December 26

Quick update on my stock suggestions

I told you to buy BAC at $15.85 and sell the $16 call for $.47. BAC closed on expiration at $15.03 which means you would be down 35 cents or -2.21% on your initial position.

F closed at $9.68 which means you would have been called away and made $.39 per share, a gain of 4.53% or an annualized yield of 61.6%

I was assigned on my 300 shares of AA due to my covered call. This was an extremely profitable trade for me and I'm said to see AA go which lead me into my next trade.

Sold short 3 AA Jan '16 $14 Puts for $.25 on 12/21 which netted me $62.74 after commissions. I will have to buy 300 shares of AA at $14 on the third week of January if the stock is trading below $14.

-update up 34.09% or $29.75 after 2 days

Bought to cover an earlier trade. 2 MS Jan'16 $33 Calls for $.08 for a cash outflow of $27.50. Total profit in this trade including commissions was $22.29 for a 7 day trade.

-update on my 5 MS Jan'16 $31 Calls. Down 66.92% on this disastrous trade.

Only 4 more trading days for the year. Good luck everyone.

Not good not good

Market has been tanking this week and my portfolio has been going down with it. A couple of trades to report.

12/16 - Bought to Cover 3 BAC Jan 10 $15 Puts (BYOMO) for $.45 for a profit of $17.49, 10.62% or 553.59% annualized.

12/16 - Sold Short 2 MS Jan 10 $33 Calls (MSAA) for $.31. Up 22.45% so far.

The calls I bought on MS which I figured might be a mistake is turning out to be a huge mistake so far. Down 47.87% so far.

12/17 - Sold Short 3 BAC Feb 10 $15 Puts (BYONO) for $.88. This is really the same position taken earlier but I took my profits in the January contract and just rolled it out one month to February to give me some extra time to be right and lower my risk

Collected $46.60 in dividends from PGH and OLN in the last two days. I have collected $647.67 in dividends so far this year.

More Trades

The three contracts from my Dec 9th trade is doing ok right now. Here it is if you don't remember....

Sold Short 3 BAC Jan 10 $15 puts (BYOMO)

up $20.74 or 10.96% so far.

I also made a trade which hopefully won't turn out to be crazy. I know you should never say hopefully as an investor/trader and I would be sad if this blows up in my face.

Bought to Open 5 MS Jan 10 $31 calls (MSAH) @ $.97 or $498.76 cash outlay including commissions. I need MS to turn around and start going up.

Update on my 3 covered calls on AA. AA has been on a tear as of late and it jumped over the $14 strike I sold on 11/25 for $.15. Unless something turns around with AA, it looks like I'll be called away on this trade just like my earlier 200 shares of AA a couple of months ago.

If I end up getting assigned I will have made $617.27 or 16.02% return on my money or 42.82% annualized gains off of a 137 day holding period....and it definitely looks like I'm getting assigned.

December 9th Trade

New trade established today

Sold Short 3 BAC Jan 10 $15 Puts (BYOMO) @ $.59 which brought in $164.74 after commissions.

I will be on the hook the third week of January to buy 300 shares of BAC at $15 or $4,500 if the stock is trading below $15. With the premium I took in and not including commissions it will be $14.41 or with commission it would be $14.52 which would be protection of 5.65% to downside with today's close of $15.39.

I'm not looking to hold this trade till the close. Trying to make at least 50% on the trade and then I'll close it out.

ETFC Put closing transaction

Late Trade Report from December 1st.

I bought to cover 28 contracts for ETFC Jan '10 $1.50 puts. (EUSMY) @ $.10 which was for a profit of $105.78 or 2.52% off of a theoretical $4,200 if I was assigned all 28 contracts. An annualized yield of 61.2% annual.

November Recap

DOW up 632.11
S&P 500 up 59.44
Portfolio up $1,8722.77

3 High Days

11/9 $1,067.34
11/5 $872.81
11/16 $856.36

3 Low Days

11/27 $955.08
11/19 $898.20
11/12 $495.17

20 trading days for November with 2 trades this month. I collected $27.20 in dividends this month which were all reinvested and paid $12.80 in margin interest of an average balance of $1,861. Again, this month was my lowest margin balance since August. I have not been opening up new long positions but selling short covered calls and collecting premium.

The portfolio is up $10,805.35 this year after losing money last month. I have had 4 losing months this year and 7 winning months. My best quarter to date has been the 3rd quarter when the portfolio gained $7,322.22 over the three month period. The 2 months so far in this 4th quarter has seen the portfolio slow down and grow only $260.38.

Annualized gain for the portfolio is now $11,787.65 with one month left to go.

My two picks for November were AA and DUK. AA was up $.10 with a dividend of $.03. Up less than 1% while the broader market gained 5.7%. DUK was up $.86 or 5.4%. Both suggestions lagged the market.

My suggestions for December are BAC and F which closed in November at $15.85 and $8.89, respectively. Buy these and sell the strike price covered calls at $16 for BAC and $9 for F. You will get $.47 for BAC and $.28 for F.

If both of these get called away the annualized yields are (before commissions)

BAC (16-(15.85-.47) = (.62/15.85)/26 * 365 *100= 54.91%
F (9-(8.89-.28)=(.39/8.89)/26 * 365 * 100= 61.59%

Trade on November 25

Made on trade that I didn't report on November 25Th. I sold a covered call on my 300 AA shares.

SS 3 AA DEC 09 $14 Calls (AALN) for $.15.

This traded netted out $32.74 in premium after commissions and I'm on the hook to sell all 300 shares of AA the third Friday of December if its trading at $14 or above. The stock was selling around $13.07 at the time of the trade.

November 18

Had a trade that I didn't report that was made yesterday during lunch.

Put a trade in to SELL SHORT 30 ETFC Jan 10 $1.50 puts (EUSMY) @$.16 limit order

I made trade at 1:12 pm and it executed right before the close at multiple times around 3:50 pm. I didn't get filled all at once and I actually had 2 contracts expire without transacting which means my order filled on 28 contracts. At the time of my fills, ETFC was trading around $1.55 which means they were $.05 out of the money.

The cash in on this short trade after commissions is $416.88. I'll be looking to cover this trade should ETFC come back down to $1.50 so that I can lower my risk. I'm betting that ETFC will not come back down to $1.50 which means I will be able to buy back this position for less money. So far this trade has been profitable as ETFC shot up today to close at $1.69 and the puts have traded down to $.12. Including the commissions on the way in, my position is up $80.89.

First Trade for November

From November 13th

Made my first trade of the month which closed out a position opened on October 28.

1. SS 30 ETFC Nov 09 $1.50 puts (EUSWY) for $.10 or $267.38 cash in after commissions.

Today I closed the position by buying to cover my 30 short contracts

2. BC 30 ETFC Nov 09 $1.50 puts (EUSWY) for $.04 or $152.61 cash out after commissions.

Just to recap the trade. I didn't think ETFC was going to trade below $1.50 for November expiration so I sold someone to the right to sell me ETFC for $1.50 come the third week of November. I am betting that it will be higher while the other side of the trade is either betting ETFC will be lower than $1.50 or they are buying insurance to protect themselves from ETFC going below $1.50.

This trade was executed at 10:49 in the morning as a limit trade. I put the order in before the market as a limit order saying that I will only buy it back at $.04 or lower. At the time, ETFC was trading for approximately $1.53 so this trade was OTM at the time.

My profit on this position after all my commissions was $114.77 or 42.92% on a 16 day trade.

I also had a dividend hit on MS on November 13 of $10.04 which was reinvested.

No trades for November yet. I still have my two covered calls on AA and MS on which expire on the 20th. I will then sell two more covered calls on these stock for December if I don't get called away on these trades.

I'm up on my ETFC trade as of right now. $117.38 or 35.29% after commissions so far. This position is a short put which means I have the obligation to purchase the shares at a certain price. If the stock is trading below my strike price, I will have to buy them at the strike price and immediately have a loss on my hand. If the stock is trading above my strike price then the other party would not make me by the stock at my lower strike which would lock in a loss for them.

My strike is for $1.50 and right now ETFC is trading for $1.55. What to do? What to do?

October Recap

DOW up 00.45

S&P down 20.89

Portfolio down $1,612.39

3 High Days

10/29 $1,418.08

10/22 $864.24

10/5 $782.36

3 Low Days

10/28 $1,550.63

10/30 $1,224.76

10/1 $1,166.00

22 trading days in the month of October with 7 trades this month. I collected $65.96 in dividend income which were all reinvested and paid $28.87 in margin interest with an average margin balance of $4,335. I had 2 covered call plays expire worthless and one get assigned on 200 shares of AA. I put the gain in my previous write up.

I ended the month with -$1,89.41 of margin which was helped by getting assigned on my AA covered call. Its the lowest I've been since August 3rd.

The portfolio took a backward step this month, the first time since June. I am up $8,932.58 for the year which annualized to $10,719.10.

