3/16 Almanac

Tuesday, March 16, is 4 days before the last trading day of March options, 32 the April and 67 the May.

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session at $115.49, up 0.03% from the prior close.

In total, 2.8 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, down 9.7% from the day before.

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

Mediawatch: Reuters blamed the Chinese for the American stock markets pullback today. AP blamed the Fed. My money's on AP's explanation, since in the bazaar, Ben Bernanke trumps China any of the week. Econ reports: The FOMC makes its meeting announcement at 2:15 p.m. Eastern, and traders will be looking at the statement of hints of when Fed will  raise short-term rates. It's no longer a case of "if", obviously. Earlier, at 8:30 a.m., housing starts, an indicator of whether the housing industry is starting up again. With the all existing glut, I think not.

My rules allow trades in April covered calls, iron condors and butterfly, calendar, diagonal and vertical spreads.  I allow myself to trade unhedged call and put option purchases that expire in May or later.

My portfolio consists of . . .

March expiry:

• AKS, iron condor, p19/-p20/-p25/p26
• WFC, iron condor, p26/-p27/-c29/c30

Shares for dividends: AOD, NLY.

Zombie shares: MCO, PALM.

My main task this week will be to unravel the remaining March positions. Also, I need to look at adding April positions. But the market strikes me as being in major whipsaw mode at this point, so I'm temporizing.

Good trading!








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