Sold Naked Puts on HPQ

On Sunday, after reading most of Barron’s, I put in a few limit orders to sell naked puts on some of the stocks I liked from this latest edition.  My order on DWA hit on Monday morning bounced up from there.  This morning my order to sell Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) naked puts hit while HPQ was trading at 51.21.  I sold two December 50 naked puts (HPQXJ) and received $288.50 after commissions.

On page M14, Tiernan Ray wrote about HPQ in the Weekday Trader section.  His view was that HPQ has 20% growth ahead of it.  I have seen the big comeback HPQ has done recently compared to DELL and figured they might be worth a trade.  I looked at the chart and saw HPQ was riding its trend line along the line of higher lows.  Below that 50 looks like it could offer support as it has been the low point a few times recently.  The 50 day moving average is just under 51 which could add further support. 

On a broader view, the DJIA ($INDU) fell a little deeper this morning to land on its trend line of higher lows which happens to be only a few points above the 200 day moving average I believe is crucial for us to stay above.  This weekend’s chart will be very interesting, but I’ll be watching it closely until then.

In other news, my second interview went very well this week and I got a back to say he wants to bring me in next week to talk compensation and start date.  My wife is expecting two offers next week as her interviews went well also.  In another few days our financial future could be secured again (at least temporarily), which might be very important with this market action.