My thoughts for November is the same as October. Go hide out in some good companies with stocks that pay dividends. Here were my two picks last month. AA was down 6.25% or $.82. DUK was up 1.39% or $.22. AA was killed on the dollar play but its not going anywhere crazy anytime soon. Buy either one of these stocks or both just like last month and sell some covered calls.

October Trades

I was keeping a journal of my trades and some of my thoughts this month. Below is my log:

October 6 – Sell short 3 AA Oct 09 $15 calls (aajc) for $.35 $92.74 after commissions.

October 8 – Sell short 2 MS Oct 09 $33 calls (MSJA) for $.35 $58.49 after commissions.

I’m selling volatility here and capping my upside potential because I don’t think I will be called away on these two trades. Even if I am, I’m still increasing my yield and collecting what is essentially $.30 in dividends for both AA and MS when they are yielding $.03 and $.05 in quarterly dividends, respectively.

October 16 – My 2 contracts for AA Oct 09 $12.50 calls (AAJA) were called away. I sold this call for $.90 back on July 31. I bought the 200 shares of AA for $10.42 on July 1^st. After commissions I made a profit of $554.44 or 26.48% on this trade. Not included is $6 in dividends which would bring the total to $600.44 or 26.76%.

October 17 – My contracts that I sold short on the 6^th and 8^th of October expired worthless for a profit of 92.74 and $58.49.

October 21 – Sell Short 3 MS Nov 09 $37 calls (MSKL) for $.25 $38.49 after commissions.

October 26 – Dividends hitting the account from GE and PNC of $31.45 and $.31, which were both, reinvested buying 2.0410 shares of GE and .0060 shares of PNC.

October 27 – Interest from margin was 28.87, which was taken from my account. I had an averaged debit balance of $4335 for the last month.

Sell short 3 AA Nov $14 calls (AAKN) for $.20 $47.74 after commissions.

October 28 – Sell short 30 ETFC Nov 09 puts (EUSWY) for $.10 $267.38 after commissions.

September Recap

DOW up 216.00
S&P 500 up 36.46
Portfolio up $2,083.09

3 High Days

9/16 $933.46
9/8 $849.49
9/3 $693.94

3 Low Days

9/1 - $1,966.15
9/24 - $1,195.49
9/30 - $426.88

21 trading days for September and another slow trading month for me. I made 0 trades. I collected $69.94 in dividends for the month which were all reinvested, paid $33.66 in margin interest and have an outstanding margin balance of -$4,846.32.

Year to date performance has been so-so. The Portfolio is up $10,544.97 for 9 months of the year which if I can keep up, is $14,059.96 annualized.

They say that this has been the best quarter for the market in decades and that October is going to be a brutal month for the equity markets. Then again, that's what they said about September. If things start going bad, I would hide out in dividend paying stocks that have low volatility. Some of my favorites would be DUK and AA. Both of which I personally own

August Recap

Dow up 324.67
S&P 500 up 33.14
Portfolio up $2,549.25

3 High Days

8/24 $849.49
8/18 $692.13
8/3 $662.13

3 Low Days

8/17 -$1,045.92
8/11 -$796.22
8/10 -$226.91

21 trading days for August and a slow trading month for me. I made 11 trades with 6 closing trades and an option expiration for a net profit of $756. I collected $35.64 in dividends for the month which were all reinvested and have an outstanding margin balance of -$4,812.66.

Year to date performance has been so-so. The Portfolio is up $9,396.36 for the 8 months of the year which if I can keep up, is $14,094.54 annualized.

July Recap

DOW up 724.61

S&P 500 up 68.16

Portfolio up $2,689.88

3 High Days

7/13 $1,146.14

7/30 $1,074.52

7/15 $948.49

3 Low Days

7/2 $971.99

7/7 $874.55

7/28 $554.53

22 trading days for July with 14 trades for the month. I made 6 closing trades with no losers and a total of $340 in profits. $1,568.43 is what I was left with at the end of the month in Margin. In addition to my trades, I received $64.26 in dividends, all reinvested.

June Recap.

Tuesday 6/30

DOW down 82.38, S&P 500 down 7.91 and the Portfolio was down 178.86. Again I offered to buy to close my S position but the bid never hit. I will look to close this out next week, hopefully getting it for $.20.

Monthly Recap JUNE

DOW down 53.33
S&P 500 up .18
Portfolio down $818.93 (not counting the $2,000 I took out)

3 High days
6/12 $1,071.64
6/4 $699.74
6/11 $576.59

3 Low days
6/22 $1,173.57
6/15 $1,082.78
6/17 $949.62

22 trading days this month and I finished the month doing less than 20 trades because of my lack of conviction about the movement of the markets. Hopefully, July will be a better month.

Monday 6-29

Last day before the end of the month. I will have some statistics for everyone for June tomorrow which is looking pretty anemic compared to April and May.

Dow up 90.99, S&P 500 up 8.33 and the Portfolio up $219.12.

Not much going on. I'm looking to close that S put open position and lay low before the end of the quarter. Don't want to waste money and time just making trades to make them when there will probably be low volume till the end of the week due to the July 4th holiday.

Weekly Recap

FRIDAY 6/26

DOW down 34.01 points, S&P 500 down 1.36 points and the Portfolio was up $278.97. It was great to end the week on a little bit of an upswing after getting so beaten up the week before. Nothing really popped in the portfolio but nothing dropped either which led to the small gain.

The short I put on Wednesday really performed for me on Friday. Here is how it is going so far. I actually put a bid of $.25 to clean up the position on Friday but it never hit.

Sold short S July 09 $5 Put (SSA) up 38.53%

This is really the only trading position I have on right now. I will look to clean this up next week and take my profits.

WEEKLY RECAP 6/22 - 6/26

DOW down 101.34

S&P 500 down 2.33

Portfolio down $1,927.03 (I took out $2,000 so I was up $72.97

Trades 1

Trades closed N/A

Wins N/A

Loses N/A

Dividends N/A

Interest due to Margin $11.68

Updates for Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday 6/24

DOW down 23.05, S&P 500 up 5.84 and the Portfolio was down $212.97 not including two grand that I took out for some personal use.

Remember the trade I talked about yesterday? Selling short the S July 09 $5 put by offering $.50 and it never hitting. Well today S went down again and this time I offered $.55 and got hit. So now I'm short 5 contracts @ $.55 which is much better than had I chased it down yesterday just to make a trade. Other than that, not much happening.

Thursday 6/25

Monster day in the markets. Dow up 172.54, S&P 500 up 19.32 and the Portfolio was up $509.62. The markets had their best days in weeks as the testimony from Ben Bernanke helped shore up the markets with his confidence and the possibility of a reappointment once his term is up in January.

No trades or dividends today.

June 23

Treasury auction of 2 year notes were a success today which helped raise the indexes. The DOW still managed to close lower for the end of the day after being in negative territory since about 2:30pm. DOW was down 16.10 with the S&P 500 up 2.06 points. The portfolio barely eeked out a gain with the help of MS and BAC to close up $244.98. Still a far cry from the YTD highs.

No trades today. Offered $.50 for the July 09 $5 Puts for S but it never hit so I took it off. No sense in chasing anything to the downside in this market.

Back from my Bday Vacation

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I know I didn't tell you, but I kind of went on a two week bender for my birthday. I'm getting old I know. I'll post some summaries

DOW

6-11 up 31.90

6-12 up 28.34

6-15 down 187.13

6-16 down 107.46

6-17 down 7.49

6-18 up 58.42

6-19 down 15.87

S&P 500

6-11 up 5.74

6-12 up 1.32

6-15 down 22.49

6-16 down 11.75

6-17 down 1.26

6-18 up 7.66

6-19 up 2.86

Portfolio

6-11 up $576.59

6-12 up $1,071.64

6-15 down $1,082.78

6-16 down $871.29

6-17 up $949.62

6-18 up 37.26

6-19 down $395.94

Trades none. Just hanging out really. Losing crazy money left and right.

6-22

DOW was down today huge over 200 points at 200.72, S&P 500 down over 3% at 28.19 to close below 900 points and the Portfolio was down $1,173.57. Not a good day for the markets. This may be the start of the correction that the pros see. A huge negative technical indicator with the S&P 500 closing below 900. The thing to look out for here is to see if the index can rebound at 870 which would be a very bullish move for the market.

No trades today in the portfolio but I need to update you guys on a couple of transactions. My AA put expired OTM which means I made 100% on that trade minus commissions. My BAC put that I used for protection and my upside BAC call both expired worthless for a loss of over $1,200!

Dividends for DUK and PGH hit last week for $35.65 and $11.74, respectively. Both are on a DRIP plans which mean the dividends automatically buy as many shares as they can without hitting commissions.

The FOMC is meeting as we speak and the treasuries are planning three days this week of huge debt issues of the 2s the 5s and the 7s if I'm not mistaken.

This will be a huge issue this week and the dollar should weaken. Beard (Ben Bernanke) will be very important this week on what he says about inflation. I wouldn't be net long equities. 

