Sold half of the MO position @2.73 (stock price was ~52.10) Target still remains 54-55 ish. Might stall here or even go down a bit. So with selling half @110% profit, the other half becomes a free ride. JP
Sold MS @0.87 (stock price was ~42.03). After two weeks, this isn't exactly working out like expected. So it has to go. P/L on this trade: -7%
Monthly P/L: +13.01% (on account) Some good things happened, some less good things happened, and no really bad things happenend. The latter is perhaps the most important thing. A bit of an explosive and bumpy start perhaps, but I'll post some reflections on that later. Open position: Altria (MO) JP
I was away for a couple of days so the promised reflection on the bumpy start is a bit later. The chart above shows the first trade of the journal - Exxon Mobil (XOM) On the left side the stock price chart - on the right the March15 '19 75 Call option price chart. I believe it's good practice to check yourself and your trades from time to time. The entries and exits etc. are earlier in the journal, I've just put the arrows on the entries and exits. Although I made 50% on that position, the situation exactly a month later looks quite different. After entry, price jumped up (on earnings) and then I got scared out somewhat by what later turned out to be nothing more than a sort of gapclose a couple of days later. What was the plan ? According to the plan the earliest exit was possible around the 20th of Feb. So why did I sell ? In all honestly: I didn't wanted to start the journal with a loss. This resulted in a win but also at hitting the emergency brake at exactly the worst possible moment. (the option skyrocketed after that). So I guess there's a lesson here about the stress of maintaining a public journal with real $. No new positions due to lack of time to do my homework. JP
MO reached its initial target. But since it's going up in an otherwise red day so far, I think I'll hold on to it a bit longer. JP
weekly: I've used the S&P this time instead of the DJ, but the result is more or less the same. A big red bar last week, the first one in a while. Notice how it stopped on the 2810 area where october & november also bumped into. For me this is just a break in the upmove for now, not a trendreversal. JP
Currently on my watchlist for longs: Goldman Sachs (GS) & IBM. Also Estee Lauder (EL) - but that seems not suitable for an option play (spread is rather big) My trading decisions are (almost) entirely TA/PA driven. JP
GS - long 205 Apr18'19 CALL @2.80 (stock price was ~196.34) GS is moving sideways for almost two months now. I expect this to go higher within one week, max two weeks, moving above the consolidation zone. Otherwise the trade will be bogus for me. JP
On the left Altria (MO) as posted on feb 21st - on the right, today's graph. Sold rest of MO @$6.15 (stock price was ~56.10) P/L on this position +240% Doing nothing and sitting on your hands. So easy and yet so hard at the same time. JP
Excellent analysis of these stocks, good option choices, your doing a really good job. How did your trading consistency and profit hold up in the month of December 2018?