Liverocket Performance Week 15 - Up 2.7%

Because I am doing more trading these days, I will return to a weekly performance posting.

This was a nice week for separation: we rose 2%+ while the markets fell ~2%+. If I am right that the market is about to downshift even more, we should see continued improvements.

In general, I am comfortable with being short given the 9 month window on these puts. Right now, because I jumped in early, we are playing catch up. But I remain confident.

I want to go long on MVL June calls and the pullback was refreshing. ACI and WLT as well.
Because of the volatility, I will be looking at options more than taking equity stakes. get in, get out.

This week we bought puts on MGM and AGN and we bought more CF and sold covered calls.
MGM I referenced in previous posts: I believe Vegas is falling hard and MGM is too dependent on the US market. The curveball here is Dubai: they could buy more shares and push up the price (they just got approval to exceed 10% ownership). mad oil money may make them sloppy with their cash, but Dubai may want to wait-and-see. Another $2 dop in the stock sees us up 100% and we'll look at exiting
AGN is new. They make Botox among other things and this is a very discretionary item. A lot of folks are cutting back and I've read that sales people are not making quotas. Certainly sales won't be rising in the US, which would be contrary to their recent guidance.
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I am recording the covered calls as follows: money is booked into cash and the current price for the underlying equity is recorded at the lower of the strike price or stock price. So, for example, ETFC strike price is $4 and the actual market price is $3.75, so I record as $3.75.

This is different from last week when I just recorded the market price for the stock. That overstated last week's performance ~0.75% (which means this week was actually closer to a 3.5% rise).

For the options, I am recording the BID price (the price at which I would sell to close).
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Quick comments on a few positions:
TRID: Patience. They softened a bit before earnings but we are looking for guidance on design wins.
AN: With car sales so weak, how can AN do well?
NKE: This one is hurting. We know that Nike sales are flat in unit terms but the exchange rate is helping them turbocharge their earnings. The US consumer i stired and I'm hoping that this will show up soon. Or at least that Under Armor will put the hurt on them
ETFC: They dropped and not just because of GE. After rising to $4.50 they pullde back to $4.10 and then GE hit them harder. Our premise is the same: they aren't going under and the stock could soften but we are protected on the downside. Their stock price will be tested this week as other financial houses release poor earnings. That may give us an opportunity to close out the calls, wait a week or 2, and then write them again.