Up Early Then Down

The indices all start up early but are unable to hold on to their early gains. The DOW was down 24.04, S&P 500 was down 3.28 and the Portfolio was down $36.80. The Portfolio was up with the rest of the market early almost $500.

I made two trades today. Both of them were closing out those previous positions in GE. Here is how they shook out after commissions.

Bought to Close GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) 6.78%

Bought to Close GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 31.91%

Nothing that is going to shake up my portfolio, but gains are gains.

I also closed out my MS covered call today. I will post a picture of how I've used options to lower my cost basis on this trade on my way to making 100% (hopefully).

OLN dividend should hit tonight of around $20. Feels good getting some dividends again.

Tuesday June 9th

DOW down for the day 1.43 points while the S&P 500 was up 3.29. Portfolio was up a respectable $260.17 on help from ETFC up 5.52% and short options going in my favor.

Here are the three options I have been mentioning for the last week. Again, I tried to close out both GE positions but have not received favorable pricing. I still think I can eke out some more money out of both these trades.

Short AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) 74.80%
Short GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) 9.01%
Short GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 25.42%

We are 8 trading days out from June option expiration (19th) and I don't think I will have to close out that AA position. It will probably expire worthless. I still haven't made moves in a couple of days. I haven't really seen anything that I've liked enough to buy. With the low volume in the market and the steady but small upticks, I feel a correction is literally right around the corner. The last thing I want for my portfolio is to go into a correction with more long positions.

One thing that I have been wondering for a long time now is jumping back into stocks that pay healthy dividends. I have been burned pretty bad this last year with my dividend stocks (BAC, PGH, MS and PNC) but I am constantly scouring the board for potential plays.

I have collected $312.69 in dividends as of May 31, 2009. Hardly enough to retire on. Its time to beef this up.

June 8

DOW up 1.36 points after being down all day, S&P 500 down .95 and the Portfolio was down $4.60.

The markets were down all day and were only able to lift themselves closer to green in the final minutes of the trading day. No trades for my portfolio but I did try and close two positions out. Again, my limit order was never hit and I continue to hold these trades. I'm just waiting for the perfect and most profitable time to exit the trades.

Short AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) 71.44%
Short GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) 4.14%
Short GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 21.46%

I still have my eye on going long YHOO. Just waiting for a little more consolidation

Friday Update and Weekly Recap 6/1 - 6/5

Friday

DOW up 12.89, S&P 500 down 2.37 and the Portfolio down $24.75. Jobs report came out wish helped the markets early but the markets weren't able to keep it up for the entire day. No trades today. Here are those options I have been talking about.

Short AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) 71.44%

Short GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) 6.09%

Short GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 18.82%

Weekly Recap 6/1 - 6/5

DOW  up 262.80

S&P 500 up 20.95

Portfolio up $463.21

Trades 0

Trades Closed 0

Winners 0

Losers 0

Dividends $5.28

I know I haven't been very active with the portfolio. I really wasn't sure on the direction of the market. I will be looking to go long YHOO and possibly doing a buy write (buy the stock and immediately sell covered calls)

6/4/2009 Update

DOW up 74.96, S&P 500 up 10.70 and the Portfolio was up $699.74. Again, not a bad day. My hedges were working perfectly and my stocks were moving in the right direction. I'll have a good update tomorrow for the Friday and weekly recap.

Streak Broken

The indexes have gone done for the first time in 4 days. A correction I think we all saw in advance. The market was getting a little ahead of themselves. Some news came out that was pretty closely watched that turned out kind of bad, ADP jobs number. Unemployment numbers come out tomorrow morning and hopefully they will be okay.

DOW down 65.59, S&P 500 down 12.98 and the Portfolio was down 463.39

Here are the three positions I reported on yesterday. (No trades today)

Short AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) 61.35%

Short GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) 4.14%

Short GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 18.82%

Again, no trades planned for tomorrow. Not time to go long just yet.

Monday and Tuesday update first days of June

Tuesday

DOW up 19.43, S&P 500 up 1.87 and the Portfolio was down $176.89. No trades again today. I tried to close three positions today and run away with my profits but never made a move. Here is how they closed

Short AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) 68.07%

Short GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWIH) -3.64%

Short GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 14.86%

Everything else was pretty unchanged. I'm probably going to leave all trades in play and clean them up on Monday. Still not sure on the direction of the market so I'm probably not going to make too many moves until option expiration in 2 1/2 weeks.

Monday

Missed a day yesterday. Sorry about that. Not a big day for the portfolio for Monday June 1st but a huge day for the indexes. DOW up a huge 221.11, S&P 500 up a huge 23.73 points and the Portfolio was up $428.50.

No trades today. Just trying to buy back my AA June $8 put (AARH) to close it out but it never went down far enough. Third day up for the indexes in a row.

Monthly Recap

Monthly Recap May

DOW up 332.21
S&P 500 up 46.33
Portfolio up $2,267.41

3 high days of the month
$2,744.90
$2,649.62
$2,148.46

3 low days of the month
-$2,817.86
-$2,219.25
-$1,057.82

The volatility in my portfolio has really come down. 8 trading days of over +- $1,000 (20 trading days) compared to 14 in April (21 trading days) and 2 (out of the 3 days I tracked) in March. I believe it has to do with not only the lower volatility in the overall market, but my heavier reliance on options to hedge my positions.

FRIDAY

Volatile day. Market wouldn't make up its mind on which direction it was going to go. It was up and then it was down. Ended the day up huge though

DOW was up 96.53, S&P 500 up 12.31 and the Portfolio was up $165.79. No trades today. Looked to buy back my puts but decided against it.

Wednesday

Horrible day today. Woke up and checked my accounts to see a margin call or house call from my broker. A margin call or house call is when you borrow too much money and you don't have sufficient equity. Think of being underwater on a house and owing way more money than you put down as a down payment. There is only one problem....I should have never received a margin call. I had plenty of equity as of yesterday and I made money yesterday!!!

I don't have time to call customer service to ask and I am thinking that if I can make the first move, I can sell the assets I want instead of being forced to sell something I may not want to. I immediately sell my BAC and V stake to bring my account in line but I'm trapped out of my account all day long. When I do have the time to call my broker, I'm on hold for over 7 minutes. I constantly look at my account, how could I have had a margin call? I finally get on with a rep and explain my situation. He tells me its been happening to people all morning and that its a FUCKING COMPUTER GLITCH!!!!!!!!!! FML!!! I am furious now. I tell him that I would have never sold my stock if this was the case and that I want my money back from my commissions at least. He tells me to stay on the line and he will talk to someone. I'm waiting for 3 minutes on hold and next thing I know....click. Motherfuckers!!!!

Remember when I was telling everyone I wanted to pay down my $10K margin debt? Done. My goal this year is to pay down $17,000 of debt. Looks like I should up it to $20,000.

Markets were getting punished all day with more news from GM and its impending bankruptcy.
DOW down 173.47, S&P 500 down 17.27 and the portfolio was down $14.21.

Two trades.....BAC and V. I hope tomorrow is a better day

Tuesday

First day of trading after the holiday yesterday. I hope everyone had a good memorial day. Consumer confidence index came out today higher than expected. It was expected to go from 40 to 42 and it ended up being in the 50s. This is good news that people are more confident in the economy. Prices for homes have dropped another 18%.....It might be a good time to buy a house, in another 8 months.

DOW up 196.17, S&P 500 up 23.33 and portfolio up $159.73. Ho hum.

I'm looking to buy back my two GE covered calls and either rolling them out a couple of months or just waiting for it and trying to do it again in a couple of weeks. I'm not going to buy back those AA puts. I think AA will keep moving up and I'll make 100% minus commissions on that trade.

Weekly Recap 5/18 - 5/22

Weekly Recap 5/18 - 5/22

DOW up 8.68
S&P 500 up 4.12
Portfolio up $499.66

Trades 1
Trades Closed 0
Winners N/A
Losers N/A

Dividends $23.09

One trade this week. Sold Short AA June 09 $8 Puts (AARH) for $.27. I will have to buy AA for $8 in the third week of June if this trade goes bad. If it goes good. AA will be over $8 and no one will "assign" me to buy the shares and I will have made 100% of my premium minus commissions.

Wednesday and Thursday

First thing first... Who watch the Magic-Cav game last night??? Was that great or was that great?

Thursday

Dow down 129.91
S&P 500 down 15.14
Portfolio down $662.28

Had two orders lined up but neither of them hit. Both were buy orders to close out short covered calls against GE. Both expire in Sep but one is for $15 and the other $16. Missed buy a lot, but I'm in no rush to buy them back just yet.

Wednesday

Dow down 52.81
S&P 500 down 4.66
Portfolio down $78.20

No trades today. Just a quiet $500 intraday swing

Tuesday Update

Had some mistakes yesterday on my spreadsheet. Looks like my portfolio was up yesterday $2,148.46. Sorry about the confusion. All it means is that my loss today is even bigger then when I first tried to calculate it.

