Closed VMC $9.90 on the bid. *1st column is the bid, second is the midpoint, third is the ask..... 4rth is bidsize, 5th is ask-size. *Have to clear that up. Account is all cash with a balance of $108,530
Friggin VMC dropped to $122.50 today. It bounced back some but its still down $2.75. What a great short that was. I'm waiting on ETSY to fall back a bit to buy the August $45 calls. Its not cooperating. FWIW....Its a good long for a long term hold, but there is a big gap that might need filled first. Its not going away however, and that gap might not (ever) fill. ($42.75)
I'll cover these this week to free up some margin. Pretty much a full $2000 added to the account balance. ISRG closed down Friday after reporting a stellar quarter. Down $10 to $517. "How's that happen"?..... "How'd he know"?
For the record, it was politely pointed out to me by someone here I chat with (laughingly) that the rules stated "no naked shorts" in the competition. Couple things on that. 1) As with most of (certain posts), they get a cursory glance at best and thats it. That said....There's no reason why (as long as margin limits are respected) this would even be brought up. Thats why I only went with 7 contracts. I mean come on, lets talk reality here. A $108K margin account is certainly allowed to short $3K worth of calls. Give me a break. I do remember however that I asked for no 3-2-1 trades as I wanted this to be about directional stockpicking and not selling vol. Now there's only 2 parties involved here... but I guess only one has the right to make the rules. Thats fair. Par for the course. 2) I actually did want to buy the $600 calls to protect against my max drawdown... but there had been no volume on them that day at the time I posted, and the bid/ask reflected extremes at both ends. I had no idea where to mark them for the competition, and we all know what would have happened if heaven forbid, I marked them for anything over a penny shy of the ask.... 20 posts elsewhere here calling me stupid, broke, cheating, never traded... etc etc. I had enough of that after day one. Hence this independent thread. 3) Lastly... Imagine ISRG gapped to $620.... I'm sure my (rules violation) would have been quickly dismissed and certain parties here would have immediately broke out the band, called the competition over... and followed with a barrage of demeaning posts about this for the next 2 years here. Its a good thing I knew what I was doing I guess. Let it be known I have followed ISRG for every ER for the last 11 plus years. And to that end.... its still a great stock and it will in fact be at least 10% higher this time next year.