Monday, April 18, 2011

Updating The Alpha-D For April 2011

This month's updates after options expiration weekend were easy once again.  My FXI shares were exercised away when they went through their covered calls' strike price, so I bought almost all of them back in a wash sale and let some go to capture a long-term capital gain.  I renewed my covered calls on what remained.

I also renewed my covered calls on the shares of TDW and GDX in my taxable account.  The GDX shares I hold in my IRA were exercised away; like FXI, I let some go and repurchased the rest (with renewed covered calls).

I continue to hold ATHR with covered calls and cash-covered short puts in anticipation that its merger will be completed as planned. 

I am still long some California muni bonds that will mature in a few months.  I will not buy any more this month.  The S&P outlook warning on U.S. government debt that came out today is an admission that debt levels are unsustainable. I expect interest rates to rise at some point, maybe sooner than we'd all like. 

I hope the rest of you filed your income tax returns by today.  My covered call writing (as described above) provided a big chunk of my capital gains in 2010.  Happy Tax Day, America.