DOW down 29.23, S&P 500 down 1.58 and the Portfolio was down $574.18. No trades today. Had those covered calls for MS move against me today in a big way. MS was up 2.23% and now this June call I sold is ITM (in the money) and moved 20.98% today alone. I'm still in the money myself. I sold the call for $1.70 at a strike price of $28 so I would still be making more money on anything under $29.70 selling this call.

The VIX (volatility index) just dipped below 30 for the first time in a long time. This is going to start dropping the prices of options. Time to implement your options strategy is now!!!1

Friday and Weekly Recap. 5/18 post

Monday 5-18

Huge day in the markets today. BAC was upgraded to a buy and Lowes posted better than expected earnings. What you can infer from the Lowes' earning report is that Americans are spending money on their houses. The consensus around the "financial" fireplace is in order for America to get back on track, housing has to get back on track. Lowes' earnings may turn out to be the proof the markets needed that America is close to being back on track.

DOW up 235.44, S&P 500 up 26.83 and the Portfolio was up $2,099.10. Is it time to get long again? I'm not so sure. This is a massive run up for a day and we may see some pullback as early as tomorrow. No trades today but here are some updates

GE Sep 09 $15 Call (GEWH) -4.62% (cumulative, short this position)
GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) 8.26% (cumulative, short this position)

As you can see, I am short this two options (covered calls on my GE position). I'm not worried about the day to day movement of these. The only thing I would be concerened about would be to buy these back if I wanted to hang on to my GE position.


WEEKLY RECAP 5/11 - 5/15

DOW down 306.04
S&P 500 down 26.36
Portfolio down $7,039.19

Trades 3
Trades Closed 1
winners 1
losers 0

Dividends $13.33


Friday 5-15

DOW down 62.68, S&P 500 down 10.19, Portfolio down $1,057.82. No trades today. Dividend should hit tonight for MS.

couple of days

Sorry about the delayed posting. I have been pretty busy this week and haven't had the time to post anything. I'll start with Tuesday

Tuesday

Dow up 50.34
S&P 500 down .89
Portfolio down $1,521.23

Bought to close my BAC May 09 $16 Call for $.02. I was thinking that I could let this option expire worthless on Friday, but why take a chance for the extra two cents? I just want to minimize my risk at this point in the game and not maximize my profits. profit of 69.24%

Bought to open 5 contracts of BAC June 09 $15 Call for $.66. Thought BAC would take a quick turn up...I know can see writing this today (Thursday) this was a classic rookie mistake. I should have waited this out and bought only on an upswing. I have a feeling this trade will be a loser.

Sold to open MS June 09 $28 Call for $1.70. I am betting that MS will close the third week of June below $28. If this happens, I will pocket the $1.70. In reality though, I just want MS to go down enough to were I can repurchase this option for a profit. A huge potential profit.


Wednesday

Dow down 184.22
S&P 500 down 24.43
Portfolio down $2,219.25

No trades today. Just watching the market kill my portfolio. Complete blood bath across the board. To afraid to trade and make a mistake.. Waiting it out for now

Thursday

Dow up 46.43
S&P 500 down 9.15
Portfolio up $577.27

No trades today. Just taking it easy right before option expiration and waiting to see what the markets do. Should have two dividends hit tomorrow, PGH and MS.

Weekly Recap 5/4 - 5/8 and Monday

Monday

Nothing doing today. Just watching the market continue on its slide down after such a huge run up. Typical Monday.. No moves today

DOW down 155.88

S&P 500 down 19.99

Portfolio down $2,817.86

Weekly Recap

5/4 - 5/8

DOW       up 362.24

S&P 500  up 51.71

Portfolio up $7,532.12

Trades                  11

Trades Closed     5

Winners               3

Losers                  2

Dividends      $0

Monster week. Up over $7,500 and making more trades then I probably should. Time to wait the market out. 

Thursday update

Not a bad day considering the news. Was up early in the day over $2,000 but slowly tapered off and finished down for the day $75.22. The indexes were down 102.43 and 12.14 for the DOW and S&P 500, respectively.

Made one bonehead move today. I bought to close my covered call on MS even though I knew I shouldn't have. I tried to cancel the order but stupid Etrade wouldn't let me because I had put it in as a market order. I always always put in my orders as limit orders so I'm not sure why I did this. Anyways I bought it for $4 when I could have bought it later in the day for less than $2. Total damage -$732. A huge loss that I'm not used to taking.

oh well.

Day before Stress Test

Some new results were released through "anonymous" sources about what banks need what monies. Seems that the news was not as bad as some feared and the financials and the markets in general took off. The DOW was up 101.63 points, S&P 500 up 15.73 and the Portfolio was up $1,993.55.

Made a lot of trades today. The most I have ever made in my life actually. I closed 3 different positions and opened a couple up. I closed one in the IRA for a 62% gain.

Here is what I closed out in the Portfolio
BYOQF for a 60% gain
MSQD for a 77% gain

I think that both would have gone and expired worthless. But with them both being close to zero, the reward of getting a couple of more dollars just didn't seem worth it to me in this volatility. I was short both these options so my margin increased buying them back. I really need to try and get that margin to $0 soon. No rush I guess.

I bought some protection today for my BAC position. I purchased 8 contracts of the June 09 $7 Put (BYORG) for $.25. This will be worth something if BAC goes down. I don't won't this to make money but its just a little insurance contract. It kind of feels like I'm wasting my money but its really not that much money for a little piece of mind.

I offset set some of this money out by selling a covered call against BAC. May 09 $16 Call (BYOEP) for $.15. This makes me obligated to sell my BAC shares for $16 no matter where it is next week.

The last trade I made was a covered call for GE. GE Sep 09 $16 Call (GEWIQ) for $.70. Its a long trade out to September but I think I will be able to buy it back and make some money of this trade.

Cinco De Mayo

Cinco de Mayo today. The day when all patriotic Mexicans celebrate the freedom of Mexico from foreign invaders (French). Also, the same day Americans get drunk off Corona and Patron yelling in Spanish.

Markets were relatively unchanged today. DOW down 16.09 points, S&P 500 down 3.44 points and the Portfolio was up $219.27. Made a couple of trades today. I sold a May 09 $13 Call on GE for $.39 a week ago. This was when GE was trading around $11 something. It has since exploded to the upside and is ITM (in the money). I really didn't want to sell my shares for $13, I think they have more room to the upside so I "rolled" my contract.

I bought back my contract for contract for $.71. I took a loss on this trade of $.71-$.39=$.32 (Sold to open @ $.39 and bought back @ $.71) and sold to open a Sept 09 $15 Call for $.92. I sold a higher strike price further out for a credit (money in) of $.92-$.32= $.60 and now I can sell the stock for $2 more. It was a net credit but commissions took a healthy chunk of that "$.60" credit.

Remember a month of go when I recommended S....well go take a look at it now..coulda woulda shoulda....

Update from Friday and Today

No update on Friday. Went to happy hour after work on Friday and woke up with a headache on Monday morning. 

Friday

DOW up 44.29

S&P 500 up 4.71

Portfolio up $542.07

One trade. Sold short a call for GE May 09 $13 Call (GEWEM) for $.39

Monday

DOW up 214.33

S&P 500 up 28.72

Portfolio up $2,744.90

No trades today. Call I sold against GE and MS are down for me. This means that I probably left some profits on the table as of right now. Down -53.76% for the GE call and -428.27%. 

Monster day for the markets as well as my portfolio. BAC and MS were up huge today and ETFC. Lets see whats going on for tomorrow

Thursday Update

Hey guys. Its the end of the month and since I have been keeping better track of things, I have accurate numbers to show.

Month of April
DOW up 559.20
S&P 500 up 74.94
Portfolio up $2,592.91

I took $5,000 out of my account yesterday (Thursday) to use for another venture. Other than that, yesterday was down $93.52. Just been a horrible week for me so far (Down $2,862.89). No trades yesterday.

Updates for Tuesday and Wednesday

Sorry guys. I didn't have access to a computer on Tuesday and I didn't have time yesterday to update the blog either. There were a lot of things happening during the past two days that I wish I was able to write about in real-time. I will try my best to remember all the situations

Tuesday

As I mentioned on Monday, I am slowly exiting some positions to free up cash. Like I mentioned also, there will be some trades that I exit prematurely that normally I would have let run for a higher profit.

DOW down 8.05 points, S&P 500 down 2.35 points and the Portfolio was down $308.33. No trades for today but I did have margin interest of $20.37 hit the account. 6.9% of an average balance of $3,384. This brings me to a total of $71.49 of margin interest charged to me this year with dividends equaling approximately $120 directly attributed to securities purchased on margin. So just buying securities on margin, I have made $50 more in money in than money out. This is not even considering the capital gains I have booked. Definitely worth it but I'm still trying to wind down to fund my other venture

Wednesday

ETFC came out with earnings last night after the bell. I wanted to sell 30 covered calls against the stock to bring in extra revenue but ended up not doing so because I did not want to cap my upside potential. Well that turned out to be a complete mistake. ETFC missed earning by $.01, losing -$.41 against the average of -$.40 of analyst projections. ETFC also informed investors that loan losses have increased and that loan loss provisions have increased. More bad news was piled on to this when they said revenue in the brokerage department was down. Stock dropped over -30% in AH trading. ETFC finished the day down -33.74%.

