December Monthly Options expiration was a wild one, it did not disappoint for those that like Volatility. I came into the week with 3 positions in the basket so I had 2 empty seats to fill. I had a small, solid candidate list, but never found a comfortable entry to fill out the basket.

2 of the positions had December Options as part of the trade so I had to manage those pieces into Friday. The $CP positions was called away due to the Short Call part of the Collar being ITM. This was fine with me as this position had already completed the $100 Roll. The $ORLY position looked interested in a Pin at the $90 strike. I managed to get some value from the Long Put, selling it for $.25 on Friday. The Short Call piece expired so now I need to look at the January Option chain for a new Collar.

The other position is $MON – a January 90/95 Call Spread which looks good going into the New Year. Here is the Summary:

Candidate List:

• $WPI
• $CNI
• $MHK (may be hard to do this within the 30 trading day rule but promising)
• $ARG
• $FDX (may be hard to do this within the 30 trading day rule but promising)
• $LMT (survives the Budget cuts, lookout)
• $HYG (considering ETFs now)
• $IWO
• $TWC (tried several times)