Intermune Arb Play

I’ve been striking out a lot this year on some special situations / arb plays. The averages will eventually catch up to you, but I’m patient and looking out for the next target. I had a good position in the Intermune, Inc. (Ticker: ITMN) common around $51 and sold for a small quick profit. You know what happened next… Right now, I’m playing Roche’s (Ticker: RHHBY) acquisition of Intermune by selling the $70 January 2016 Puts. This deal should closely fairly quick as Roche initiated the tender offer today.

Constellation Brands: Back To School

I always find it amusing when I read the following headlines: Constellation Brands (Ticker: STZ) to Present at Barclays Capital Back-To-School Consumer Conference, Sept. 4, 2014. I’m sure you know what Constellation Brands sell… booze as in Corona and Robert Mondavi. I have no doubt that students will go crazy for Corona. One of these days, I’ll head to one of their investor conferences so I can sample some of their goods. Constellation Brands continue to be one of my largest positions and plan on hanging on for the long haul…

Idenix = Done Deal

Merck (Ticker: MRK) completed its tender offer for Idenix Pharmaceuticals (Ticker: IDIX) for $24.50 in cash yesterday. I sold some (actually a good amount) of the January out of the money Puts and those will expire on 08/16/14 via accelerated option expiration due to the closing of the deal. I hope to see more of these types of deals in the future. Anyways, I’ve been raising some cash to ride through this volatile period.

July Results

Talk about end of month volatility! Would have thought there would some positive end of month window dressing… I corrected the June performance data as my brokerage firm did correct the option pricing that skewed the results. There weren’t many positions that contributed positively to the July performance. Idenix Pharmaceuticals (Ticker: IDIX) did help a bit as it received regulatory approval and Apple (Ticker: AAPL) held up well. Closed out some out of the money short Put positions from option expiration on Hilshire Brands (Ticker: HSH) and BE Aerospace (Ticker: BEAV), which helped the portfolio just a bit. The other positions were pretty much a draggg...

Now on to some other trades… I’ve cashed out of my common position in Idenix Pharmaceuticals at prices ranging from $24.42 to $24.44. I still have my out of the money short Put position, which I will likely let expire.

I picked up some Bally Technologies (Ticker: BYI) today at ~ $77.79. Looks like an interesting arb play as Scientific Games (Ticker: SGMS) is buying the company for $83.30 in cash. Unusually wide spread with a closing anticipated in early next year so I must be missing something here!

Performance Year to Date = +10.06% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January -0.67%

February +6.50%

March -2.69%

April -1.51%

May +7.30%

June +2.59%

July -1.46%