BAC and MS saved my portfolio yesterday going up 6.5% and 9.44%, respectively. It didn't completely balance out but it helped.

DOW up 168.78, S&P 500 up 18.48, while the Portfolio was down $1,280.32.
The Portfolio is down $2,769.37 these last three days alone.

One transaction today. Sold a 2 covered calls against MS. MS May 09 $25 (MSEE) for $.50 each. This trade obligates me to sell MS to someone on May 15th for $25. As long as the stock closes that day below $25.50, I maximize my profit. I have included a picture showing how I have played the stock so far. Last day of the month, I hope I do good.

Monday Monday

Looks like the swine virus is in full effect around the world and may turn out to be an epidemic. Cross your fingers that it doesn't happen. Dragged down the markets all day long while sending bio-tech stocks higher. Bio-tech stocks might be a good play if the US government decides it needs a stockpile of vaccines for the public. I won't be buying into this but it may not be too late for anyone out there to try.

On a more personal note, I'm going to try and liquidate a portion of the account. I am going into an investment that will require capital from the portfolio and I would also like to start mopping up some taxes. As of right now, I'll need to withdraw around $2,500 for taxes which is going to be tough because I have a margin debit. In an attempt to deleverage, I made some moves today that I wouldn't have normally. I bought to close two profitable trades that I am sure would have been resulted in 100% profit minus commissions if I could have held them to expiration. This has a negative effect in my account by increasing my margin debit. This is still preferable to me in case I do get assigned some of these options and have to purchase securities with new margin. I also sold out of RF. I still think this trade could have been profitable. (the rumor is that its going to be the only bank to fail the stress test).

Here is what I wanted to do.  I wanted to repurchase my short term close to the money call which is what I did for a 19% gain. I wanted to sell an ITM call for August 09 $5 for $1.75. This would have protected my downside risk to $4.25 which would have produced a nice gain as long as RF wasn't trading below 4.25 come August. I could have already bought this call back for a $.35 profit or 20%.  I would let it run because I still think RF is going down but all in all, I think I could have made a nice profit. Oh well. I think the new venture will be highly lucrative.

Here are the trades

Bought to close AA June 09 $8 Put (29.79% including commissions)

Bought to close RF May 09 $6 Call (18.77% including commissions)

Sold RF 500 shares @ $4.9704 (-17.77% including commissions)

DOW down 51.29

S&P 500 down 8.72

Portfolio down $1,180.72

What's the deal for tomorrow? I'm still trying to deleverage and I will be looking to sell out of a couple of positions. I'm really trying to see a big move up in the markets tomorrow that will allow me to do this.

Friday and Weekly Recap 4/20 - 4/24

Friday update

DOW up 119.23

S&P 500 up 14.31

Portfolio up $166.61

No trades today. Just had one dividend hit with PNC of $.31. Yes, I said 31 cents. I only have 3 shares of PNC and here is why. Back in October I bought 100 shares of NCC stock for $300 and sold a covered call for $95. So I was in for 2.05 a share. Literally a week later, NCC got bought out by PNC for 2.12 a share in a stock for stock conversion.  The covered call I sold against it was a $3 strike price which obviously never hit. Because of the merger terms I also received $40 in cash. So the final outlay was $300-95-40 = $1.65 a share or $165 out of pocket. The stock conversion ended up being 3 shares priced at  $73.58. Right now in my portfolio I have 3.068 shares with a market value of 132.60 which means I'm still down $32 or -19.39%. Not a big part of my portfolio but maybe it will be positive by the end of the year. That is why I just received a $.31 divvy.

Weekly Recap

4/20 - 4/24

DOW        Down 55.04

S&P 500  Down 3.37

Portfolio Down $2,582.09

Margin  -$5,784.09

Trades      5

Trades Closed 0

Winners 0

Losers 0

Dividends: $.31

Here are some trading positions opened:

BAC May 09 $6 Put -2.09% (profitable except for commissions. short this put)

MS May 09 $20 Put -50.46% (short this put)

AA June 09 $8 Put 32.19 (short this put)

RF May 09 $6 Call  8.76% (short this call)

RF 500 shares -7.64% (long this stock)

Remember that the last two positions are hedged with each other. I am long the stock at $6 and short the call at $6 with downside protection to $5.25 on the underlying. This is the exact same thing I did with the NCC trade back in October. Hopefully this works out better.

Double update

Update for Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday

DOW down 82.99

S&P 500 down 6.49

Portfolio down $1,407.96

One trade today. Sold short MS May 09 $20 puts (MSQD) for $.75... On the hook to buy MS @ $20. Not sure if its going to get there... We will see (spoiler alert: I update this position later on in this post)

Thursday

DOW up 70.49

S&P 500 up 8.33

Portfolio up $1,105.05

A couple of trades today. I bought 500 shares of Regions Financial (RF) @ $6 and immediately sold a covered call May 09 $6 for $.80. The thought here is that I protect a little of my downside by taking in cash right now. Here is the math.

1. Buy 500 shares @ $6 - ($3,000) Outflow
2. Sell 5 contract calls @ $.80 - $400 Inflow
3. Total - ($2,600) Outflow
4. 500 shares @ $5.20
5. On the hook to sell @ $6, if we get there, potential profit of $400 or 15.38% (not including commissions) 

Update on yesterday's trade. MS is taking a dive. I'm not at a loss here until MS gets to 19.25 (its at $21.96). I don't really care how much the call I'm short goes up to because its not going to hurt me but for your own enjoyment, its at $1.15 :( .

I'm getting pretty deep into my margin(borrowed money) and I am starting to get a little uncomfortable. I kind of want this to hit and I want to sell MS for $30 to open up some breathing room and give me some "dry powder" for other trades.

I'm looking for S if it breaks $4.30ish and I'm looking to go short MET, again....

Tuesday 4/21 Update

No post last night for Tuesday. Played softball last night and completely threw my back out. Went to bed right after. Its morning time right now and my back is still completely messed up. Anybody want to share some painkillers? 'ol Luigi needs something.

Not a bad day for the markets. Started lower early in the session only to spike up with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's congressional testimony explaining how he believes that most banks are adequately capitalized and that the TARP is working. That is what I like to hear. No more "We might need to do more, up to and including letting NObama run everything and pay rich people $1 and poor people $6,000 for showing up".

DOW up 127.83 (1.63%), S&P 500 up 17.69 (2.13%) and the Portfolio up $2,423.15 for the day. No trades today. MS didn't make enough of a run up to sell a covered call against it and all my other positions are still smarting from Monday's butt whipping.

Yesterday action
BAC May 09 $6 Put -23.81% (this is good because I am short this put)
AA June 09 $8 Put -20.00% (this is good because I am short this put)

Some moves for Wednesday? Look to sell a covered call for MS @ $30 if it runs up a little. Look to go long either S or WIN on a pullback

Holy Crap!!

What a difference a weekend makes. BAC came out with earnings today that beat estimates. The bad news in the conference was the large increase for loan losses. Ken Lewis, the CEO, also mentioned how the worst is yet to come in the credit markets and that he doesn't see that changing anytime soon. Not good news for the market, not good news for anyone.

DOW was down 289.60 points (-3.56%) with the S&P 500 down 37.21 points (-4.28%). A freaking blood bath today in the Portfolio, down $4,868.94.......Sigh.....

What went wrong?

BAC -24.34%
ETFC -17.44%
GE -8.39%
RJF -9.15%

Absolute murder. Made two trades today with an extra one that never hit. Sold puts today which is something I normally do when the market goes down. I usually wait for the market to go down a couple of days in the row to collect a juicy premium and try and time the upside but I just got antsy and pulled the trigger (this will probably bite me in the ass).

Short Positions
BAC May 09 $6 Put (BYOQF) for $.30
AA June 09 $8 Put (AARH) for $.85

I tried for MS May 09 $15 Put (MKXQC) Limit order @ $.35. Didn't come close to hitting today but I might try again tomorrow.

I made these trades way too early in the day if not week and they have already ran against me. I'll give these time to digest before making anymore moves.

Action for tomorrow? Don't know
Action for tonight? Cry myself to sleep

Weekly Recap 4/13 - 4/17

Lets start with a recap of Friday. Last day to trade options as they expire on Saturday. This could make for some crazy moves in the markets. Lets take a hypothetical example. 

