Haha im going global, I will be trading QQQ's in 20-share groups, to get a good feel of indextrading (I traded ESTOXX50 for a few days but the tick siez was too big for my likings and my heart was showing signs of weakness. That is not ok at age 18 ) sooo long 20QQQ @ 35.39 stop set at 35.29 Tiki
Whoa Nelly! You're only 18? Wow tiki, I thought you were much older. I have to admit I am very impressed that your trading options at that age. I never would have guessed. Where do you live again, Amsterdam? How is that perfect option position working for you? Are you legging into them?
Tiki, What's weighing on the Dutch market? The larger European indexes are within a percentage point of 52 week highs, but the AEX is about 5%. Are people fretting over the currency? I was there when it exploded to the upside on the weaker Guilder in the late 90's, so it doesn't surprise me that it could be lagging here. Still, with the world economy expected to have a good year in 04 I thought it would do a little better with Dutch companies having such large exposure internationally, growth outpacing a rising Euro. You're 18? Is option trading a required course for graduating from high school in the Netherlands? The Dutch are the only people I ever came across who knew what option market making was when I told them my job. Most of my friends here in the U.S. still don't have a clue what I did or even what an option is. But, I would meet non-finance Dutch people in the Netherlands and they would quickly stop me from explaining it because they already knew. Amazing.
Perfect option position, well, some of them are really being beauties (like RD, thats moving up big now, or AEGON, which is sitting nice and quiet), however MOO shows itself TOO choppy and underperforms. AEXL index just runs sweet. Basically, im interested in further developement of positions that have mutated quite a bit, and 'defending' the money! Arr! Oh, and I dont leg into the positions yet, still getting the feel of it! Tiki
Tiki, Where do you live over there? I am also very amazed at the knowledge dutch people have in options. In fact there are several of you on ET. I'm curious how you got into options as well. You must have had an internship somewhere, that is my guess. I would be shocked if they taught options at the high school level over there!
Trajan, Maverick; AEX ; whats weighting hard are the banks & insurance companies (AAB, AGN, FOR, ING), the big ole' oil company (RD) and ofcourse worldwide innoventor Philips (PHI), aside from that we've got a couple of worldwides (like AHOLD). No they dont teach SHIT about options or whatever in school. I learnt my stuff from my dad (buy & hold guy) and my late grandfather (who kept spreadsheats of everything over lots of years and made.. almost millions trading). I read alot and the fact that english is our very-well-spoken second language makes it easier for me to digg out stuff from the web. the AEX doesnt move that hard because dutchmen are sober motherfuckers (trading jews as you could say), so when we have a REAL rally, we do fucking have a rally cuz the whole nation is buying in. When we dont have one (like now) half of the investors is a bull and the other half is a bear, and the AEX is a low-volatility slave of the german/american markets cheers, Tiki
I raised the stop in the premarket to 35.39 , and the stop was hit. I am now flat QQQ, gross loss 0, net loss 2 bucks Tiki
AEXL option settlement price was set at 33.00, the options are settled in cash, and I expect that this baby (30/32/34 fly) breaked about even (I dont know because tws didnt track this one and, for the shame of me, neither did I). Monday I will put on a new fly for january. 32/34/36 probably. Besides my trading, comments and advices on my stuff are very welcome, dont be shy people! Tiki
