Written by Pat McCubbin
Good Afternoon,
A very lackluster day of trading today. With nearly nothing coming out of the G20 meeting over the weekend there was very little for traders to get excited about. The only two industries that really rallied today were tobacco and guns. When is the last time that happened?
With the anemic action in today’s markets there wasn’t much opportunity to make moves in the portfolio today. We still had a little action though in some of our stocks. Here is a wrap up our stocks and option positions today.
Syntel, Inc. (SYNT)Syntel, Inc. (SYNT) had a nice to move to the upside of nearly 3.5% on strong volume. Take a look at the chart.
On Friday’s session this stock hit support down around the $32 level and has made a strong move back to the upside. Here is a longer term chart. Check out the double bottom formation that has occurred over the last five months.
The last time this stock made such a pronounced double bottom formation it nearly doubled. We are going to be patient with this one and see if the next few weeks confirm our outlook.
Dril-Quip, Inc. (DRQ). is a short position we picked up last Friday. This is a stock we added an extra option position to leverage the downside profit potential. We shorted the stock while using an additional long call for protection. We also purchase a long put as well. What we ended up with was a long straddle as well as a short stock position. The reasoning we did this was to further balance out our portfolio. We always want to take advantage of both sides of the markets. This stock is already down over $1 since our entry and a strong push to the downside will make this a very good play.
Cephalon, Inc. (CEPH) was up slightly today, but we still like this stock. Check out the chart.
We’ve come well off the support levels over the last week or two. We are also close to a positive convergence of the 10 and 30 day moving averages. In the short run this is an excellent indicator. We are still long 1 July 60 call option and feel that we will be in the money in the next couple of sessions.
The rest of the portfolio was rather flat today. We have been quite disappointed with Jos. A. Banks (JOSB), as well as Cognizent Technology Solutions (CTSH). These two stocks have been in a real rut lately. We still have three weeks left so hopefully that will be enough time to get them moving.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more exciting in the markets as well as allowing us the ability to make some moves. Have a nice evening and we’ll see you in the morning.
June 2010 Recap
6/21/10: Sold short 100 shares of Cephalon Inc. (CEPH).@ $60.50
6/24/10: Bought to cover 100 shares of Cephalon Inc. (CEPH). @ $58.98
Profit – $152
6/22/10: Sold short 100 shares of Nike Inc. (NKE). @ $73.61
6/24/10: Bought to cover 100 shares Nike Inc. (NKE). @ $70.00
Profit – $361
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
Position Expired
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
Position Expired
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: $1526
TEN Exclusive: Portfolio Update – 6/28/10 is an article from: 