A company is selling for $6.50 with a ton of open interest calls at $7. There is one day to expiration and it looks like the $7 calls are going to expire worthless. Well around noon, buyers come out of the woods and start bidding up the stock to $6.70. It now closer to the call strike and closer to being exercised. Still nothing to worry about for all those short at the $7 call. Well we keep going and by 1 pm, the shares are trading at $6.90. Now people that are short the call are getting scared, especially if they are short these naked calls. Being short a naked call means you sold someone the right to buy at a certain price even though you don't own the stock. This has the potential for unlimited losses. So to cover any potential losses, the people that are short these naked calls start buying stock on the open market to hedge their positions. If you are going to have to sell at $7 a stock you don't own, you may as well buy it for $6.90 and make some money. So these people start buying and the stock jumps to $7 and now the shorts are scared and they cover and buy on the open market. Next thing you know the stock gets bid up all the way to $7.50 and your looking at a 15.38% move.

Up today $1,337.62 in the Portfolio. DOW up 5.9 points and the S&P 500 up 4.3 points. The day was crazy with the portfolio being up almost $1,000 more than it closed with a couple stocks dropping at the end of the day. One trade today. Bought 100 shares of GE @ $12.4399. This position is down $4 already.

The options that expired on Saturday are still on my book but they are all showing zero for a 100% gain minus commissions because they expired worthless. A total gain of $400.54 including commission costs. Not bad for pretty much only 2 weeks on the book. 

Weekly Recap 4/12 - 4/17

Portfolio UP $4,305.65

DOW       UP 47.95

S&P 500   UP 13.04

Trades 1

Trades Closed 4

Winners 4

Losers 0

Dividends $31.58

One open trading position

BAC Jan 10 $40 Call (WBAAH) -72.41%

 

Slow and Steady

The portfolio was up today $643.10 while the DOW and S&P 500 were up 95.81 and 13.24, respectively. GOOG came out today as expected and killed earnings. Stock was up over $10 for a second in the AH, not sure where it will end up.

Nothing big going on with the portfolio. All the options that I have expiring this Saturday were relatively quiet and they look like they will all expire worthless (this is good because I am short all of these options).

Whats next? I still like MS but I'm not sure it going to impress during earnings. I would have liked to sell a covered call against it for April @ $30 but missed my chance with MS sliding almost $5 in 3 days. If I see it go up some more, I'll sell a covered call against it a couple months out at $30 or $35.

No trades again. I'm sorry I'm not making moves but only one more day until all these options fall off the map and I can properly assess my Value At Risk (VAR)

Wednesday Update

The fed came out with their beige book which shows that the recession is bottoming out and showing signs of growth in many parts of the country. Earnings mania for tech stocks including Intel which shows that they are beating numbers. A good point that was made on the trading desk yesterday is that inventory is down. This is good news from a cash perspective, but these are technology stocks which normally are fairly debt free. The main issue is that this means management doesn't expect to sell much equipment in the coming months which is why they have trimmed inventory. So that is possible bad news.

DOW up 109.44 points. S&P 500 up 10.56 points. Portfolio was up a measly $459.50 but I'll take it. No trades yesterday but I had one dividend hit for RJF. Through my dividend reinvestment plan, I was able to purchase 1.4852 shares for a cost basis of $14.98801. Already up 10.02%. Yayo. Margin outstanding is still steady at $-2,504.60 in my account but I will start making some type of moves next week after all my options expire this Saturday.

JPM and GOOG are the few notable earnings coming out today. Watch out!!

Tuesday Update

Up early around $2,000 in the morning with ETFC and BAC on a run. MS was down all day long which sucked ending down $3.22 on the day (-11.97%). All told the DOW was down 137.63. S&P 500 down 17.23 and the Portfolio down around $1,476.51 (don't have my spreadsheet on this computer, will report exact number tomorrow edit: exact number updated 4/15). A huge $3,000+ swing today to the upside early, then downside in the afternoon. Lots of bad news from President NObama.

President NObama keeps talking about how the economy may be on an uptick but that we are not there yet. Obviously he is trying to keep expectations and the markets down so that he can control big business in the US and keep them under his thumb for as long as possible. Lets see if he lets banks repay TARP. Who cares about the little banks that have returned around $300MM? NObama only cares about the big banks that he can control and really "adjust" the markets the way he wants.

No real changes on my options that are expiring this Saturday. All 4 positions that expire this week are trading for less than $.06 so even if they move a little, its not going to make a huge difference in my portfolio.

What hurts? Check out After Hours (AH) news for RJF. Son of a b!^@$. Not looking good although I have a sneaky conspiracy theory.. Big Tom James, the CEO of RJF has a huge position in his company...obviously. Well the dividend is payable tomorrow after the close. So what does BIG TJ do? He tells the market that he is taking a huge loan loss reserve loss on the bank loans which sends the stock down over $3 in AH. He uses his dividend reinvestment plan to buy the stock tomorrow for $3 less than he otherwise would be able to and then next quarter these "loan loss reserves" get reversed with an "OOOPS, I guess our loans were not as bad as we thought." Then the stock soars we big TJ at a lower cost basis per share and more shares.. BRILLIANT!!!!

I have great faith in the company and I don't mind buying it with my dividend tomorrow for $3 less. Thank you TJ! RJF better be a $30 stock by next quarter though BOY.

Another up day

Goldman Sachs destroyed earnings which is good news and the bank stocks loved it. DOW down 25.27, S&P 500 up 2.17 and portfolio up $3,341.94.  I didn't post on the weekend even though I wanted to. Sorry, I'll talk about it later this week. No trades today.  Updates on all my options that expire this Friday.

PNC April 09 $85 call 74.96%

MS April 09 $16 put 66.52%

BAC April 09 $8 put 39.15%

AA April 09 $7.5 put 81.83%

BAC Jan 10 $40 call -64.14%

BAC up huge today $1.47 and the big news of the day is ETFC up $.39 for the day and $.15 in AH. MS up huge as well and if I can get it to hit $28 tomorrow, I will sell a covered call against it. 

Wednesday and Thursday Post Including Recap 4/6 - 4/10

Wednesday

Sorry for the no post last night. I was too depressed to blog. The portfolio was down for the third day in a row $664.36. The DOW was up 47.55 and the S&P 500 was up 9.61. A lot of my positions ran against me pretty hard last night. No trades today or dividends

Thursday

Big news in the market today. Wells Fargo came out with a surprise earnings call saying that they made $.55 a share, more than double analyst estimates. This good news sent the futures market up before the bell. Well the good times never stop rolling with lower than expected unemployment numbers and the possibility of a not so bad earnings season. The DOW finished up 246.27 points and the S&P 500 finished 31.40 points higher. Portfolio didn't do so bad either finishing up $4,769.18.

This was a monster day for me and I managed to get a few trades in today.

• Sold to Close BYOEI for $1.10 for a 29.41% gain before commissions
• Sold to Close MSDI for $.75 for a -16.67% loss before commissions.
• Sold to open BYOPH BAC April 09 $8 Put for $.23. Up right now 7.84%. I am going to try and hold this till expiration. Its a put that I don't think will ever get assigned so I'm looking for a 100% gain here before commissions

RECAP

I'm including the RECAP here today because the markets are closed tomorrow for Good Friday

Portfolio up $1,950.92
DOW up 65.69
S&P 500 up 14.06

Trades 3
Trades Closed 2
Winners 1
Losers 1

Dividends $0

Open Trading Positions:

BAC Jan 10 $40 Call (WBAAH) -72.41%
PNC April 09 $86.50 Call (NJPDQ) 74.96%
MS April 09 $16 Put (MKXPP) 62.69%
BAC April 09 $8 Put (BYOPH) 7.84%
AA April 09 $7.50 Put (AAPS) 71.13%

Might post this weekend.....See you on Monday if I don't

Earnings Day

Unofficial start to earnings season! Son of a b*$#^!!! AA missed earnings for two quarters in a row missing by 2 cents. I'm still not in the money for the put I sold short for AA which is good and bad. Best possible scenario would have AA at $7.49 at expiration and I get assigned and have to buy 500 shares at $7.50. I sold the put short for $.44 which means I would automatically be up on the trade. Worst case scenario is AA goes bankrupt and I'm out 100%, not likely.

DOW down 186.29 (-2.34%). S&P 500 down 19.93 (-2.39%). Portfolio down $1,022.36

I knew I shouldn't have went long those options on BAC and MS. Too poor to blog anymore tonight.

Pre Earnings day

The markets were all over the place today with earnings season starting tomorrow. A lot of bad news being recycled by bank analysts saying that the bottom has yet to come and that the world is ending.....again. 

The DOW never saw positive territory all day going all the way down to 7862.20 before finishing the day down 41.74 points. Same thing with the S&P 500 with the low being 822.79 before finishing down 7.02 points. Portfolio was down $1,131.54. No trades today, although I tried. I had three open orders expire today. 2 trades to close positions in BAC and MS and one to open a position.

