NJ Commercial Lending

The year-to-date portfolio tracking of “Hyland Financial Option Traders” has been pretty impressive if I don’t say so myself. Here’s the list, you decide.

UUP (U.S. Dollar Index) March 26 puts closed 1/8/09 …… +38%

QQQQ (Nasdaq 100) Jan 30 puts closed 1/12/09 …… +62%

XLF (Pro Shares Financial ETF) Jan 13 puts closed 1/12/09 …… +140%

SA (Seabridge Gold) May 15 calls bought 11/26/08, closed 3/10/09 …… +124%

BBY (Best Buy) March 25 puts, bought 12/23/08, closed 3/6/09 …… -45%

FXY (Japanese Yen) March 14 puts, bought 12/18/08, closed 3/17/09 …… +287%

VE (Veolia Environment) July 25 calls, bought 2/8/09, closed 5/11/09 …… +62%

QQQQ (Nasdaq 100) May 29 calls, bought 3/12/09, closed 5/7/09 …… +293%  Read more...

It comes as no surprise that China, along with a growing number of other nations is calling for the replacement of the U.S. Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency. China, Russia and Brazil most recently has suggested instead, a basket of currencies. The U.S. became the world’s reserve currency following World War II with it’s effort to rebuild Europe and Japan. It was the only still solvent nation that remained.

Most notably, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the AAA credit rating of the United Kingdom which it has held since 1978 and Bill Gross of Pimco Investments has stated that the U.S. is also in danger of losing it’s own AAA credit rating (which it first received in 1917). This would have disastrous results on the bond market as the increase in risk premium could create a chain reaction of rising interest rates and lower standards of living.  Read more...

“The market hurts as many people as it can as often as it can.” -unknown

It’s been a while, hope all is well. Let’s get right to it.

1) DBA (.DBAG) July 24 calls are up 100% since recommended 3/12/09 @ $23.23. Today we closed @ $27.63.

As I’ve mentioned many times, we put on the trade and the fundamentals catch up with us. The breakout point was @ $27 and we ripped right through the resistance. On a small interday pullback on 5/20 I added to the position with the Oct. 28 calls for 1.85. Agricultural commodities are in a long term bull run, when you get an opportunity to extend your maturities on pullbacks don’t hesitate. DBA is going to be a great trade. Every nation on the planet is experiencing drought conditions, financing for equipment and fertilizer and fresh water irrigation (not to mention a population explosion). The collapse of the USD is only adding to the situation as all commodities (except gold) are traded in dollars. We’ll get to the dollar later.  Read more...