July 2015 Performance

July turned out unexpectedly well with a net gain of 5.48% for the month. I would label this month as a transition as I closed out my merger arb positions in Altera (Ticker: ALTR), Hospira (Ticker: HSP) (short Puts) and Omnicare (Ticker: OCR). I used the funds to build up a large position in Receptos (Ticker: RCPT) by going long the stock and short Puts. I really like the risk reward in Receptos, which is anticipated to close by the end of August. Receptos is the type of deal that I am willing to go in big.

So what drove the gains for July? Visa (Ticker: V) and MasterCard (Ticker: MA) reported good earnings and drove the stocks nicely higher. Qiagen (Ticker: QGEN) participated in the biotech rally by breaking out to multi year highs.

And what didn’t work? Apple (Ticker: AAPL) delivered respectable earnings, but the market didn’t like it and sold it off.

So hopefully next month, I get to report that Celgene (Ticker: CELG) successfully completed its tender offer for Receptos. So that's it for now...

2015 Performance Year to Date = +21.85% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January +3.4%
February +7.03%

March -0.33%

April +0.39%

May +5.59%

June -1.2%

July +5.48%