Cash-secured puts did badly; Mainly in cash; GMI, GMI-R: 0; Financial Armageddon?

This month I lost money on many of my cash-secured puts. Too many stocks declined below the put option strike price and I had to buy the puts I sold back at higher prices. Selling puts is equivalent to buying stocks and selling call options on the shares. I learned again the lesson not to sell puts or covered calls during a weak or declining market. GMI0116 The QQQQ short term up-trend ended last week. Once the QQQQ fell into a down-trend, I closed all positions and bought a very little of QID, the ultra short ETF on QQQQ. If the QQQQ down-trend deepens I will buy more QID. Otherwise, I will stay mainly in cash. The GMI and GMI-R are both back to zero and the T2108 is at 59%–neutral territory. Only 27% of the NASDAQ 100 stocks closed with their MACD above their signal lines, down from 88% on January 2nd.

Are we near a bottom? Armageddon When three DOW 30 bank stocks, C, BAC and JPM, look like this weekly chart of BAC, I have to think that some kind of debacle is on the horizon. These declines came on huge weekly volume, indicating massive selling. When we factor in that these 3 banks and 7 other DOW 30 stocks fell more than 5% last week, I do not see a bottom, more like a black hole.   Read on to see the graph:

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Uptrend to continue? Writing cash secured puts on promising IBD100 stocks; GMI: 2; GMI-R: 4

The QQQQ short term up-trend is now in its 4th day.  GMI1212

However, there were only 4 new highs and 100 new lows in my universe of 4,000 stocks on Friday.   Still, 58% of the Nasdaq100 stocks closed above their 30 day averages. The GMI closed at 2 (of 6) and the more sensitive GMI-R is at 4 (of 10).   I tend to look to buy stocks when the GMI rises to at least 3. Friday was the 4th day of the current QQQQ short term up-trend. In a few days I will have a better idea if this up-trend has legs……..

In an up-trending market (as measured by the QQQQ), I like to trade the IBD100 stocks.   The IBD100 lists contain the top 100 growth stocks that meet the stringent IBD technical and fundamental criteria.   A new list is published by IBD each Monday.   From time to time, I create a watchlist in TC2007 containing the current IBD100 list.   I now have a watchlist containing about 660 stocks that have appeared on selected IBD100 lists over the past year.   The IBD100 growth stocks tend to perform quite well when the market is rising.   Tonight, I ran a TC2007 scan I have created, on the stocks in this IBD100 watchlist and found 10 present or former IBD100 stocks that appear to be in strong up-trends: EBS,DLTR,ALGT,THOR,INT,APOL,AVAV,LHCG,SHEN,GTIV. I do own a couple of these. But I also have written cash secured put options on some of these stocks with strike prices below the support level .   I am basically betting that the stock will not break below support by option expiration this Friday.   If this technique works out, I will write more about how I do it in a future post.   Writing cash secured puts is equivalent to writing covered calls on a stock, but I do not have to start out by buying the stock.   The cash backing the puts I sell stays in my account in a money market fund and continues to earn interest.   So, I receive the premium from selling the puts AND the interest from the cash backing them.   Quite a nice (but not risk free) income generating technique in my IRA……

GMI: 0; GMI-R: 0; 16th day of QQQQ down-trend; Worden T2108: 11%; VIX: 26%

The GMI and GMI-R remain at zero.  There were  66 new highs and 452 new lows in my universe of 4,000 stocks on Wednesday.  The market was not as bad as it looked, with only about one half of the new lows than we had on Tuesday. Wednesday was the 16th day of the current QQQQ decline.  The Worden T2108 indicator closed Wednesday at 11%, well into bottom territory.  The VIX also moved up to 26%….

The bear got around to killing the previously strong metal and coal stocks.  I learned (again) the painful lesson to refrain from writing covered calls on any stocks during a market down-trend. While QID and my shorts have made money, I lost money on my covered calls, which I subsequently closed out. Only write calls on strong stocks in strong markets.