halu: I hope that the title of the thread is descriptive enough for the journal. I'm not gonna go to the history as I have another thread that contained all the info on the Options forum. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=52722 I plan to just post trade entries here and keep track of PNL's on a weekly basis (Friday's total account value marked-to-market any open positions compared to previous Friday's). That's about it. Just a peek at a small-fish account who trades "long options" on the side and still has a full-time job that pays the bills. Good Trading.
If you want to swing via options , why are you going long? Why not to short the put instead of buying the call when you are bullish(and vice versa)? In this case you will enjoy the time decay meltdown( and inflated IV collapse if you playing events)
update for the week ending 9/2/2005: gain of about $2250 for the week. current positions mark-to-market: DWA Dec 30 calls - comatose position. still showing a loss of $1050 from inception on 7/1/05 only have 1 open position as i closed everything else trying to be as flat as possible going into the labor day weekend. activities for the week: closed 10 SPY Oct 122 calls - loss of $250 closed 10 SPY Oct 122 calls - profit of $50 closed 10 SPY Oct 122 calls - profit of $100 closed 15 KBH Oct 75 calls - profit of $1725 closed 15 AMZN Jan06 40 puts - profit of $825 if the total gains and losses don't add up, it's because some of the losses and gains have been realized in the past (when the mark-to-market calculations were performed to arrive at the total account size). for example, as whacky as it sounds, the open DWA-call position is showing a gain of $210 to the account for the entire week. that's about it for this week. future posts should be shorter going forward... Good Trading.
i buy puts & calls. basically swing-trading the underlying but using the options as a vehicle of leverage. i'm short theta, long vega, long (and short? - don't know if the terms change if i'm trading puts) gamma and delta. i use the options to synthetically go long/short the underlying by some amount, usually 1500 shares x Delta, as i like to buy 15 contracts at a time. thanks for your interest. Peace.
mini-update 9/6/2005: opened a call-position EBAY EBAY Jan06 42.5 calls (xbaav) - 10 calls @ 265/ea. risk-capital $2650 Peace.
mini-update 9/6/2005: opened a call-position on NFLX NFLX Dec 22.5 Calls (qnqlx) - 10 calls @ 2.20/each. risk-capital $2220 peace.
mini-update 9/8/2005: added to the call-position on EBAY EBAY Jan06 42.5 calls (xbaav) - 5 calls @ 215/ea. additional risk-capital $1075 total risk capital of $3725 on the whole position.
mini-update 9/6/2005: closed the call-position on NFLX NFLX Dec 22.5 Calls (qnqlx) - 10 calls @ 3.60/each. profit of $1400 (minus comm.)
update for the week ending 9/9/2005: gain of about $1100 for the week. current positions mark-to-market: DWA Dec 30 calls - no longer a comatose position. still showing a loss of $490 from inception on 7/1/05 EBay Jan06 42.5 calls - showing a loss of $725 on the total position (10 calls plus an additional 5 calls) - 15 calls. NFLX Dec 22.5 calls - closed position for a profit of $1400 activities for the week: 9/6 Opened a position on Ebay - 10 calls 9/6 Opened a position on NFLX - 10 calls 9/8 Opened a position on Ebay - 5 calls 9/9 Closed the position on NFLX - 10 calls Not a bad week. DWA position has officially come back from the dead. The position is now worth more than the loss, something I haven't seen since before their earnings warning on 7/11. NFLX is the moneymaker for this week. i could have held on as i have a long-term target for the stock to hit 30, but for now, i think the market has gone up a little too fast and with expiration week next week.... If EBay closes in the low 37's (or lower), i may decide to cut my losses there and move on... not set in stone, but i'll deal with it when the time comes. Good Trading.
mini-update 9/12/2005: opened a put-position on GOOG GOOG Mar06 220 puts (gouod) - 7 puts @ 270/ea. risk-capital of $1890 long-term high-risk/high-reward play on goog plus hedge on bullish positions.