, as exemplified by the AP story. Ah, George Papaconstantinou, we hardly knew ye!

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

My rules allow trades today in March iron condors and covered calls, along with butterfly, calendar and vertical spreads. I allow myself to trade unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in April or later. These economic reports will be released: The producer price index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Think of this as a preview of the consumer price index, since price increases for producers, the theory goes, will be passed on to customers. Weekly jobless claims, 8:30 a.m. A decline portends continued recovery from the depths of recession. Leading economic indicators, 10 a.m., my favorite economic report. It's a hodgepodge of indicators tossed together in a way that's supposed to indicate the future course of the economy.  Natural gas inventories at 10:30 a.m., and petroleum inventories at 11 a.m. Not that anybody cares, but the Fed will release the money supply figures at 4:30 p.m. I vividly remember the days when the Fed set interest rates based on money supply, and the market rose and fell dramatically each time the new numbers were release. Ah, nostaligia!

Eat right, trade right. Seriously, a poor diet leads to bad decisions. Good Calories, Bad Calories reviews the science of the past 150 years and tries to make sense of the tangled skein of nutrition advice.

My portfolio consists of . . .

February expiry:

• CVS, iron condor, p28/-p31/-c34/c36
• ERTS, iron condor, p15/-p16/-c18/c19
• MCO, covered call,  s/-c30
  
• PALM, covered call, s/-c13

March expiry:

• AKS, iron condor, p19/-p20/-p25/p26
• CAL, covered call, s/-c19
• CSCO, iron condor, p22/-p23/-c25/c26

Shares for dividends: AOD, NLY.

Good trading!






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