Courtesy of Scott Brown, Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics
I woke up this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away
It’s more than a feeling
More than a feeling
“As clear as the sun in the summer sky” AFL has everything I hope to find and leads me to recommending a long position with “More than a feeling” we want to add Aflac to our portfolio. As you will see in the Option Review for positions closing on Friday, July 21, 2012, we will free up some cash to add to our positions and recommend buying ½ the shares you are willing to own at the market ($43.90 at close Wednesday). The option premiums are attractive, and I recommend selling the Nov $45 call ($2.07) and put ($3.65) for a net price on our first 1/2 shares of $38.08. We obligate ourselves to sell the shares for $45 if AFL is above $45 on November 16, 2012 or buy the other ½ shares we are willing to own at $45 if AFL is below $45 on November 16, 2012. As you will see in the option review, and for any who have followed Dark Horse Traders’ Hedge over the last 2 years (first published July 1, 2010), we will likely roll the options to a future strike and month if AFL trades close to $45 on expiration date.
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) was added in the March 19, 2012 at $38.41. On April 26, 2012 WDC had moved to a high of $44.44, and I felt good that WDC would reward us with both the July $40 call and July $40 put premiums for a tidy profit. With WDC closing at $33.40 on Wednesday it would appear we will be able to earn the entire $2.85 sold on the July $40 call. That brings our cost basis on the ½ shares purchased for $38.41 down to $35.56. The July $40 puts obligate us to purchase the other ½ shares on Friday, July 12 for a net $35.86 ($40-$4.14 put premium).
While I was much happier when WDC traded at $44.44, I am still happy to have a full position worked into with a cost basis of $35.71, less than what it would have cost to purchase the full amount of shares for $38.41 on March 19, 2012 when we decided to take long exposure in WDC. All the items in my thesis in March still exist, and technically, I see a nice amount of upside from today’s prices with the RSI 5 trading at 51.75 and moving north. I don’t consider a stock overbought technically until the RSI 5 crosses 70 going south. Therefore, I recommend accepting additional shares from the put, earning the profit from the call and holding the full position for a few months to look for a higher selling price.
On April 16, 2012 we tried to better our current position in Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) by rolling options and avoiding putting more cash into the position. I still like the conditions in our original thesis on February 14, 2012, when we rolled to the July $57.50 call and put for a combined premium of $8.30. Unfortunately, “I lost myself in a familiar song” as RIO closed Wednesday at $45.75. Obviously, the premium collected for selling a July $57.5 call is money in the bag. The $4.30 earned for selling the July $57.50 put is the one which “is a familiar song” for anyone who has spent 25+ years in this business.
The sum of all parts reveals that again we have a much better cost basis than had we charged in, purchasing the full number of shares we were willing to own on 2/14/12. I am recommending earning the call premium and accepting delivery of the put shares. This will give us a full long position in RIO, a stock that I believe has the earnings power to trade back up into the low $60’s in 2012, for a cost basis of $50.
Ocwen Financial Corp (OCN) performed as expected following our first recommendation to buy on January 29, 2012 at $13.66, followed by Apr $15 and July $15 covered calls. The end game on this position will come Friday when the stock is called away for $15 while it closed on Wednesday at $19.66. I can’t complain about trades that return a profit of 20.4% in 5 months, BUT “I still recall as I wander on” how much happier I would be selling OCN for $19.66 on Friday. My recommendation is to allow OCN to be called away and be happy with the 20.4% profit.
Overall, I maintain my midterm feeling that the market has more upside than downside. The RSI 5 indicator that I like to use shows a market building strength but just crossing the 50 mark. There is no doubt that it could reverse and head south rather than continue to trend north above the 70 line. Many of the “worst-case scenarios” are priced into the risk on trades, but to date, they have resolved themselves much better. We have a good balance of long and short positions, and I will continue to look to add to the longs as we become more convinced of this 3-6 month trend upward. The mass volumes of data we review lead me to believe this is “More Than a Feeling.”
Recommendations:
Buy AFL at the market, Thursday July 20, 2012
Sell to open, AFL Nov $45 call (AFL121117C00045000) for approx. $2.07
Sell to open, AFL Nov $45 put (AFL121117p00045000) for approx. ($3.65)
Allow WDC July $40 call to expire
Allow WDC July $40 put to expire and take possession of 2nd ½ shares
Allow RIO July $57.50 call to expire
Allow RIO July $57.50 put to expire and take possession of 2nd ½ shares
