March Performance

Needless to say, March was a challenging month as many of my high flyers such as Biogen (Ticker: BIIB) got hit pretty hard. I’ve been generating some income by selling Puts during this down turn, which has helped to buffer some of the decline. Overall my portfolio held up fairly well during this volatility. In terms of special situations / merger arb plays, I sold Puts on Jos. A. Banks (Ticker: JOSB) and Safeway (Ticker: SWY). There really has not been much happening on my end… just patiently looking for good risk return opportunities.

Performance Year to Date = +3.14% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January -0.67%

February +6.50%

March -2.69%

Got Some CBS Outdoor

I decided to jump back into the IPO game and was allocated a few shares in CBS Outdoor (Ticker: CBSO). I actually do like this company and will probably hang on for a bit. I didn’t think bill boards would have a high barrier to entry, but apparently they do. CBS Outdoor occupies some of the very best locations such as New York City. They are actually grandfathered in many of their prime locations as current regulations would prohibit the building of new bill boards. I can see nice steady growth for this company from higher ad rates and the conversion to digital bill boards. Finally, the conversion to REIT status will be another plus so there are lots of catalysts to move this stock higher over time. The last thing on my radar was to own a piece of a bill board company, but this company is nice a cash machine.

What else am I doing? I’ve been doing a lot of Put selling on Gilead (Ticker: GILD). If Gilead drops far enough, I wouldn’t mind owning the stock. Longer term, this company / stock will do well…

Some Safeway

I took a stab at Safeway (Ticker: SWY) today by selling the January 2016 $37 Puts for $1.45 and pocketing the premium. There’s been a lot of chatter that Kroger (Ticker: KG) was going to jump into the mix and make a bid for Safeway, but the news out late today suggests that Cerebus is going to ink the deal for around $40. This looks like a done deal with a possible announcement tomorrow.

February Performance

Well February has come to a close rather quickly and once again it’s performance review time. February was a very quiet month for me as the only trade I executed was exiting the short Puts in RDA Microelectronics (Ticker: RDA). Right now, I have no open arb / special situation plays although I am looking to possibly get back into RDA Microelectronics. The portfolio performed well in February after a negative January. I generated a net return of 6.50% in February... ok I cheated a little bit. I participated in the employee stock purchase program and the lump sum purchase took place in January. I was able to purchase the company stock at a ~ 27% discount. Don’t ask… it’s a weird employee stock purchase program. If I ex out the gain from the employee stock purchase, my net return for February would be 5.36%.

What worked? Constellation Brands (Ticker: STZ), Biogen Idec (Ticker: BIIB), VISA (Ticker: V) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Ticker: VRTX) contributed positively for the month of February. There was really no negatives… maybe Apple, but overall I’m pleased with the February results.

Performance Year to Date = +5.83% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January -0.67%

February +6.50%