Comments for My Trader's Journal

Comment on Options Expiration – May 2012 by Super Saver

Super Saver — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:09:47 +0000

Thanks for your quantitative assessment. Qualitatively, I think the stock market is poised for a continued decline. There is too much bad news out there, even though the market assumes bad news is good news since QE3 will occur. The market is defying gravity, so the speak. It will only take one major unexpected negative event (think Lehman being allowed to fail) to create a signficant daily, weekly or monthly decline. IMHO

Comment on Closed EEM Iron Condor by khan

khan — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:24:06 +0000

I opened two qqq put spreads today..the first one is june 63/61 and the second onne for july 63/60. I am using these two puts as hedging going into summer. I am thinking of adding couple of other put spreads if the market continues the downward trend. I will wait couple of weeks though.

Comment on DJIA Chart – Trading Channel or Not? by Alex Fotopoulos

Alex Fotopoulos — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:38:11 +0000

Matt, It looks like our analysis is in agreement, even though we got there down different roads. We’ll see if we’re both right.

Comment on DJIA Chart – Trading Channel or Not? by Matt Dye

Matt Dye — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:15:31 +0000

I do not use the williams indicator, but I am an elliottician. I believe that we are in a wave 4 consolidation, which means to those unfamiliar that we are in a sideways period that will eventually end with price rocketing higher into a new yearly high. The sideways periods are rough, but we trade then and wait for the larger swing trade from the next impulse move.

Comment on EEM – June Iron Condor by Alex Fotopoulos

Alex Fotopoulos — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:37:11 +0000

Khan, good catch. You are correct, I changed my wording above. That’s what I get for taking cold meds in the middle of the day.

Comment on EEM – June Iron Condor by khan

khan — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:03:24 +0000

I am little confused with this trade as you describe it….how is this call strangle ” I sold a call strangle by selling 20 June $43.50 calls for $0.51 each and buying 20 June $44 calls for $0.37 each for a net premium intake of $0.14″? this is a vertical spread…right?

Comment on EEM – June Iron Condor by Alex Fotopoulos

Alex Fotopoulos — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:10:53 +0000

Ken,
- I didn’t realize I could do it in a single order. That shows how much this isn’t my regular type of order. Thanks for pointing that out. Do you get charged for changing other option orders aside from spread orders?
- My short strikes were based on where I saw support and resistance on the chart. I wanted to go as far out of the money on each and still get some OK return and these met those two criteria.
- I don’t watch delta carefully. I’m eyeing premium erosion. I haven’t set a target yet for how much premium needs to erode. I was thinking at least 70%, but it’s really going to vary depending on how the stock is behaving. I have a good buffer on each side right now, so I’m not stressing about it, yet. I might even close it at 50% and just redo it with wider spreads.
- Agreed on the spreads, I should’ve gone wider and that might be my catalyst for change sooner than later.

Comment on End of Month Summary – April 2012 by Alex Fotopoulos

Alex Fotopoulos — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:02:54 +0000

Dave, That extra 30 is in there from when I used TD Ameritrade and they charged $30 for option assignments. Interactive Brokers and some others don’t charge anything. Ameritrade’s charge dropped to $19.99, but I didn’t update the spreadsheet since then. You can delete that for your needs if your broker doesn’t charge commissions on option assignments.
I couldn’t find where I left out a “*100″, so let me know the cell and I’ll double check it. I’ve updated this spreadsheet a dozen times since I posted this one four years ago. I’ll try to get a newer version posted next week if I have time.

Comment on End of Month Summary – April 2012 by Dave

Dave — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:44:51 +0000

I’m not sure where else to contact you so I’m writing you here. I downloaded and looked at your excel sheets and I can’t figure out a couple formulas, so either I just don’t understand them, or they might be wrong. For example, your naked puts sheet, the formula in J20 to calculate “Cost if Exercised” is: =(((D20*100*F20)+30)/(F20*100))-(((E20*100-(9.99+(0.75/F20))))/100) I’m not sure what the 30 is doing in there, is that a flat fee or something? Also, a couple times it looks like you forgot to multiply 100 by the number of contracts involved (to calculate the total premium and something else). Anyway, could you look the formula over if you get a chance? My formula that makes sense to me at least (although very possibly I’m missing something) is =((D20*F20*100)+9.99-(E20*F20*100+0.75*F20))/(F20*100)