ARR dropped 4.4% today which triggered another trailing stop loss sell order for another third of my position. -3.1% (not including dividends).
I closed out my March DBA call, -14.6%.
DVA looked like it bottomed so I picked up some shares of that.
Tomorrow will be interesting with four credit spreads and a bull call spread expiring. I hope FXI can behave - everything else is in pretty good shape.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Scrub
I threw in the towel on Friday's URI calls, -45.5% and -46.8%. URI wasn't showing strength and was down again so I opted not to pay to roll it forward. It went up a buck after I hit the confirm order button of course.
SLRC goes ex-div next week and I didn't want to take a $0.60 hit on a $2 option, so those calls were sold, +33.2%. I bought stock shares in another account.
ARR went ex-div and announced a dividend cut. A trailing stop sold 1/3 of my position, -0.8%. It held up better than I expected. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
FXI has been selling off so now the short leg of my bull put spread is ITM. It's never easy.
I bought ECL shares on Monday.
SLRC goes ex-div next week and I didn't want to take a $0.60 hit on a $2 option, so those calls were sold, +33.2%. I bought stock shares in another account.
ARR went ex-div and announced a dividend cut. A trailing stop sold 1/3 of my position, -0.8%. It held up better than I expected. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
FXI has been selling off so now the short leg of my bull put spread is ITM. It's never easy.
I bought ECL shares on Monday.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Plink!
Friday's QQQ puts expired worthless, so that credit spread netted +7.5%. Another one expires this coming Friday, along with FXI, GOOG, URI, and XLB. I also have expiring calls for URI and DBA.
I rolled Friday's SLV calls to 5 April.
I rolled Friday's SLV calls to 5 April.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Buy and Hold, For 2 Days
FLT announced a secondary offering and dropped 2% off the bat so I bought more shares and April call options. I should probably calculate the dilution to see if it was oversold, and hence a better deal. Otherwise it wasn't - it just felt like a sale. But I've been buying on the way up anyway, so no biggie.
I bought more KOG shares early on, so that turned out well since it closed up 4% for the day.
There was no value in spreading my March KOG calls so I figured I'd sell 'em if I could turn 15% ... I'd be happy with that. Turns out I was wrong. I netted +17% (in two days) and I'm still not happy 'cause I could have made more. There's no pleasing me.
I bought more KOG shares early on, so that turned out well since it closed up 4% for the day.
There was no value in spreading my March KOG calls so I figured I'd sell 'em if I could turn 15% ... I'd be happy with that. Turns out I was wrong. I netted +17% (in two days) and I'm still not happy 'cause I could have made more. There's no pleasing me.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Dodging the Rally
I covered my way-OTM GLD and GDX bull credit spreads ... just before they reversed and rallied of course. GDX had its best day in weeks. I netted -68% and -95% respectively. It sure would have been nice to recover some of that.
I covered my XLI spread for only $0.03. The problem was, I didn't get much when I sold it, and oX's commissions took a big chunk. I think I'll let the puts expire OTM next time - I didn't even need the buying power that quickly. +1%. At this rate, I'll make up those gold losses in no time ... not.
My well-ITM FLT spread sold for a nickel under max value, +60%.
I sold March bull credit spreads in QQQ and GOOG, bought April calls for OAS, and bought SMS stock.
Monday I sold the April TAL calls before the stock went ex-dividend, +8%.
I covered my XLI spread for only $0.03. The problem was, I didn't get much when I sold it, and oX's commissions took a big chunk. I think I'll let the puts expire OTM next time - I didn't even need the buying power that quickly. +1%. At this rate, I'll make up those gold losses in no time ... not.
My well-ITM FLT spread sold for a nickel under max value, +60%.
I sold March bull credit spreads in QQQ and GOOG, bought April calls for OAS, and bought SMS stock.
Monday I sold the April TAL calls before the stock went ex-dividend, +8%.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Singin' the Precious Metals Blues
I closed out my expiring SLV calls today, -28.5%. I have more SLV calls for next week, and then GLD and GDX expiring on the 15th. I can't wait to be done with these. I got way too aggressive with calls and bull put spreads on the precious metals and have been paying the price.
As for the stock holdings, GTLS had another good day as did EXLS after reporting. Those two positions along with PRAA are up over 10%.
As for the stock holdings, GTLS had another good day as did EXLS after reporting. Those two positions along with PRAA are up over 10%.
Feb 13 Review
Last month I got stopped out of 15 positions, and re-bought 4 of them.
Stocks where I saved myself 5% or more were GEOS, and HAIN. Those that cost me 5% or more in gains were ICLR (+13.8%!), FLT, JAZZ, and ECL. Assuming equal position sizes, the summed gain from not selling would have been 24.7% not counting the repurchased URI.
I paid an additional 9% to re-buy FLT (the position is currently down 0.9%), two were about even, and I re-bought URI 8.8% lower (now up 8.3%).
As for options, I made some money with AAPL and NSM, and ETFs MSCI (Taiwan), TBT (short bonds), UNG (nat. gas). I lost money on a speculative shorts on GME and XRT (S&P Retail), and credit spreads on ETFs SPY (short) and GLD (long). The losses exceeded my gains by a meaningful (and somewhat painful) amount.
Lessons learned?
I meant to relax my stops, especially with ECL and JAZZ reporting, but lost focus until too late. FLT had performed so well it deserved a little more wiggle room. I honestly don't see how I could have predicted ICLR's rebound.
I should have monitored the news on GLD. I would have become aware of the rotation out of gold. I ignored the trend in favor in favor of the RSI indicators, as I did with SPY. Also noted: a low delta on the short options doesn't mean squat when you're spitting into the wind. The bear call spread on XRT looked solid at the time - I'll chalk that one up to bad timing.
Stocks where I saved myself 5% or more were GEOS, and HAIN. Those that cost me 5% or more in gains were ICLR (+13.8%!), FLT, JAZZ, and ECL. Assuming equal position sizes, the summed gain from not selling would have been 24.7% not counting the repurchased URI.
I paid an additional 9% to re-buy FLT (the position is currently down 0.9%), two were about even, and I re-bought URI 8.8% lower (now up 8.3%).
As for options, I made some money with AAPL and NSM, and ETFs MSCI (Taiwan), TBT (short bonds), UNG (nat. gas). I lost money on a speculative shorts on GME and XRT (S&P Retail), and credit spreads on ETFs SPY (short) and GLD (long). The losses exceeded my gains by a meaningful (and somewhat painful) amount.
Lessons learned?
I meant to relax my stops, especially with ECL and JAZZ reporting, but lost focus until too late. FLT had performed so well it deserved a little more wiggle room. I honestly don't see how I could have predicted ICLR's rebound.
I should have monitored the news on GLD. I would have become aware of the rotation out of gold. I ignored the trend in favor in favor of the RSI indicators, as I did with SPY. Also noted: a low delta on the short options doesn't mean squat when you're spitting into the wind. The bear call spread on XRT looked solid at the time - I'll chalk that one up to bad timing.
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