I tried to sell short a Put for Sprint (S). S April 09 $4 put for $.30. The trade never hit with the put SPH down to $.15 by the end of the day. This was going to be my entry into S but it seems to elude me. Like I said yesterday, I would love to own S at $4. Now that it is sitting at $4.41, I will have to reassess to see if it is going to be a trade or a buy and hold.

Gold down today $25.....told you buttholes. Its definitely no secret to all my loyal followers that I hate gold as a trade or even a buy and hold. Gold is destined to continue going down. The fact is, gold is useless. It costs too much to buy. It costs too much to hold. It never throws off a dividend and it going down.

$800 here we come. Hopefully, the market will tick up this week and I'll post a good gain in the portfolio while closing out my long positions. They are starting to stress me out.

New Logo

Check out the new title courtesy of www.johnnybiceps.com. I told you guys about Sprint (S) in February when it was trading around $2.50. Its now trading around $4.20 and I bet your thinking, "Luigi, is it too late to get in?" The answer my friend is no. I'm going to check around the stock on Monday and if I can buy into it around $4 then I'll pull the trigger.

I'll keep you updated.

Weekly Recap 3/30 - 4/3

Not too bad of a week. Here are the numbers:

Portfolio up $1,047.81

DOW       up  241.41

S&P 500  up 26.56

Trades              6

Trades Closed 2

Winners           2

Losers              0

Dividends        $0

Portfolio was up $1,241.55 on Friday

Here are some of the open positions

MS April 09 $26 Call (MSDI) 2.12%

BAC May 09 $9 Call (BYOEI) -7.78%

BAC Jan 10 $40 Call (WBAAH) -80.69%

MS April 09 $16 Put (MKXPP) 43.55%

AA April 09 $7.50 Put (AAPS) 4.82%

Update for Thursday

Sorry I didn't post yesterday guys. I had a softball game (we won) and when I got home I was ridiculously tired. I managed to watch Thursday and Wednesday's Fast Money and then last night's episode of Bones and then I passed out. I'll just keep you updated on my one trade and some positions.

I sold short AA April $7.50 puts (AAPS) for $.44

What this trade is saying is that I think AA is going to continue going up and in the third week of April, when my put matures, it will expire worthless and I will keep the $.44 per share. If AA manages not to move higher and then comes back down, I will be obligated to buy the shares for $7.50. As long as AA stays at or above $7.06, I will be in the money. AA will be one of the first to kick of earnings season on the 7th.

The following are totals and not daily percentages
MSDI -13.09%
BYOEI -8.93%
WBAAH -80.69%
MKXPP 24.41%
AAPS -3.74%

Looks like I have work to do

April Fools

Today was April Fools day and I hope none of you guys had any tricks played on you.

DOW up         152.68

S&P 500  up  13.21

Portfolio up $171.12

March is done and over with as well as the first quarter. I have not been taking good enough notes which I promise to change going forward. I'm trying to incorporate more metrics as well as historical data for my portfolio to give you a better sense on what is going on. Because the days of the month and my trading days don't exactly match up, I can't give specifics on my performance. As far as I can tell for March, my portfolio was up around $12,000+. I will have accurate numbers going forward.

Made one trade today. Bought BAC May 9 Call (BYOEI) for $.85 10:47:00 am

I'm making a speculative bet on BAC rising because of the mark-to-market meeting tomorrow as well as possible better than expected earnings. You might be thinking why did I sell my previous call? Well, I wanted to lock in my profits as I was still unsure of which way the markets were going to move. I am still not 100% sure of what is going on, but I have a better idea now. Either way, I need to get used to the strategy of buying into strength and selling on weakness. 

Too often I try and double down on positions hoping that it will come back. In order to be successful. I need to learn to cut my losses and keep adding to winning positions till they are no longer profitable.

MSDI up 22.50% today

MKXPP down -42.86% (I'm short this position; up 33.98%)

BYOEI down -7.78% total

Biggest loser of the day was RJF which was down -4.16%. RJF was downgraded by KBW to a price target of $16. Not good news for the stock but I have my doubts on this analyst report. 

1. Assumption of the analyst is that the bank is operating at peak levels. I respectfully disagree. I believe they are going to start killing on the net interest margin as cost of funding has been decreasing for them. 
2. He also worries of a possibly deteriorating loan portfolio. I believe they are highly diversified according to their reports and their application as a bank holding company will help them. They will be able to expand their corporate loan portfolio at a time when margins are thick and they can afford to be choosy to whom they lend.
3. Fixed income trading and fees are up substantially along with capital markets. I think RJF will benefit with the "thinning of the herd" of the bulge bracket investment banks.

End of Quarter

Today is the end of Q1 for 2009 and according to all the articles I have been reading, a wacky day for the markets. Funds are trying to wrap up the quarter with a profit and have been trying to load up on rising stocks to make their portfolios look good. Perfect time for me to load up on options on a down day (yesterday) to sell today. One trade today.

Bought to open BYOEW May $7.5 call for BAC @ $.90 1:01:43 pm 3/30/2009
Sold to close BYOEW May $7.5 Call for BAC @ $1.10 2:06:27 pm 3/31/2009

Gain of 17.60% after Commissions (22.22% before commissions). Not bad for one day.

DOW up 86.90
S&P 500 up 10.34
Portfolio up $1,873.76

Looking to load up tomorrow on a gap down early or later in the afternoon to sell on Thursday or Friday after the mark-to-market meeting on Thursday.

Update for Monday

Markets decimated today due to news from the weekend. Nobama forced the CEO of GM to resign. I'm not sure if what Wagoner did was anything too horrible. I believe the reason he still had a job was that the board of directors didn't think anyone else could do a better job. Might be true but I think a change at the top is what GM needs. The problem is that Nobama said that bankruptcy might still be an option which means the government is still deciding what they "think" is good for companies. When the US government starts acting like Cuba/North Korea/Russia/Venezuela/My mom, that is not a good thing.

DOW down 254.16. S&P 500 down 28.41. Portfolio down $2,607.27

4 trades today.

1. Bought to close my open position in MSDY. Sold @ $1.75 and bought back @ $1.55 for an $11 gain after commissions. Not a lot of money but remember I was down over $600 bucks last week on this trade
2. Bought to open BYOEW May 09 $7.50 call @ $.90
3. Bought to open MSDI April 09 $26 call @ $.90
4. Sold Short MKXPP April 90 $16 put @ $.45

So far...down on all 3 open positions. waah waah. Time will tell though.

Johnny Biceps the Movie

Well here is what everyone has been waiting for. I can't tell you how many times my inbox gets blown up asking for www.johnnybiceps.com to come out with a movie. Time are tough but we at tampacapital.blogspot.com are a resourceful bunch. JB came to me late last month asking for me to underwrite his movie, you know kick a little cheese his way to get things going.

We had a successfull bond underwriting placed last week for $1.4 MM @ 8.5%. Not bad, I know. This type of money will allow us to get the process started. Go to www.johnnybiceps.com to see the new teaser.

Weekly Recap 3/23 - 3/27

Friday was a down day for the markets. DOW and S&P 500 down 148.38 and 16.92, respectively. Portfolio was down $743.42. Had BAC dividend hit last night which was nice...part of a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) which bought the stock at $7.3799.

I had two limit buy orders trying to capitalize on the down day. I was going to use these two to swing trade through the week and hopefully sell around Thursday or Friday for a gain. Neither of them hit, so my only hope is that the market takes another dip on Monday to allow me to get these two options at a cheap price.

BAC May 7.50 call BYOEW @ $1.25 never got below $1.30

MS April 26 call MSDI  @ $1.50 never got below $1.60

2 notes to think about. The market makers can see my orders in their books, hate me and conspired against me and these are both calls which means I'm starting to get bullish.....Uh-oh....thats when I start to get hurt... We shall see what goes on Monday. I'll definitely be checking the futures Sunday night and Monday morning.

Weekly RECAP

Portfolio up     $3,256.2

DOW    up         497.8

S&P 500 up       47.4

Trades                1

Trades Closed   1

Winners             1

Losers                0

Dividends           $8.07

Taking Profits

Well, on another up day for the DOW (174.75), my BAC option trade still went nowhere. I couldn't take it any longer and I decided to take my profits. I sold off all 10 contracts of BYODH @ $.85. Trade executed at 3:42:59. Final tally was a profit of $349.02 or 72.64% after all commissions. It makes you want to scream when I realize I should have taken my profits when I was over 130%. I just can't see why the rest of the market took off this week while BAC went nowhere down.

The good news...I think....is that MS went down today to $25.65 which means the calls I sold for $1.75 are at break even had I not sold the April 24 calls and just sold the stock @ $25.65. MSDY is only down -100% in my portfolio and not -116.46% like yesterday.

My WBAAH calls for BAC Jan 40 2010 calls went up 33.33% today and is down -77.93% in my account now. Like I've been saying this week...this might end up being profitable when its all said and done. I still have over 9 months till expiration.

What is next? If the market pulls back a little early tomorrow, I will be looking to go long calls on both BAC and MS for this April expiration.

