Weekly Update for week 35/50 ended 09/12/2009 Slow week, up 16K (4.4%). Not a lot happened in the holiday-shortened week as I was away from the system most of the time. A nice collection of single hits (11 gains out of 13 trades) was marred by a set-back on BIDU on Thursday. For the most part was fading the excess moves in select stocks using put options, and that worked fine until I was dazed by BIDU on thursday, as the stock kept climbing higher and higher to the close, blasting through its 52-week high. The strength in the market is incredible; there wasn't even a meaningful pull-back to buy into. Looking forward to next week. Code: Opening Balance: 364,366 Net gain for the week 16,495 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 380,861 Number of Trades 13 Number of Profitable Trades 11 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 09/12/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 60,797 (Up 19%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 380,861 Number of Trades 922 Number of Profitable Trades 576 TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE FHZUN 2009-09-08-09-31-55 2009-09-08-09-42-54 40000 128000 144000 15455 FCX PUT BPJUL 2009-09-09-09-52-23 2009-09-09-14-11-41 20000 177500 190000 12207 BIDU PUT ---------------------------------------------------- BPJUL 2009-09-10-10-13-22 2009-09-10-15-54-28 35000 217000 182250 -35245 BIDU PUT
I think everyone was looking for a pullback. I know I was today, and I was actually short. But it was mostly a wash, and we'll just have to see what next week brings. Good trading.
Weekly Update for week 36/50 ended 09/19/2009 Frenetic but ugly week, down 16K (4.3%). Lots of big moves, tried to end week positive, but it was not to be. The big losers were puts on FSLR on Monday, going in with the early weakness in the stock. Came again two days later when I thought it was due for another leg down. Missed it completely. Fortunately made up for these gaffers with calls on AMZN, AAPL and SPY, until friday. Got way ahead of myself on what was supposed to be a 50 contract trade on GOOG call. Ended up with 300 contracts on expiration day, and had -55K to show for it. Will be looking at why I failed to implement my sizing strategy over the week-end. Code: Opening Balance: 380,861 Net loss for the week -16,468 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 364,393 Number of Trades 25 Number of Profitable Trades 16 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 09/19/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 44,329 (Up 14%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 364,393 Number of Trades 947 Number of Profitable Trades 592 TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE QZNIQ 2009-09-16-12-36-45 2009-09-16-15-36-59 23000 91600 120750 28827 AMZN CALL APVIO 2009-09-16-11-55-54 2009-09-16-15-35-38 30000 199796 218890 18663 AAPL CALL SWGIX 2009-09-14-09-55-42 2009-09-14-10-43-57 40000 98980 114000 14469 SPY CALL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QHBUG 2009-09-14-10-49-40 2009-09-14-14-50-25 30000 155460 135000 -20874 FSLR PUT QHBUI 2009-09-16-09-30-28 2009-09-16-13-37-48 40000 121000 86000 -35564 FSLR PUT GOPIK 2009-09-18-09-30-19 2009-09-18-12-56-42 30000 180970 126000 -55398 GOOG CALL
God damn....that last GOOG call was a $55k loss in 3 and a half hours....I'm at a loss for words. I agree with your direction, but I think you pushed way too hard. Obviously it would have went lower, but if the position size wasn't so large, you probably could have made that a profitable week. So you bought at 9:30:19 today at a goog price of 495.5145 is the tick I have for that, and sold at 12:56:42 and I have a price of 494.1012. You lost $1.4133 on a $495.5145, or about 0.28522% loss, but on your account, you lost $55,398 from what I presume was about $436,259 or a percentage loss of 12.69842%. So your leverage was exactly .1269842/.0028522=44.5214922. Neke, this is an insane amount of leverage. I don't even think I've ever heard a professional surviving for long at that level. I would say you need to back off a bit. You've talked about trying to hit singles with the occasional home run, but you should think about starting every trade as a single, then you wouldn't run into the leverage issue.
Front month options on expiration Friday should be sold, not bought, because the decay becomes exponential.
It should have been apparent from the delta, too, but he was also wrong about the direction the underlying took.
No. There is not much time value left on expiration day. It is a pure directional play with huge leverage. You will never make big wins or losses that fast like neke.
Understood. It's a Hail Mary play, and one where averaging into a loser is a kind donation to fellow market participants.
That trade started as a 50 contract trade. Had I adhered to my policy, I should not have averaged in for a total of more than 100 contracts. Work still to be done on compliance with rules.