Added 3x BWEN May 19th puts as part of my strategy of betting against stocks that are overextended. Down $120 on that, too. Down $110 on HP, looks like WLB and HP are going to be total losses and I'm tempted to just close the positions but an option strategy should be carried to expiration to judge its true efficacy. There is a tiny possibility that these stocks will correct hard as parabolic stocks tend to eventually do. These are small positions yet the losses add up fast. I sometimes see ppl trade huge size.. Like dozens or hundreds of contracts, $10-30k at stake per trade. My logic is if you cannot make a single red cent on the small trades, you sure as hell can't trade big size. Sometimes it's tempting to just want to buy a lot of contracts because you're certain the stock will sure/crash. If that fails we an add to our list-of-stuff-that-doesnt-work: 1. buying puts on overextend stocks (TBD) 2. shorting foreign currencies/forex Had I not covered this I would have blown out my $14k forex account. The Lira had a huge rally presumably over Erdogan winning the election 3. pair XLV/TF (TBD) The last is the VX backup plan which will come later after all other methods have been exhausted. I'll probably do that if my loss which presently stands at $9k exceeds $12k or so. This has been really disappointing thus far. All these trades keep producing losses. Gimme another 2007 or 2008 and making $ would be easy. But when you consider that there have only been two banking crisis in the past 100 years (1929 & 2008) I'll probably be dead by the time the next one rolls along.
Sold 2 contracts of HP Sold 4 contracts WLB gotta know when to throw in the towel. 4 WLB contracts remain. Time till expiration 1.2 months, 30 strike yesterday went long 11 Pandora puts that expire in Sep. 2014. Took profit on 2 this morning. long 1 NQ long 5 AAMC short 150 IBB 9 Pandora puts 4 WLB puts This strategy is to exploit the inherent weakness of biotechnology and internet technology while still capturing long term upside from the broader QQQ i was tempted to buy more NQ when it was down 24 .now down 84. Working pretty well so far. YTD Losses narrowed to $8500 This is by far the most difficult stock market I've ever traded. Things like VIX puts, hedges don't work because of sector differences. The volatility for certain stocks and sectors is insane, but the broader indexes are indifferent.