A mild CPI reading led to a bit of a rally in the market, which is good for taking profits as I'll share in the two trade updates this week.
This week:
$38 profit in Medtronic (MDT)
$97 profit in Walgreens (WBA)
$38 profit in MDT
Just last week I shared a new trade in MDT, selling the May 19 $72.50 cash-secured put for $71. My intention was to slowly ease into a new position before this week's CPI reading, and hopefully if the market doesn't like the reading we would get more volatility and opportunities to put on new positions. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way and the market rallied instead, which meant MDT closed for 50% profit in just about a week.
Not that I'm complaining because profit is profit - but this portfolio is looking very light now with only 2 trades on. You can read about the opening MDT trade from last week at the link below.
$97 profit in WBA
The long-running WBA saga comes to a close (for now)! I've had this position on since Feb 4 - so just about 2 months. The trade has gone from an initial winner to a loser to an assignment candidate and back to a nearly $100 winner.
New traders may panic once their trade is in the money. As you can see from the screenshot above, I sold the contract for $54 and when I rolled it, it was worth $191 - nearly a 4x loss! That's when people freak out and close the position in panic. But as I mentioned when I was rolling the trade - I have a template and system for dealing with specific scenarios, it just needs to be applied consistently. Check out the link below for my strategy for dealing with the WBA situation a couple of weeks ago.
That's it for this week - next week I'm looking forward to earnings in JNJ which may have implications for my existing portfolio position. You'll read about it next week if it does.
This article is for educational purposes only. This is my own portfolio which is being managed according to my goals and risk tolerance. Your situation is likely different and you should do your own due diligence before investing in stocks or options.