Latest positions with ratings for each stock

Good Monday morning to ya. Stocks are down fractionally from the multi-year highs they reached last week but are trying to turn green as the morning wears on. I added to the Apollo puts last week and I’m looking to add to my Sandisk position, either using just common or some longer-dated call options today.  More on that in a bit, including details of what options and also the analysis behind the trade.  I also sold the last of my Juniper position this morning in what turned out to be a profitable trade. But to kick us off this morning, here’s a list of my latest positions in approximate order from largest to smallest. I give each stock a current rating from 1 to 10, 1 being “Get out of this position now!” and 10 being “Sell the farm, I’ve found a perfect investment” (there will never be a 10 rating, because there is no such thing as a perfect investment, of course):

Longs –

• Apple (9)
• Cisco (7)
• F5 (8)
• Google (8)
• Fusion-IO (8)
• Seagate (7)
• Microsoft (6)
• Sandisk (9)
• Amazon (7)
• Cypress (6)
• Nuance (5)
• Autodesk (6)
• Riverbed (7)
• Visteon (5)
• VIX (2 as a net position, but since this is a hedge against our longs, I’d rate it a 6 as a hedge right now)
• DBA (6)

Shorts –

• LPS (6)
• Apollo (8)
• PNC (6)
• Wells Fargo (5)
• Live Nation (6)
• SLV (5)