Good Afternoon,
This is the second week in a row the markets have finished in positive territory. The last three sessions showed very little volatility and a sense of calmness has returned. The summer doldrums have settled in and the chaos of the last two months have subsided. WRONG. This is just a temporary lull before another shoe drops. The markets have a way of hypnotizing us and then hitting us in the back of the head with a shovel.
Today was options expiration for us which usually means paring off many of our positions. We decided to push out another month Cognizent Technology Solutions (CTSH) and Jos.A.Banks (JOSB). Although we added a slight bit of risk to each trade, both charts were still showing aspects of why we entered them in the first place.
We opened a new position today with Syntel Inc. (SYNT). This stock has created a very strong double bottom and last time that occurred the stock more than doubled. We achieved a 5% overall risk by adding a July put option for protection. When this market once again rears its ugly head we do not want to be long or short any stock without proper protection.
It’s been commonly said over the last twenty years why should I pay for protection? Why should I waste money, when all I have to do is pick a diversified portfolio? When the markets are moving in a linear, non-volatile nature, this is an easy frame of mind to fall into. Then all of a sudden: Asian crisis, dot.com bust, Enron fallout, mortgage crisis, Greece failure, flash crash, Black Monday, 9/11 & many other black swans appear and ruin our day. It’s not until the aftermath and all the carnage has taken place that we realize we should have taken steps to protect ourselves. We should not drive that expensive new automobile without insurance.
That is all we are trying to do at ExactStockPicks. We are not predictors of the future, nor do we have the silver bullet necessary to extract gains on 100% or our trades. What we do have is the ability to help our members take strategic positions, with little risk, and alert them when it’s time to take profits. Each month we are looking to return about $1000 in profits based on an average portfolio size of $25,000. In our minds those are pretty good numbers.
We had to close our a few positions at losses. This will be the case every option expiration period. We give ourselves anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to make plays. In most situations, if we can’t get it done in that amount of time we’ll call it a day and move on.
We have had a pretty good month so far even after taking our losses today. We are up over $1000, which is our monthly goal, and we still have nearly two weeks left in June. We are also sitting on a portfolio that is only around $15k, so we will need to take on some plays starting Monday.
We want to thank all of our members again for your patronage, and we strive every day to provide value to each and every one of you. We would also like to make all of our trial members a promotional offer going through the weekend to Monday’s open.
******************** We are reducing our annual membership from $469 to $299 ending at Monday morning’s market open. We hope that you see this is an exceptional value and we look forward to welcoming new members!
Have a safe and happy weekend, and we’ll talk again Monday morning.
June 2010 Recap
6/1/10: Sold short 100 shares Union Pacific @ $71.96
6/4/10: Bought to cover 100 shares Union Pacific @ $69.68
Protective Call Option: ($41)
Profit – $197
6/11/10: Sold short 100 shares MercadoLibre Inc. @ $57.50
6/11/10: Bought 1 June 57.50 call option
Profit: ($160)
6/2/10: Sold short 200 shares Thoratec Corp @ $44.00
6/4/10: Bought to cover 200 shares Thoratec Corp @ $42.70
Protective Call Option: + $300
Profit – $560
5/27/10: Sold short 200 shares Jinpan Intl Ltd @ $15.83
6/07/10: Bought to cover 200 shares Jinpan Intl Ltd @ $15.14
Profit – $138
5/25/10: Bought 100 shares ConocoPhillips @ $49.00
6/10/10: Sold 100 shares ConocoPhillips @ $52.57
Profit – $357
6/14/10: Sold short 100 shares Concur Technologies @ $43.60
6/14/10: Bought 1 June 45 call @ .25
Profit: ($165)
5/24/10: Bought 100 shares of Baidu @ $72.18
6/10/10: Sold 100 shares of Baidu @ $72.32
Profit – $14
5/20/10: Bought 200 shares Quest Software @ $18.75
6/10/10: Sold 200 shares of Quest Software @ $18.75
Profit – 0
6/7/10: Bought 100 shares Overstock.com @ $19.65
6/11/10: Sold 100 shares Overstock.com @ $21.66
Protective Call Option: ($140)
Profit – $61
6/4/10: Bought 100 shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl. @ $ 46.54
6/14/10: Sold 100 shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl. @ $47.50
Protective Put Option: ($85)
Profit – $11
Total June Profit to Date: $1013
TEN Exclusive: Portfolio Update – 6/18/10 is an article from: 
