I just wanted to give you an 'at-a-boy! These are the kinds of days that used to maul your account. So, even though you're down, at least you didn't poop like an elephant. Lol
Busy day and lots of trading I ran out of time so I didnât get to post my results until the next day but it was a tough day will a key mistake in the open. I had some confusion with bids to cover BTH during the open and ended up pulling most of my bids as I thought many had been doubled up as I had bids entered at my home before I left for the office. So in my rush to âcorrect and balanceâ I removed almost all my bids that would have been hit getting my out of BTH at a gain. The gain during the open would have been good enough to more than offset the loss from the day before as well by a small amount. I was at the same time trading another two stocks all at the same time and missed that BTH gapped up intraday and moved higher to never come back.I traded it a few times back and forth but really thought it would fall apart during the day especially into the close. It did not and I took another heavy hit while holding some overnight again. Overall a tough day watching both MEE and BTH move opposite and against me. BTH â 933 C looked weak and it appeared that it could have some more downside followthrough after the run up so I closed out of C and thought I would buy some more either on Friday if lower or wait until Monday when earnings comes out. C has to really kill it with earnings or I fear that it could have some downward pressure. I would look at a downward move as a chance to buy though and especially so if it moves anywhere in the ball park of $4. + 130 LVS + 4 STEC + 28 UPS + 167 YUM + 7 I also repositioned my MEE options in light of the stock falling further. I covered much of April and moved to May as I want to keep this trade on. Basically what I have is a synthetic naked put which is usually better done cost wise by writing covered calls instead of shorting the puts outright. I pay more in commission by having two transactions but this is more than offset with increased flexibility (including making moves outside regular trading hours) and better fills as puts almost always have a larger spread and lower volume making it difficult to gain an advantage over covered calls. When puts are traded in volume (and they always are when there is a penny spread) and they have a penny spread then writing a simple put normally makes more sense as long as the IV is very close. MEE calls 45 apl + 364 46 aPL + 77 UPS APR 70C + 20 - 132
Wow GS lost about 28 Billion dollars in valuation in about 45 minutes I was trading the options and I was selling the puts as the IV was running well over 200%. I might next time in the same situation just buy the calls because if GS would have found no support it may have become ugly. As it turned out selling volatility was profitable and options could be traded right up to the final seconds. I canât wait for an exchange to start offering after hours trading in options. Market makers may not like that idea but the rest of us would do well for it. I covered most of BTH but held some over the weekend. â 196 GS 155P + 252 GS 160P + 156 GS 165P + 54 MEE 42P + 122 MEE 47C + 137 + 527
Trading results 4/19/10 Good day that looks bad I traded MEE today several times with an average buy better than sell so the trades turned out to be well done. I also brought my cost basis below the closing price so I am in the green with MEE now. I also wrote options against my MEE long and they are in the money as well. I ended up trading back and forth more than the amount of shares I was holding and I have a realized loss but I also have a large unrealized gain to mostly offset it and I am really liking this trade. I faded the dip well and the closing of MEE was great. So it doesnât look pretty today but the actual NAV improved nicely. â 1565 AIG long and stopped out + 16 BTH closed this one out. Not a good trade overall even though today was good. I bought and sold today and that included small size but as I looked into this stock the more I liked it for a hold. They have about 25 in cash / share and are making money. Not a big surprise it went as far as it did + 188 C I love vitamin C. I sold off my shares at 4.90 last week and after GS took the dump it did on Friday I decided to watch the earnings and if it was good I would buy. I did buy and traded around the core and now have more C and took a gain. Hopefully next stop will be above $5 as I felt and I guess so did others that the numbers reported well. I have a baseless feeling that perhaps morgan was selling off the Feds shares and that kept it from doing more. I know today would have been a day I would have if I was them. Of course that makes me think all the more better for C. + 80 Traded GS again today but I bought Calls just in case another shoe fell off. With a close eye on the IV I was quick to pull bids and put them on even though I probably paid a lot in fees. I should have done better but I didnât let any of the trades stay on long and I started out with my first GS trade today taking a $160 stop loss so I feel pretty good about trading it for much of the day and climbing out of the hole. + 25 - 1254
Stock trade alert Buying GS under 166 premarket and will be selling non front month puts with strikes near
Great day today I had two B8 signals which I hit the top with and while I didnât have many shares on the second one I was able to do well with the first. I repositioned by GS trade so that I would give up some gain for better protection from the downside and closed out some to lower the total trade. This was all done during what I would consider very good timing. I closed out the extra shares that did not have options written at a gain and changed over the covered calls before the drop in price so that I was able to ride the move down without getting beat up. C was showing weakness for much of the day and I ended up closing it out at 4.94 and will look to buy more at a lower price. $5 right now seems to be giving some real resistance and with MS selling the Feds C I would not be surprised to see a retrace before going through and staying through 5. MEE was pretty wild in after-hours trading. Not sure why as I left to go look at a house and will try to get caught up with it tomorrow. GS looks like they will be once again shown to be the smartest guys in the room. After listening to CNBC radio on the way to the office talk about Paulson Co. making statements that there was a meeting with the counter-party. C + 177 GS + 51 GS may 150P + 14 GS M165C â 41 IMAX + 209 ZION + 728 + 1140
Busy time right now and I missed that day. Glad you pointed it out as I use this journal to look back on. AAPL - 264 C + 73 CYH 1 GS - 758 MEE +26 GS M165C + 87 - 834