At times I feel so bad the market is so imbalanced. Consider AVNR which I watched this morning, and wanted to short at $6. The stock could not be shorted. Yet folks are allowed to only buy when it is obvious the stock has topped. So in desperation I had to buy 122 May puts (+AVQQA) at $0.60 per contract. Left a limit order to sell at 1.05 just before 2pm since I was going for a meeting. An hour later I came back, and my order has been filled and the stock continued all the way closing at 3.90. The option would have been worth $1.65 at the close. So I made 5.5K and left 7.3K on the table. Really hurts. Was just imagining what I could have made if I was able to short the stock.
Weekly Update for week 8 ended 4/20/2007 Speechless! How do you make a killing from your own blunder? I did that Friday. I bought 110 GOOG APR 490 PUTS at 5.60 shortly before noon eastern when GOOG was collapsing, got out six minutes later at 7.20. I thought I had made about 1.7K since my plan was to buy about 6K worth of options. Checked my account balance, it was up by more than 16K. Thought my broker has gone nuts. Was about to go outside my office and give them a call, but checked my trades again: 110 X 5.60 X 100 = 61.6K! Oh my gosh, I exposed 61.6K to options on expiry day instead of 6K! Glad the story ended on a positive note. The rest of the week was also profitable, the next best being a short on JASO after that solar euphoria on Monday. After 6 weeks of straight gains, my keyword for next week is CAUTION. There is a tendency for me to get sloppy at times like this and give back a good part of my gains to the market. Code: Balance B/F: 124,954 Profit for the week 40,116 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 165,070 Number of Trades 25 Number of Profitable Trades 18 Since Inception of Thread 2/25/2007 - 4/20/2007 Balance B/F: 76,636 Net Gain (Less Margin Interest) 101,434 Cash Withdrawal -13,000 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 165,070 Number of Trades 199 Number of Profitable Trades 131 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 107,779 Status: Ahead of Target Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER,ENTRYDATETIME,EXITDATETIME,QTY,PURCHASE AMOUNT, SOLD AMOUNT,NET GAIN,TYPE GOPPK,2007-04-20 11:52:22,2007-04-20 12:01:57,110,62000,79200,17003.80,PUT OPTION YHOO,2007-04-18 10:07:11,2007-04-18 12:17:00,10000,284400,281755,-2679.30,LONG
Wow, you're either one of the luckiest guys in the world, or else you're trying to communicate a rather unique and interesting trading style to the reades of your thread. JJ
Small plans have no magic in them - i wish you well. How about reviewing your feelings on trading simple calls / puts now and at the end of the year. From time to time i get on a roll with them myself and then there are times i would rather not think about.
After eight weeks of posting weekly summaries, you may determine what proportion is due to luck, and what is due to skill. In case you do not have enough data points to reach a conclusion, just keep visiting until there are enough weeks of data: I believe you have a good statistical analysis ability. I scaled back my options trading size considerably (until the blunder mentioned earlier). I am still not ready to accelerate the pedal yet. I will review my size upward as I see my performance there improving.
The following are the three top trades, already mentioned, which altogether netted me nearly 34K. The remaining 22 trades made a net of about 6K (15 winners, 7 losers). Code: Ticker Entry Date Exit Date Gain Type GOPPK 2007-04-20 2007-04-20 17003.80 Put Option (on GOOG APR 490) JASO 2007-04-16 2007-04-17 11329.50 Short AVQQA 2007-04-19 2007-04-19 5386.80 Put Option (on AVNR MAY 5)
Weekly Update for week 9 ended 4/27/2007 The play of the week was AMZN. Unfortunately did not play it very well. Shorted 2000 shares pre-market on Wednesday @ 51.65, covered after the market opened at 53.89 when I noticed the momentum - losing 4.5K, and then bought some call options (MAY 52.50 CALLS). If you can't beat them, join them. Right? Fortunately made 14K on those calls, only regret was not holding them long enough. Shorted 2800 shares again on the follow-up rally on Thursday @ 60.30, forced to cover again Friday at 62.30 for another loss of 5.5K. The bulls on that stock seemed to be on steroids. Still cannot figure out what is dramatic about that earnings report on this overvalued company. Someone obviously thinks AMZN will become the next Walmart soon. I have attached screen shots of my account balance, and GainsKeeper realised gains (their record seems to be behind by one day). Code: Balance B/F: 165,070 Profit for the week 31,634 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 196,704 Number of Trades 28 Number of Profitable Trades 20 Since Inception of Thread 2/25/2007 - 4/28/2007 Balance B/F: 76,636 Net Gain (Less Margin Interest) 133,068 Cash Withdrawal -13,000 ------------------------------------------------ Balance C/F: 196,704 Number of Trades 228 Number of Profitable Trades 151 Expected Balance at this time to be on track for Year-End Target : 112,472 Status: Ahead of Target Top two/Bottom two Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAINS TYPE ZQNEX 2007-04-25-10-10-10 2007-04-25-12-36-56 22000 63600 78100 14128.9 OPTION VSEA 2007-04-27-10-27-50 2007-04-27-12-58-12 4000 266400 270957.5 4513.3 LONG AMZN 2007-04-25-08-08-54 2007-04-25-10-05-52 2000 107796 103300 -4517.6 SHORT AMZN 2007-04-26-15-15-40 2007-04-27-10-57-32 2800 174426 168970.8 -5487.7 SHORT
I risk a max of 1.25%/trade and a max of 4 positions. you on the other hand, risk ur entire portfolio :|.