Diana Shipping (DSX) Sales Again

Yes, that was an intentional pun - sales/sails - maybe not as funny if I have to explain it. 

DSX was trading at 29.17 when I bought my December 30 naked puts back last week.  It finished the day lower on that Friday and then rebounded on Monday.  Today it’s down again and I watched it for most of the morning.  This time I was focusing in on the 25 strike instead of the 30, again to give me a good cushion like I thought I was doing for the December expiry.

While DSX was trading at 28.87 this morning my limit order hit and I sold five February 25 naked puts and received $536.25 after commissions.  I started with an order at 1.25 and ended up lowering it all of the way down to 1.10 before it hit.  I actually think DSX will recover and be above 30 by February, but I was wrong about it for December (although I finished the trade with a profit) and decided to give myself a deeper cushion.  If I really wanted the 30 strike I would have just accepted the assignment from my December naked puts and would have sold covered calls at 30.

I’m still waiting on an NVDA limit to hit for four February 32.50 naked puts to hit.  After last week’s option expiration and today’s DSX trade, I’m running at close to 1x my account value and would like to get it closer to 2x in the next three weeks. That puts me right at the January expiration which means I have some hussling to do to find some good stocks to sell options on.  I started with DSX since I’ve been following it for a couple of months.  The same thought process brought me to NVDA.  RL and HPQ don’t look as inviting to me right now although I took full profit on the December options I wrote on each. I’m still debating getting back in on FCN.