As I mentioned last week with my TWM trade and in my $SPX chart on Sunday, I’ve grown more bearish lately and I made some more changes today. I started with a basic sell to lighten my overall exposure to the markets. I sold 200 shares of SSO for $41.88 and received $8,375.01 after commissions. I…
S&P 500 Chart – November 18, 2011
This S&P 500 ($SPX) chart shows the past three months of daily prices after the index finished the week at 1,215.65 on Friday, November 18, 2011. The technical indicators are piling up to create a strong bearish case against the large cap index. The 200 day moving average (dma) held out as resistance yet again as…
Options Expiration – November 2011
Options expiration finished pretty good for me on a few positions, but really bad on a couple of others that wiped out my gains on the good ones and then some. This is how it shook out this month: UCO – 3 November 26 naked puts – Finished out of the money by a long…
Sold TWM Naked Puts
This is a trade I’ve been working for the past couple of options expiration cycles in my IRA successfully and in my taxable account once (ending in a profit in October). I have seven naked puts in and out of the money on TWM’s inverse brother, UWM. I see a draw down in small caps coming,…
AFL Cover Calls Assigned
As expected, I received notice this morning that my two AFL November $36 covered calls were assigned early and I was forced to sell my 200 shares for $36.00 before I could collect the dividend. At least IB doesn’t charge commissions on option assignments, so I saved a dollar on a bad series of trades that…
Dow Jones ETF Chart – November 11, 2011
I charted DIA, an ETF that tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU, $DJI, DJIA), after the markets closed on Friday, November 11, 2011, as the Dow closed for the week at 12,153.68 and DIA closed at 121.53 (I had to pull the chart for DIA this weekend because TD Ameritrade isn’t pulling up prices for 11/11/11…
S&P 500 – 17 Year Chart
This S&P 500 ($SPX) chart shows the past 17 years of monthly prices after the index finished the week higher at 1,253.23 on Friday, November 4, 2011. Charts are not only telling when viewed over short periods, but also over longer periods. Investors can use shorter charts to maximize gains and reduce losses week to week,…
Covered CSX
CSX has been sitting in my account, uncovered since I was assigned the shares back in August at $25.00. I was in no rush to sell covered calls on my 100 shares because I thought CSX had gotten too cheap and it was only 100 shares so it didn’t really do much for my account…
End of Month Summary – October 2011
October was nothing but beautiful for my accounts. I gained more than 17% for the month while the major indexes were closer to 11% higher on the month. That leverage I have in place to create such a positive month is also the reason I’m trailing the markets for the year to date. It’s a…