Today (even the past few days) has been interesting to watch how oil reacts to Ike, the hurricane, not Turner. The AMEX Oil Index (XOI) is up almost 2%, but oil ETF USO is down a half percent. I recognize they aren’t tracking the exact same underlying issues, but that’s a big difference when both…
Milking FCX for a Few Bucks
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX) has been getting spanked and I’ve been along for the ride for most of the $60 decline. I got out with a full profit with shear luck when FCX spiked briefly after 100 shares were assigned to me at $105 with July options’ expiration. I paused and got back in…
Bad Few Days
I’m taking more of a beating than expected lately. I was down slightly more than the usual ups and downs of my account’s ebbs and flows last week and then this week I’ve be absolutely waxed. I’ve had a few of these spells over the past couple of years and once it feels like the…
Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) Chart – September 5, 2008
Last week I charted the NASDAQ Comp Index and the only words I bolded were “bearish cross over”. This is the prime reason I chart indexes, too see these macro trends which help me avoid certain sectors. The NASDAQ fell almost 5% last week immediately after its bearish cross over of its 10 and 20…
Sold New Celgene (CELG) Naked Puts
I’ve been watching Celgene Corp (CELG) ever since my last naked puts expired and yesterday morning I put in a limit order to sell new ones if it dropped deeper. I’m nervous about all sectors right now the way the economy is looking, but figured if a safer haven can be found it might be…
Current Portfolio – September 5, 2008
I took this screen shot of my account holdings this morning pre-market. With the latest jobs numbers, I expect to take another hit today. I’ve lost (on paper) nearly $8,000 this week. I included all of my “purchase prices” in this recap. For short positions those should be called “sale prices”, but TD Ameritrade keeps…
JOYG Chart – Sold a New Naked Put
Joy Global (JOYG) gapped down today after beating estimates, but with aid from tax related gains and that didn’t please the masses. Their outlook is still good, but the market didn’t treat it that way. I own 100 shares that I bought much higher after being assigned an earlier naked put at $75.00. I’ve sold covered…
What to Trade Now
I’ve spent some time this morning trying to find a new trade, but can’t zero in on anything that seems like a good move. I went back to this week’s Barron’s and saw that even the strategists they polled can’t come up with a good consensus of what’s hot and what’s not. Six of them…
End of Month Summary – August 2008
August was a good month for me. I finished with a realized gain of $578.95 and a paper gain of just $0.50 shy of $3,000. A lot of that paper gain is making up from some of the paper loss I had in July and didn’t take (luckily). I’ve been riding this month out slowly with…