Railways Pool

Sold PUTS Norfolk Southern Railroad

With options, an owner of stock fears a sudden steep drop in price and thus they may purchase an option called ‘PUTs’ to force someone to buy the stock at a preset price. The key for the owner of a PUT is to set a floor price for their existing stock position. A seller of a PUT desires to own the stock at a certain price if it can get there.

13.85% Return in 13 Days!

Value investing allows investors to earn outstanding returns with a much lower risk. This is another example of excellent returns on a high quality stock. The example value investment fund purchased Norfolk Southern 13 days ago while the share price was 10% discounted from a prior market peak price. The sell trigger was preset at 103% of the prior peak. The only action that needed to occur is market recovery which happened this morning. The buy/sell frequency was extremely quick for this transaction which accelerates the return on the investment.

Purchased 114.9557 Shares of Union Pacific

PUTs

From the Lessons Learned article posted a few days ago, in order to gain higher returns, the investment model needs to have greater dispersion with my buy/sell trigger points in its model. Last year, the buy/sell triggers for Union Pacific were a 17% market price decrease from the prior peak and to sell at 100% of prior peak.

This purchase point is driven by the model update whereby market price decreases must hit 18% decrease and the sell point increases to 102% of the prior peak price. This post covers the model update and the associated dollar amounts tied to Union Pacific.

Sold PUTS on Railroad Stocks

PUTs

Today, I sold 59 PUT options for Union Pacific with a strike price of $170.00 with a final date of February 19, 2021. PUTs are simply selling insurance that if the stock price drops to $170 per share, the Value Investment Fund will have to buy them from the owner of the puts.

Railroad Fund Balance 06/30/2020

49.060606 Shares of Norfolk Southern Corporation – Closes at $175.82/Share  FMV =  $8,625.84 (Avg Buy Price/Share = $203.83 for Basis of $10,000.00)
Cash Position including recent dividend payment from NSC                                        =  $1,555.16
Total Fund Balance                                                                                                         = $10,181.00
FMV Gain as a % Since Inception:                                                                                 =       1.81%

56.67% Return on Investment: Union Pacific Railroad

PUTs

Value investing is a principle of investing whereby the investor uses ratios and comparative analysis of similar investments over an extended period of time. In this case, I compared the six publicly traded Class I railways in the United States. Then based on the results, I exercise buy and sell points for each stock within the fund. In this case, Union Pacific Railroad’s prior peak (high selling price) was $188.96.

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