It’s Friday the 21st of February, and I’m at it again. Being determined to reflect on past missteps (I hate the word “mistakes”) have paid off again. I raised some cash by selling 15% of my Vodafone VOD position and I sold a long-term put on Liberty Global. That’s the stock that Warren Buffett has accumulated about 2.95 million shares of, including an extra position taken in the last quarter of 2013. To preserve capital (cash) I bought two call spreads today, one on JP Morgan JPM and Boeing BA.
Let me say right here and right now, I’m not making any recommendations in this column. I’m just confessing to what I’ve done and what I’m currently doing in the investment markets for the education and entertainment of my audience. If you want to read more of my recent articles covering a host of valuable companies and investment themes please go here and go there.
To also be clear, when I sell puts on companies I realize I’m using leverage, and I’m likely to “buy-to-close” some of those positions when I can do so at a profit. I did that today with American Electric Power AEP. I covered a LEAP put I had sold, and not wanting to be greedy, I captured my net gains.
Because of my exposure to gold ETFs I bought a couple of the May 17, 2014 puts at about $.66 for insurance purposes. Gold and silver have had a nice run so far this year. The miners and producers have done even better. I’m hoping for a pullback on this sector so I can buy some GDX and possibly do a synthetic long with SIL.
That’s it for today. I’ll try to keep you posted at least 4 times each week, and I appreciate your comments and questions. A Stock Jockey is a person who, like a Racehorse Jockey, tries to “ride” the best “horses” that are going the right direction without falling off and wiping out. I’m getting older and a bit wiser so I’m reducing risk while constantly looking for good, under-valued opportunities, which I often write articles about.
