I’ve been getting left behind in this rally mainly thanks to my long position on VXX. Also a lot of my naked puts are getting fairly far out of the money and covered calls are deep in the money. That means a lot of the time value has already evaporated, so each positive day in the markets…
INDU Chart – Over 11,000 Again
I charted the Dows Jones Industrial Average (aka $DJIA, $INDU, $DJI) after the index closed at 11,006.48 on Friday, 10/8/10.
IWN Chart & Trade Logic
I’ve been watching IWM more than IWN for the past year, but one of my clients was blocked out of IWM due to the wash rule and that made me look for another small cap ETF for exposure for him. I like the low expense ratios and good liquidity in most iShares ETFs, so I went…
S&P 500 Chart – October 1, 2010
I charted the S&P 500 ($SPX) after the markets closed on Friday, 10/1/10, when it closed the week at 1,146.24.
End of Month Summary – September 2010
The biggest risk of using my trading model is in months like September. September 2010 was the best September since 1939 for the Dow. There’s no way an account with limited upside potential can compete with that. My trading model works best with smaller ups and downs and I miss out on big gains when…
2010 Stock Picks Contest – Q3 Review
Now that we’re three quarters of a year through our friendly 2010 Stock Picks Contest among a few respected financial bloggers I’ve slipped a notch, but still am hanging in the top half of the group. Or, as I like to view it, I am in first place of those who are not making a profit yet. The rankings from…
Sold DVY November Naked Puts
iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY) wasn’t one I was actually planning on for my own account, but when I was considering it for one of my clients I decided it could fit nicely in my own portfolio too. It’s currently yielding 3.67%, not quite double that of SPY although its beta is 0.94. While…
Sold MSFT Option Strangle
As I alluded to yesterday I decided I was getting tired of my position on MSFT with just being long 200 shares and thought I should add some options to bring in some more cash for me. It’s been somewhat of a stick in the mud recently and that’s not quite what I’m aiming for, even with…
Sold SPY November Naked Put
I mentioned in my weekend index post yesterday that I was planning on adding some SPY (or DIA) exposure early this week. I didn’t waste much time debating it today. I watched SPY as it traded in a fairly small trading range for the first couple of hours this morning and placed a limit order for a…