Picking up speed

The market downturn is taking hold. While the S&P and Nasdaq indexes eked out gains after a mostly down day, the DOW was negative. The mood is very much wait and see. August is generally a tough month for the market even in good years. People are on vacation, so there is less trading going on and lower volumes can accentuate changes. Add in the fact that there are concerns about the Fed easing earlier and pontiffs talking about being at a peak in terms of company earnings. Underlying these market forces, we also have rising Covid cases has everyone depressed as it appears to be dampening the economic expansion we were all counting on. The international picture is also cloudy; China regulators are gutting the China trade, Europe is still struggling to open up, and the debacle in Afghanistan is grim. Given the earnings season is pretty much behind us, there is simply no good news to lift the market, no clear positive catalyst anyone can see.

I did trade. I bought three dividend paying stocks with cash that had accumulated in my retirement accounts. Oil and gas and healthcare (down today) stocks which all have dividends of over 5%. Small purchases. Investments.

I did make money on my Nvidia put as I had hoped. Closed it too early though, could have made a lot more if I have been patient. Closed a couple others I had opened during the day but most of what I closed today were calls I had sold a while back. When you are closing calls you know the market is dropping.

Sold a range of puts. Pushed the expiration dates out a couple months to give them more time to work. All were on stocks I would like to own; Exxon (XOM), Tapestry (TPR), Moderna (MRNA), Dow (DOW) and a gold EFT (GLD). Hoping a couple come good tomorrow.

Hope the week ends better. As of today, heading for a down week which has been a rarity this year.