Well Happy new year everyone! Today the markets are trading again and I thought it would be a good idea to give an insight in my positions, and update all of you on the plans for the next couple of months! MONEY!: Current 'positions': Cash balance: ~1600 EUR Securities options net val.: +/+ ~200 EUR Futures options net val.: +/+ ~ 50 EUR Plans: Over january I'll be adding some more cash (because IB holds a rule you need at least 2000usd to open new positions, and im now on the edge of that, it would be a shame to see a position fall, and because of that NOT be able to hedge it off because you cant open a position, eh!) Just some money to be sure, so I think about 500-1500 EUR FUTURES OPTIONS: Current 'positions': Long: AEXL P Apr04 30.00 x 2 AEXL C Apr04 34.00 x 2 Short: AEXL P Apr04 32.00 x 1 AEXL C Apr04 32.00 x 1 Underlying: AEXL @ 33.80, no position in it. Plan: Opening positions on this one will mean no more money to open others (see above, I really need some extra backup funding quick - hehe), and 'leasing' frontmonth short backspreads will be put on as soon as the margin money is refunded. SECURITIES OPTIONS: Van der Moolen: Current positions: Long: MOO P Jan04 6.00 x 1 MOO C Jan04 8.00 x 1 MOO P Apr04 5.00 x 2 MOO C Apr04 7.00 x 2 Short: MOO P Jan04 7.00 x 1 MOO C Jan04 7.00 x 1 MOO P Apr04 6.00 x 1 MOO C Apr04 6.00 x 1 Underlying: MOO @ 7.13, no positions Plan: Keep op leasing this baby. If it rallies more, the short flies will probably be short condors for february. Royal Dutch: Current Positions: Long: RD P Jan04 38.00 x 1 RD C Jan04 42.00 x 1 RD P Apr04 36.00 x 2 RD C Apr04 40.00 x 2 Short: RD P Jan04 40.00 x 1 RD C Jan04 40.00 x 1 RD P Apr04 38.00 x 1 RD C Apr04 38.00 x 1 Underlying: RD @ 41.89, no positions Plan: See van der moolen. Philips: Current positions: Long: PHI P Jan04 22.00 x 1 PHI C Jan04 26.00 x 1 PHI P Apr04 22.00 x 2 PHI C Apr04 26.00 x 2 Short: PHI P Jan04 24.00 x 1 PHI C Jan04 24.00 x 1 PHI P Apr04 24.00 x 1 PHI C Apr04 24.00 x 1 Underlying: PHI @ 23.31, no positions Plan: See van der Moolen Aegon: Current positions: Long: AGN P Jan04 11.00 x 1 AGN C Jan04 13.00 x 1 AGN P Apr04 11.00 x 2 AGN C Apr04 13.00 x 2 Short: AGN P Jan04 12.00 x 1 AGN C Jan04 12.00 x 1 AGN P Apr04 12.00 x 1 AGN C Apr04 12.00 x 1 Underlying: AGN @ 11.74, no positions Plan: See van der Moolen Hagemeyer: Current positions: Long: HGM C Oct05 1.20 x 2 Underlying: HGM @ 1.85, no positions Plan: After added margin money, backspreads to rent the position. after big moves -> lock in money with puts hgm is a big boomer candidate here (or a go-broke one, lol!) Deutsche Telekom: Current positions: Long: DTE P Jun04 14.00 DTE C Jun04 14.00 Underlying: DTE @ 14.66, no positions Plan: See HGM, only backspreads to 2 sides. OVERALL PLAN: Well, 2003 being my first trading year (from october or so..) it has been ... very interesting, I found out about crap brokers and a need to have one that suits your needs, I lost some money, I made some money, I learnt I am not as cool-headed as I thought and I gained a lot of insight in the stuff I trade. Adding money is a big one here, not for the cash itself, mostly for the room to be able to put on a lot of positions, I am 'renting' a lot of positions now, but doing this put the margin money so tight that if I open a new position now, i risk not being able to put the next one on, therefore I keep some of them open to be able to make an EMERGENCY trade if it is needed. On the positions I trade, I tried Futures (ESTOXX), broke even, and decided that (I gained 13 points, then in a MAD RUSH lost em all in half an hour) I am not the person for that game (yet..?) and quit it. Also tried smaller sized ETF's (QQQ, SPY), but even there I cant STAND That I just dont know whats gonna happen, and having heart problems at my virile young age from worries over a couple of bucks is not worth it for me! Options, ahhh gotta love em Having traded and still trading the 'perfect option position' (AEXL, RD, MOO, AGN, PHI) I very much like the concept op renting options and having unlimited upside. BUT! I REALLY dislike the gap between the profit zones, and feel there are better ways to have a potential unlimited upside while you are still able to rent the options, and i'm testing that on HGM & DTE. That all said, number one priority is being able to trade and that means defending my money like Uncle Scrooge! (or dagobert duck as we call him ), and that is exactly what i am going to do the new year! Happy trading to all in 2004, and lets hope we are the ones stealing the money from the unfortunate (har har!) Tiki