Welcome to the third update of the IRA Portfolio. First, I am going to summarize the current state of the IRA Portfolio then I will get into all the activity we had during August expiration. In addition, I want to amend something I said when this portfolio began. I said we expect close to 20% annual returns. However, our returns are greatly dependent on the VIX. The higher the VIX the more our cost basis can be reduced on order entry. Unfortunately the VIX has been hovering around 14 which is historically low. So I am not going to make any predictions about the returns of this portfolio. Lets just do the best we can and see where we are after a year.
Profit and Loss – Net of closed positions we are up a grand total of $384.
Market Commentary – I still feel that the market is much to high and volatility much to low to commit a large portion of the portfolio. However, I do feel that our current exposure of about $5600 is way to low for a 100k portfolio. To remedy that I am going to be looking for places to put some additional money to work. I would like to put a total of $20,000 to work by the end of SEP expiration. If the VIX pops up to around 20 I plan to put about $50,000 total to work.
ABX – Barrick Gold Corporation
- On 8/9/2013 we closed out the AUG 16/11 PUT spread we sold. We closed it for a debit of $8.(member chat link)
AAPL – Apple Inc
- On 8/2/2013 we closed out the AUG 420/370 PUT spread we sold. We closed it for a debit of $5.(member chat link)
BTU – Peabody Energy Corporation
- On 6/9/2013 we closed out the AUG 16/11 PUT spread we sold. We closed it for a debit of $3.(member chat link)
FCX – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc
- On 8/6/2013 we decided to add some FCX to the portfolio by selling the SEP 29/24 PUT spread for a credit of $88.(member chat link)
VLO – Valero Energy Corporation
- On 8/6/2013 we decided to add some VLO to the portfolio by selling the SEP 35/30 PUT spread for a credit of $100.(member chat link)
CLF – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc
- On 8/2/2013 we closed out the AUG 17/12 PUT spread we sold. We closed it out for a debit of $7.(member chat link)
- On 8/16/2013 we rolled the AUG 19 CALL we sold to the OCT 19 CALL for a credit of $55.(member chat link)
X – United States Steel Corp
- On 7/31/2013 we decided to add some X to the portfolio by selling 2x of the SEP 17/12 PUT spread for a credit of $87 each ($174 total).(member chat link)
