This morning my account bounced back and forth from a paper gain to a paper loss more than five times and as much as $1,500 on either side. That’s just the times I saw it. By the afternoon I settled into a down day. I own nine stocks. I’ve sold six calls (two legs on CMI) and two…
Praise for Quicken
I haven’t written a formal review of Quicken yet, but have used Intuit’s money management software since 1997. I’ve had some issues with stock and option downloads using Quicken in the past, but either they fixed the bug or I figured out what I was doing wrong and don’t have issues with it any more. …
Rate Cuts on an Option Expiration Week
Nothing like a record Fed rate cut during an options expiration week that happens to fall in the most volatile period in history to get the market moving. I’ve made two trades in the past 14 days – the bullish one turned to a profit today and the bearish one is moving deeper into a loss. I’m…
S&P 500 Chart – December 12, 2008
The S&P 500 (SPX.X) chart ending December 12, 2008 shows similar price action as I predicted in my Dow Jones Chart last week. The challenge the Dow Jones faced last week and what proved to be its ceiling and the S&P 500’s ceiling this week was the 50 day moving average. After climbing above the…
The Cost of Poor Health
The past couple of years have been expensive for my family when we look at the cost of poor health. A lot of it is obvious in missed wages and doctor/hospital fees, but sometimes it’s the intangible costs that can be more important. The emotional costs and missed opportunities can’t be overlooked when discussing true costs….
Current Holdings as of 12/10/08
I haven’t traded since last week, but have seen a huge increase in my account value since the month started. I still have $7,263.07 on margin, but my account value is up to $52,158 from the lows I hit in November in the low $30k range. A lot of that is in thanks to the run DRYS has…
DJIA Chart – December 5, 2008
The Dow Jones Chart ($DJI) I drew ending on Friday shows two big trend lines about to meet. This means one of the trend lines will have to break and whichever side gives should lead to a decent sized move in that direction. A couple of weeks ago as part of my November 21st Dow…
Sold CELG Naked Puts
While CELG was trading at $50.84 I sold to open two CELG December 50 naked puts (LQHXJ) for $2.55 each and received $498.50 after commissions. I sold within a couple of cents from CELG’s low of the morning. If that support holds is yet to be seen. I’m long 200 shares of Celgene Corp (CELG) already…
Bought FCX Put Options
I own 200 shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX) with a pre-option cost of $72.50 each. I started this position by selling naked puts and have sold covered calls a couple of times since then. I waited since the last covered call options expired out of the money and didn’t bother selling new ones yet since I…