Week 17 - Portfolio Review
April 26th, 2008. Posted by AppleOption
Week 17 of the 2008 trading year is now in the books. There are only 3 trading days left in the first 4 months of the year. The AppleOption portfolios shared in the struggles of the general market early on. However, skillful trading with appropriate money management and repositioning has helped AppleOption turn all three portfolios profitable.
Meanwhile, year-to-date the S&P 500 is down -9.29%, Dow Jones is down -7.15%, and the NASDAQ is down -14.58%. In fact, Apple common stock is also down -17.77% year-to-date.
AppleOption Short-Term Portfolio (STP)
Started the year with $10,000
Current portfolio value $16,134.16 (after commission/fees)
Year-to-Date Gain 61.3%
AppleOption Long-Term Portfolio (LTP)
Started the year with $25,000
Current portfolio value $27,020.26 (after commission/fees)
Year-to-Date Gain 8.1%
Index Condor Portfolio
Started the year with $10,000
Current portfolio value $10,438.92 (after commission/fees)
Year-to-Date Gain 4.3%
The numbers speak for themself. All three portfolios have out performed the general market. While everyone else is still at a loss for the year, during these volatile markets AppleOption is profitable!
S&P 500 5-day |
Dow Jones 5-day |
NASDAQ 5-day |
Apple 5-day |
S&P 500 3-month |
Dow Jones 3-month |
NASDAQ 3-month |
Apple 3-month |
AppleOption Short-Term Portfolio
The earnings week could not have been better for the STP! The week was busy with trading as we took advantage of all the stock movement and collected a lot of premium after the implied volatility crush post-earnings. We started the week by covering open positions, then opened a complex butterfly spread, followed by a calendar spread. Apple then reported earnings on April 23rd. The following day we were able to lock in a gain of $1,161! The STP finished the week by repositioning the portfolio such that we are ready for any move (up or down) in Apple in the weeks to come. All in all, we are extremely pleased with the portfolio’s performance this week!
AppleOption Long-Term Portfolio
The best part of the LTP is the fact that it is basically a passive portfolio. Sure we keep a close eye on Apple. The goal is through minimal trading the LTP will profit maximally. Only occasionally needing repositioning, the LTP sold calls heading into earnings and subsequently locked in gains through repositioning calls after earnings. The LTP profited extremely well this week!
Index Condor Portfolio
Moving on from a disappointing option expiration cycle, on Friday the Index Condor Portfolio opened the first May expiration trade. Bloomberg had a fantastic interview with OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri who talked about the market manipulating the price of Oil. AppleOption is watching the market intensely during the earnings season. Look for additional trades to be added in the coming week.
Up-Coming Earning Reports: for a full listing of companies
Monday April 28th
RadioShack - RSH
Sohu.com - SOHU
Hartford Financial - HIG
Visa - V
Tuesday April 29th
Countrywide - CFC
MasterCard - MA
U.S. Steel - X
Valero Energy VLO
Wednesday April 30th
First Solar - FSLR
Garmin - GRMN
General Motors - GM
Starbucks - SBUX
Thursday May 1st
Blockbuster - BBI
Exxon Mobil - XOM
Marathon Oil - MRO
NYMEX - NMX
Friday May 2nd
Chevron - CVX
Weyerhaeuser - WY
Apple Rumors: The latest rumor regarding the iPhone is that the new 3G version will have GPS included and will only be marginally thicker than the current version. It is expected to be released at the WWDC confrence in June along with the SDK (software developers kit) for the iPhone. Additionally, there are rumors that the iMac may be seeing an update this coming Tuesday.