Scoreboard Update 1/1/2025
Happy New Year!
2025 is here, which means the original LEAPs I covered are all expiring soon! The only one still live is American Express—I’ll be writing a retrospective and closing it in the next week or two.
There will be some new post types from me this year, the first of which you’ll see on Friday! So, be on the lookout. My New Year’s resolution is to post 2–4 times per week in 2025, so watch out!
Today’s post will be short and sweet: a look at the scoreboard, a few musings, and a peek ahead.
The Scoreboard
The scoreboard now includes six new positions added in December. Topline numbers have come down to an average of 52% flat and 16% annualized, which isn’t very impressive. There are reasons for this though, let me explain.
Reason number one is that the overall market has come down a bit, which has naturally lowered the underlying stock prices—and, of course, the options too. Hopefully, this is just market noise, and things will start rising again soon.
The other factor is the new positions. I add them when I believe it’s a good time, but I don’t always catch the exact bottom of the valley. For example, I added four new positions in Merck, and the underlying stock declined by ~5%, causing some short-term paper losses. This has dragged down our averages, especially the annualized numbers.
If anything changes my opinion on these stocks, I’ll let you know and adjust accordingly. That said, most of these stocks—including Merck—look as good, if not better, than before.
Looking Ahead
As I mentioned earlier, I plan to post 2–4 times per week this year. Look for my next post on Friday!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for reading Rolling Thunder, and let’s hope 2025 is as good as the past two years have been.
Regards,
S. Andrew