Cross-Currents Since Year’s End: Plenty Of Action, Little Net Movement

The Virtual Value Portfolio managed to preserve its strong 2013 gains.

We worked up a sweat without really going anywhere since Dec. 31, 2013. 

 

The weak start to 2014 had been mostly reversed by the end of the first full week of trading. Our original $100,000 closed out at a value of $139,088 on January 10^th. Our Monday purchase of TEVA shares looked good. The stock moved up 4.8% by Friday’s 4 PM close.

 

We hold about 18% of our assets in cash right now, awaiting the right opportunities for redeployment. Market Shadow’s continues to outperform our benchmark, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by a wide margin.

See all our closed-out and current equity positions by clicking here .

Our Virtual Put Writing Portfolio was much more active than our stock list.  We took advantage of some great chances to sell puts at tempting premiums. We added new option positions in Costco (COST), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Sysco Corp. (SYY), Potash Corp. (POT) and Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) during the latest week.

Barring any drastic market action we expect to book our biggest monthly gains yet at the end of next week.  Once the January 2014, expiration date is reached we will be able to finalize multiple winners against  just one laggard issue. We still like the prospects on that stock and plan to roll out that option before expiration.

For details of all Market Shadows’ closed-out and existing option positions click  here .