Well that was quick.
I am back in the black ... BioCryst is on a tear and just about made up my shortfall all by its lonesome. I sold 5 more DNDN Jun $24 calls this morning, as well as selling all 3000 shares of my ARQL. Still love the stock, but it was up nearly 100% and the price is just too low under $5 to get significant option premium.
I turned around and bought 1600 AOB (at 4.72), and sold 16 Jul $5 for $0.35 which is 7% for a month and a half.
The port is now at $100,286 and my positions are:
1600 AOB (16)
2000 NBIX ()
1600 ELN ()
2000 DNDN (10)
2000 ARNA ()
2500 SGMO ()
1400 BCRX (14)
Regards,
Trond
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Port 24 and two picks
Sold 5 June $25 covered calls at $0.40 against Dendreon, and 4 June $5s at $0.25 against BioCryst.
I have two stock picks right now. One is safe, and one is for some bang.
Dendreon (I can't believe I am saying this!) is my safe pick. At $21 right now, it may go as low as $18 or so over the next couple months, but in terms of a one year time span, it will have a floor under it AND have significant upside. The chances of a partnership agreement, new trials, analyst day this summer, a Q4 filing of the Provenge BLA, and ultimately an approval next spring all will keep some excitement going and each of these should give the stock a boost.
Sangamo is the bang-for-the-buck stock. It has been drifting lower for a month now and is currently in the high $3s. They will be getting trial soon and are a constant threat to compile new partnership agreements at any time. Each of these may be for small dollar amounts (relatively) but at some point some analyst is going to say, "Wow, 20 or 30 $5-10M agreements really add up!" I want to be there for that lightening strike.
Regards,
Trond
I have two stock picks right now. One is safe, and one is for some bang.
Dendreon (I can't believe I am saying this!) is my safe pick. At $21 right now, it may go as low as $18 or so over the next couple months, but in terms of a one year time span, it will have a floor under it AND have significant upside. The chances of a partnership agreement, new trials, analyst day this summer, a Q4 filing of the Provenge BLA, and ultimately an approval next spring all will keep some excitement going and each of these should give the stock a boost.
Sangamo is the bang-for-the-buck stock. It has been drifting lower for a month now and is currently in the high $3s. They will be getting trial soon and are a constant threat to compile new partnership agreements at any time. Each of these may be for small dollar amounts (relatively) but at some point some analyst is going to say, "Wow, 20 or 30 $5-10M agreements really add up!" I want to be there for that lightening strike.
Regards,
Trond
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Port 24 update
Well, it has been exactly one year since I started the Portfolio 24.
It is a model portfolio starting with $100,000.00. I had expectations of making 2% a month, utilizing a covered call strategy. For the year, I fell well short of that, with the Port being worth $89,560 with today's prices. That is an actual 10.5% loss, or 34.5% below my desired return.
While I could use the overall miserable performace of the market (for example, the Nasdaq was down 32 percent and the S&P500 was negative 35% for that one-year period) as an excuse, I prefer to view this as an absolute return portfolio, not a relative. In other words, I do not want to simply beat the market returns, I want to ALSO always make money.
Three things hampered me.
1) Elan absolutely killed me; I bought 800 shares right before the disastrous duo of the ICAD presentation/PML cases. That is a $21,000 mistake at this moment, which would put me at a 10% gain on the year if I had not done that one purchase.
2) I neglected the Portfolio all fall and through the spring. I would have made "some" option premium if I'd been paying attention and selling some out-of-the-money calls. In no way would I have clawed back to even, but I probably left a minimum of $4,000 on the table.
3) I went away from the original strategy somewhat by stocking up on Elan and Dendreon. It worked quite well in Dendreon's case and not so well in Elan's. And it wasn't even the fact I was adding those two names in bulk; I refused to sell calls against them because I didn't want to be called away from perceived large gains.
I bought 1400 shares of BioCryst Pharma today at $2.47, and sold 10 June $2.50 calls for $0.50 -- a nice 20% premium for one month! I also sold 20 $22.50 May calls against Dendreon -- they expire tomorrow and with the stock at $20.90 I think it free money. Granted, the contracts were only $8 each but it came to $130 after commissions.
So right now, the Port stands at $89,566, with the following holdings:
3000 ARQL, 2000 NBIX, 1600 ELN, 2000 DNDN, 2000 ARNA, 2500 SGMO, and 1400 BCRX; $614 in cash. I have 20 Dendreon May calls sold and 10 BioCryst June calls sold. Next week after options expiration I will be more active!
Regards,
Trond
It is a model portfolio starting with $100,000.00. I had expectations of making 2% a month, utilizing a covered call strategy. For the year, I fell well short of that, with the Port being worth $89,560 with today's prices. That is an actual 10.5% loss, or 34.5% below my desired return.
While I could use the overall miserable performace of the market (for example, the Nasdaq was down 32 percent and the S&P500 was negative 35% for that one-year period) as an excuse, I prefer to view this as an absolute return portfolio, not a relative. In other words, I do not want to simply beat the market returns, I want to ALSO always make money.
Three things hampered me.
1) Elan absolutely killed me; I bought 800 shares right before the disastrous duo of the ICAD presentation/PML cases. That is a $21,000 mistake at this moment, which would put me at a 10% gain on the year if I had not done that one purchase.
2) I neglected the Portfolio all fall and through the spring. I would have made "some" option premium if I'd been paying attention and selling some out-of-the-money calls. In no way would I have clawed back to even, but I probably left a minimum of $4,000 on the table.
3) I went away from the original strategy somewhat by stocking up on Elan and Dendreon. It worked quite well in Dendreon's case and not so well in Elan's. And it wasn't even the fact I was adding those two names in bulk; I refused to sell calls against them because I didn't want to be called away from perceived large gains.
I bought 1400 shares of BioCryst Pharma today at $2.47, and sold 10 June $2.50 calls for $0.50 -- a nice 20% premium for one month! I also sold 20 $22.50 May calls against Dendreon -- they expire tomorrow and with the stock at $20.90 I think it free money. Granted, the contracts were only $8 each but it came to $130 after commissions.
So right now, the Port stands at $89,566, with the following holdings:
3000 ARQL, 2000 NBIX, 1600 ELN, 2000 DNDN, 2000 ARNA, 2500 SGMO, and 1400 BCRX; $614 in cash. I have 20 Dendreon May calls sold and 10 BioCryst June calls sold. Next week after options expiration I will be more active!
Regards,
Trond
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