I charted the Russell 2000 Index ($RUT) after the markets closed on Friday, October 28, 2011, when it closed for the week at 761.00. On Thursday, the small cap index broke above the trading channel it has been stuck in for nearly three months. The low for that day was in line with the previous…
Bought and Sold Calls
Today had to be a day for the bulls after Europe made a big step in getting their act together and GDP came in at 2.5% for the third quarter. I saw the first 30 points in the S&P 500 and thought it was nice and was curious if it would hold. We sent sideways…
Two Bullish Trades
My biggest bullish move of the day was not selling covered calls on any of my long shares today. For years, that’s been my typical move the first trading day after options expiration, but I’m staying patient on these as long as I can. I’m basing this patience on the charts, so we’ll see how…
DJIA Chart – October 21, 2011
I charted the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU, $DJI, DJIA) after the markets closed on Friday, October 21, 2011, as it closed for the week at 11,808.79. After being completely stuck in a sideways trading pattern for two and a half months the DJIA finally moved above its 100 day moving average (dma) and its previous…
Options Expiration – October 2011
October has been a good options expiration for me. Six out of seven positions are closing for a profit. NFLX – Bear $130/140 Call Spread – This one worked even better than planned. I could’ve been more aggressive, but am happy to have been able to ride this one to the end without stressing much…
Current Positions – 10/19/11
With only a couple of days to go before October options expire I wanted to give a quick snapshot of what I have in my account at the moment. I have eight options contracts expiring on Friday. I have a profit on most of these except for my UWM $42 put and the long portion…
NASDAQ 100 Chart – Does the Break Out Have Legs?
I charted the NASDAQ 100 Index ($NDX) after the markets closed on Friday, October 14, 2011, as it closed for the week at 2,371.94. Looking back nearly two weeks you can see the NDX didn’t bottom out below its previous lows like the SPX did. In fact, every one of its trend lines I drew is…
More Option Premiums for Me – Yippee!
Once again the S&P 500 ($SPX) closed in on 1,220 and then hit resistance, although I did see a print at 1,221 before it dropped again. The range has been tight today, which is nice after such volatility recently and also nice because it’s dropping the price of VXX and my VXX naked call. Once…
Took Some SSO Risk Off
After yesterday’s resistance held the $SPX from any gains beyond 1,220 I thought I should remove some downside risk just in case we trade back to the low end of this two month trading range again. If we get a pop higher than 1,220 I can easily get back in with a new naked put,…