I think I’m starting to fall prey to letting my emotions enter my trading decisions. I’ve been far too underinvested ever since I said it was time to buy. After not listening to my own advice and getting deeper into the markets I’ve come up with too many excuses to get in too fast on any…
Month: April 2009
Option Trade: DIA Vertical Call Spread for Credit
I’ve talked about the Dow Jones having a hard time reaching and staying above the 8,150 area for a while. This morning after the bad GDP numbers were released the Dow soared and made it above that range. Continuing in my non-believer mindset I checked the options Dow tracking ETF DIA. In an unusual trade for me I…
Sold USO May 26 Naked Puts
I exited my last USO position with a loss. That was on March 23rd. Now that I’ve waited 30 days I can trade it again without having to worry about the tax implications from the wash rule stopping me from writing off my loss on the underlying stock last time around. I’m longer term bullish on the…
2 DJIA Charts – Ending April 24, 2009
Today I’m posting two views of the Dow Jones ($DJI) chart. One is for the past six months and the other is only for the past one month. On the six month chart I attempted to draw the same trend lines as I did two weeks ago with my April 9th Dow Jones Chart. I…
Sold FWLT Naked Puts
I own Foster Wheeler (FWLT) in my IRA and charted FWLT early this afternoon to decide if I should keep it or not. Not only did I decide to keep it and put a limit order for out of the money covered calls in my IRA, I checked the put options for my taxable account. The premiums…
Bullish on Gold (GLD) Near Term
With my continuing bearish attitude towards the overall markets I moved my attention to gold and more specifically the major gold ETF, GLD. I started with a limit order on a debit vertical call spread, but decided to switch it to a put spread for a credit. The risk was close to the same since I was…
What Now?
After April options expired this past weekend I’m left with little exposure in my account in either direction. I only have three positions where I have investments, two stocks and one ETF. That leaves me with a lot of cash ready to go to work. Here’s what I have in my account before the markets…
Russell 2000 ($RUT) Chart – April 17, 2009
I posted a Dow Jones chart last week and pointed out the line of demarcation looked like 8,150 to me. On Thursday and Friday the Dow was able to climb above that mark intraday, but on both days it failed to stay above it. The Dow finished its sixth straight week of gains and now…
April 2009 Options Expiration
I did well on some of my positions for April’s option expiration and others left a lot to be desired. Basically I lost on all of my long options (the ones I bought) and did well on most of short options (the ones I sold). I’ve sold one vertical put spread, sold one covered call and…