26-4 for March, grade C

Twenty six winners, four losers for the March option cycle. Grade C. The choppy, whipsaw trade continues to be difficult for me to navigate.

Again, before folks get too excited about the win percentage, that is about the odds going in, and the payoffs are scaled to fit those odds. Those buying options with a 10% chance of profit are hoping for a 10-to-1 payout. Selling those options means a high probability of profit, but a slim profit.

Winners include Amgen, Disney, Honeywell, Valeant Pharma. Losers include short calls on Berskhire, Federal Express, and the Russell 2000 ETF. Most of those calls would have gone out in my favor, had I held tight. However, one of the short calls would have become a monster loss.

I made some tiny profits on bonds TLT and gold GLD. The bad news is that option premiums are tiny, and the margin requirements high, so I can justify selling more selling puts on these TLT or GLD.

I am back to green for the year, but commissions are almost equal to my modest profits. Readers can tell I have been a lot more active this year, in terms of number of trades. So far that increased activity has not translated into much, except more in commissions.

Position summary:

long ASH BA BRKB DAL DIS HON HPQ MSFT SLB UAL UNH VRX

net long AMGN GILD IWM SPY