I kept my streak alive in July with another month of gains. After finishing June 2009 with an account balance of $78,417.54 I stayed far more risk averse than I should have in hind sight. I’m still not jumping in to this rally in full belief that we can’t have another leg down, but do realize…
Current Holdings – July 31, 2009
I’m still not fully invested by a long shot, but I’m also still employed. As crazy as my situation is here I’m not sure if today will be my last day or Monday or if something has changed and I’ll be extended through August. SHORT OPTIONS Symbol Qty Description +ALLTF -4 ALL Aug 23 Put +MONHO …
Earnings, Phase 2 On Deck
In this week’s Barron’s Michael Santoli noted the following trend in previous earnings seasons: “…it’s not uncommon for earnings season to play out in two offsetting phases, with the first half (just completed) resetting expectations in a way that leads to them to being upended in the back half.” That lines up well with my…
S&P 500 Chart – Hitting Resistance
I charted daily prices for the past six months of the S&P 500 ($SPX) on Friday, July 24, 2009 when it closed at 979.26. I drew a handful of trend lines and came up with the five lines I left on the chart below. The big trend line offering resistance is the line of higher highs that started at the…
Sold USO August 33 Naked Puts
After letting my SLB shares get called away with my July covered calls I wanted to get some more oil exposure so I came back to more direct play with the oil ETF USO. USO doesn’t trade dollar for dollar with oil, but has been closer lately (on a percentage basis) than it was only a few…
Dow Jones Chart – 10 Year Monthly – July 17, 2009
I charted the past 10 years monthly price action for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) ending 7/17/09 while the DJIA was closed at 8,743.94. I went back 10 years to get a better feel for where the chart says we’re heading over a longer period than a 3-6 month chart my forecast. I still found…
July 2009 Option Expiration
My MON July 80 call (MONGP) is expiring out of the money today, so I decided to go ahead and sell another call today to increase my chances for profit over the series of trades. While MON was trading at $75.29 I sold to open one August 75 covered call (MONHO) for $3.20 and received $309.25 after commissions. …
My Job Loss + Current Portfolio Update
I’ve done almost no trading lately as I’ve tried to focus on my job in a feeble effort to recruit in a jobless recession and save my job. I got confirmation today that we’re doing another layoff at the end of the month and I’m going to be part of it this time. I expected…
Closed IWM July 52 Naked Put
I’ve been cutting it close on my IWM naked put ever since I sold it on June 18th at $2.60 and took in $249.25. As the Russell 2000 started to edge up yesterday I thought I should try to get out and possibly sell a lower strike for August. At the end of the day yesterday when…