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,…
Tag: SSO
Cutting Downside Risk, Again
I expected the S&P 500 to hold support above 1,100 and when it tripped lower at the end of the day yesterday I decided to cut more exposure this morning. I started off with my biggest risk, VXX. The VIX could easily ease off from these levels, but with the insanity going on this week…
Options Expiration – September 2011
September is a fairly light month for me on the options expiration front. I only have three options expiring – two puts and one covered call. SSO – September $45 Naked Put – I sold this put in late January when SSO was trading at $49.78. This morning while it was trading at $43.94 I…
Sold Covered Calls on UCO and SSO
It’s not time to panic yet, but I thought it wise to take some future profits in early and sold covered calls to do it. That’s how I see covered calls – they are basically an advance on future profits if they end up getting called away. If the calls expire worthless they are just…
Options Expiration – August 2011
Not that it’s a surprise to anyone, but this is not a good options expiration Friday for my account. All of my naked puts finished in the money and all of my covered calls finished out of the money. These are the 11 options I was short going into the day. CSX – 1 August…
Sold New SSO Naked Put Too Early
I must have been feeling a little giddy after charting the Dow Jones yesterday and thought it could be wise to get into the market early to ride the wave back to the upper side of the trading channel. Almost three minutes into the trading day, while SSO was trading at $51.85 I sold one…
Added More Large Cap Exposure
While the markets were on a steady slide lower since the beginning of May I let my overall equity exposure slip away some. This was nice on the way down, but with what I see as limited downside remaining I’ve started to build my exposure up again with shorter dated options. I spent some time…
Options Expiration – June 2011
June wasn’t the prettiest options expiration I’ve had. My covered calls expired out of the money leaving me farther below my purchase price for the shares and my puts expired in the money. That’s basically the opposite of how I like it to roll out at expiration, so I’m adjusting my stance. I’m somewhat more…
Exercised VXX Put and Closed SSO Put
I’ve been debating buying back the SSO June 50 naked put I sold last December and mentioned it last week in my rambling post. SSO was trading at $47.89 back then. Today while SSO was trading at $49.21 I bought this SSO June $50 put back for $1.03 and paid $104.02 with commissions. That gave…