Hmmm... AAPL having a hard time. Probably a combination of a down day in the market and people a little bit spooked about a guy trying to sue them for hearing loss caused by an ipod. I mean, who would've thought that if you blast full volume music directly into your ear canal you might lose your hearing in time?!? That kind of stuff bothers me, but in any case, if AAPL breaks through support then I will be forced to adjust the position.
And they get rocked in after hours trading. Stock down >10% instantly. Low operating margins are catching up with them and the lack of that tax benefit really hurt. IMO, a simple case of a stock getting overvalued.
Today's Action Bought short leg AMZN back (2 contracts) for .05 Year to Date P/L Account Value: $10,145.10 YTD Gross P/L: 210.00 YTD Commiss: 64.90 YTD Net P/L: 145.10 YTD % P/L: 1.5% Not bad for a couple days. Somebody start a rumor that AMZN will have a record breaking year so that I can make money on my long calls now.
What was your AMZN position, and what is still open? Also, is your account value marked to market at the end of the day?
Well, I'm stuck here at work so I'll answer your question on this beautiful Saturday. The original position was : Sold 2 MAR 45 Bought 2 MAR 47.5 Credit: $1.10 I bought the 2 shorts back for 0.5/each and still have the 2 MAR 47.5 calls that are essentially worthless right now. So the position played out like this: Total credit $220 Debit to close $10 Net $210 Margin at Risk $280 Return on Margin 78.6% If everyone would like, I can include this much information with every trade. I can also include the b/a spread so you know where I'm trying to get in at. I will reemphasize the point that I most times stay away from earnings reports, but I wasn't really concerned about this one, and I was prepared to reverse the position if necessary.
My account value is not marked to market at the end of each day. I can do that if you'd like but I think it is often counterproductive when dealing with OTM spreads. Most times a loss on an OTM spread is merely a paper loss and won't be realized. Some people find value in knowing what the positions could be liquidated for right now. I do keep an eye on this, but it doesn't take into account any hedging strategies. I find it easier to keep regular posts on what I am thinking about my current plays.
What I find most interesting on ET is that people are always trolling through forums looking for threads that they can jump on and try to crap on someone's birthday cake. Whatever floats your boat as far as I'm concerned. I just think it's interesting because every time someone does something like this they get the same answer. ("It all comes down to risk management") Somehow that person thinks they are going to get a different response. Sometimes I just want to sit this person down and say, "LOOK....we know that you think you're 'the man' because you suppose yourself to be the only one smart enough to figure out that there are risks to a certain strategy. We could never aspire to the lofty realms of a genius like you, but 500 other 'geniuses' have already been here ranting about how smart they are, because they figured out we can lose money in the market. :eek: We appreciate you guys so much, because we never would've realized that was possible if you hadn't told us. But now that you've delivered your message you'd better go check under your matress to see if your money jar is still there. We know that it's too risky to go more than an hour without checking to make sure you haven't lost any money.