Portfolio up $535.29

Like a Deer In Headlights

I feel a little like Pete Mitchell. You know Pete Mitchell aka "Maverick" from Top Gun. Remember when Goose dies? Maverick is out there scared, he has lost the edge and he can't pull the trigger on even the easiest targets. Well that is how I feel. These last couple of days should have been easy target/trade days, but instead of pulling the trigger, I have been waiting for a "better" time.

I put in two trades, one for my brokerage account and one for my IRA account at prices I knew weren't going to get hit. I'm not sure why I am doing this. Instead of taking the easy money, I am holding off for the ridiculous money. I am just so convinced that BAC is going to run up that I feel weird not trying to take fully advantage of any gains. Well after reaching $8.57 the other day. BAC has hit huge resistance at $8, unable to break over for the second day in a row.

This is totally different from my MS trade. I sold a call against it on a day when I was sure the rally was going to pull back only to have it skyrocket. If I would have repeated the strategy in the last two days, I would have seen some real easy money. Aarrrgghh!!! It is frustrating.

Cumulative Stats on these Positions

1. BYODH 89.39%
2. WBAAH -83.45%
3. NJPDQ 74.96%
4. MSDY -116.46% (this is covered call and in reality I am not down any money, just lost profits)

Like I have explained before, MSDY is a covered call I sold for $1.75 a share. It is selling in the open market for $3.80 but I am not obligated for that difference. I just have to sell my MS stock @ $24 in the 3rd week of April. If MS is selling at anything lower than $25.75, I didn't lose any profits. Anything above that and I'm leaving money on the table but I'm not losing money.

Portfolio up $810.06
No trades

Update for Tuesday

Quick update today. Portfolio down today $1,612.92 after being up almost $500 in the afternoon. I will have a lengthy update tomorrow updating you on all the positions

Update for Monday 3/23

Portfolio had a good day for Monday and the whole market was up as well. The DOW lifted off up 497.48 (6.84%) and the S&P 500 rocketed up 54.38 points (7.08%). Portfolio was up $4,267.61 led by the usual suspects of BAC and MS. BAC was up 26.01% while MS was up 20.70%.

BYODH was up 118% yesterday for a running total of 126.85%. I just need BAC to string together a couple of up days. One trade for yesterday. Thinking that the market was just gapping up in the morning and that the rally would die off, I quickly sold an April 24 call on MS ( MSDY) for $1.75. This gives me the obligation to sell MS for $24 in the third week of April. So I'm a loser here if MS is trading for anything over $25.75 (24 plus my premium). Well as we all know, the market continued to climb and MS tacked on $4 after I made this trade. Had I sold this option at the close, I could have netted $3.10. $1.35 just left on the table.

I had an open order that was good till close to sell 5 contracts of BYODH at $1.10. This would have been half my position to lock in a profit on the original 10 contracts but it never hit. BYODH actually hit as high as $1.10 for a quick second before closing at $1.09. Must be a sign that I'm supposed to make more money on this trade.

As I am typing this at 718 am, the futures are down and so is most of the DOW in premarket. We shall see where this day takes us.

Weekly Recap 3/16- 3/20

Portfolio  Up $1,694.39

DOW Up 54.4

S&P 500 Up 11.99

Trades 1

Trades Closed 1

Winners 1

Losers 0

Dividends $43.85

Not a bad week. Good amount of dividends and portfolio is up. Whats not to like?

Thursday 3/19/2009

That what I'm talking about!!!! Finally, a reversion to the mean. Portfolio down $2,152.42

The DOW gapped up huge this morning and my portfolio was up over $2,000. This was a huge $4,000 swing today in my portfolio. VOLATILITY.

Anyways...I really don't want to talk about anything because I just got back from a softball game. We had a lot of regulars out and got creamed today. Yours truly went 2-2 with 2 singles. Yes I said 2 at-bats. We got mercy ruled pretty bad. No big deal. Even team USA got mercy ruled by Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

Real Quick:

BYODH Down $.25 (-22.73%) Total Up 76.90%
WBAAH Up $.06 (150%) Total Down -72.41% .....might turn out profitable after all

Taylors Portfolio

I haven't been updating Taylor's Portfolio lately. Reasons?

1. Its Fake
2. Its boring. The lack of capital means I'm basically buying and holding
3. I'm freaking embarrassed!!! ETFC has been done like whoa for the past week.

Well ETFC came out with some great news today. New accounts have been opened at a faster rate then accounts being closed (More accounts after being netted) and delinquencies on their mortgages and HELOCS have went down 2 months in a row. This is great news for the company and ETFC did not disappoint. shooting up $.37 or 40.66%

Here is how the portfolio looks right now:
Cash 2.10
ETFC 12.80
Total $14.90

BAM. Up 49% on the year. Now I don't feel so bad telling my brother to purchase ETFC at $1.13 (although I did tell him to sell when it got to $1.30 a couple weeks back).

Suggestion ffrom Luigi. Hold on to ETFC if you have it or add to your position. For those of you not in it already, Get in! Plenty more upside left. The brokerage side is killing it and the bank was killing them. If the bank continues to do well, the sky is the limit.

Blowing Up

Another up day for the markets and my portfolio. Not really sure how many days in a row I have posted a positive number, but I'm not going to complain.

DOW up 90.88
S&P 500 up 16.23
Portfolio up $3,710.48

I had one trade today. I closed out my short of MS. MSCI (March 26 call) for $.20 like an idiot. I really should have just let it ran as option expiration is this week, but I got scared when MS went on a tear late in the afternoon. A textbook short squeeze that I fell for. MSCI closed at $.11 just 55 minutes later at the close. The good news is that I sold this short at $.45 so I had a $.25 gain per share minus all the commission costs. Locking in a profit is nice so I won't complain.

Remember my BYODH play? I bought 10 contracts of this April 8 call for BAC @ $.46. With BAC moving over 22.3% today, this trade moved 120% today to $1.10. I'm up 128.93% as of right now with all 10 contracts still out there. I was actually thinking of closing out half the position and locking in my gains at $1.10 which would have given me all of my initial outlay back plus some profit, but I decided against that idea and let it run. Like I've posted earlier, I honestly plan to make at least 500% on this trade. Lets see if I can do it.

My WBAAH option moved over 33% today which means I'm only down -83.21% on this trade. Yay!!!

On another note. The fed had their meeting today and the notes came out that they are leaving interest rates alone but are going to start buying back treasuries. This move is going to inflate the balance sheet to an enormous size which is probably going to kill the dollar and invoke an inflationary environment in the future (near future). The good news is that the benchmark rate is hanging out at a paltry 25 basis points which will allow the fed to swoop in and raise this whenever inflation rears its ugly head.

This was good news for gold which was down over $20 in the day. High inflation and a weak dollars are both great for gold and you could see this with it going up $30 by the close of the day (a huge $50 intraday swing) .

So what is the Luigi suggestion of the day? Inflation is going to help skyrocket the market. Go long whenever you feel comfortable. Buy the financials. Stay away from Gold. Gold is for idiots.

Update for Yesterday

Went to the lightning game last night. They were 3-0 against the Maple Leafs only to get lazy and sloppy. The game went into overtime which was exciting and then into a shootout. Now I don't remember ever seeing a shootout in real life, but I wouldn't mind going to see one every game. There was a couple of exciting goals but mostly exciting saves. Have to hand it to the Maple Leafs, they worked for the win.

All the major indices were up yesterday with the rally continuing for another day. Portfolio was up $1,230.76 which is good.

Some updates on my Trading Positions
MSCI which I was down over -150% last week is now up 33%
BYODH is up 6%
NJPDQ is up 74.96%
WBAAH is down -91.72%

Divvy hit the account yesterday of $8.81

Monday 3/16

The markets started to go on a little bit of a tear after lunch before ending the day down. The DOW and S&P 500 down 7 and 2 points, respectively. Portfolio was up $2,300 around lunch time before coming down to end at positive $394.70. BAC almost broke $7 which was nice before ending the day at $6.18. The calls I bought last week were up 54% during the day and I was debating selling half or all of my position, but kept them thinking I could maybe pull a 100-300% return instead. So I ended up not selling them and right now they are up just over 4%. Not too bad, hopefully I will sell them within two weeks for a huge gain.

MS decided to drop -9.4% which is good and bad. I don't want to get assigned my call that I sold @ 26 because I went to keep my shares. So anything below $26 this Friday would be ideal. The call dropped -75% which helped put $180 in my pocket. But my MS shares are down $478 today alone. At least I'm still up almost 10%. The call was almost at a delta of 1 which is a good hedge when being short a call. If the stock goes down, the call I sold against it goes down and if it goes up, who cares? I'm still making money.

I just read Warren Buffett's annual report to shareholders. He talks about his derivative contracts that he is short. Just like me, he doesn't have to post additional collateral on most of his shorts. He can then use the premium and purchase other assets to increase his worth just like tampacapital.blogspot.com. Did you ever think me and the big guy would have so much in common?