I sold three VIP April 40 calls (VIQDH) a few weeks ago and at the beginning of this week put a limit order in to buy back and close all three. When VIP started its decent again yesterday two hit and I paid $31.49 with commissions. I should’ve let the ride since I have two naked puts at the 35 strike still ITM and two more ITM at the 30 strike. I canceled my order for the last one since it’s likely to expire worthless in a few weeks.
I entered a new limit during lunch today to sell a couple of May 35 calls, but then canceled the order. I came back to the chart and saw that the current price for VIP at 29.01 is within a nickel of the previous two intraday lows back on January 23rd and last week on March 20th. Sometimes the third time down on a retest is when the support breaks, so I’m playing with fire a little maybe, but still see VIP as a strong longer term hold.
I still haven’t sold new calls on NVDA yet. It’s still above the 10 day moving average that acted as a ceiling for a while and that leads me to believe that it could become a new floor for NVDA. It only stayed above the 20 day average for one day which would make me more confident in my theory, but I’ll take the 10 day over the 20 day moving average for NVDA anyway. It seems to have been more of influence than the 20 day for NVDA for a while. I don’t think the downside risk on NVDA is too great, especially compared to the upside potential. I’m letting it ride for a little longer.
I haven’t sold any other naked puts recently because I have a lot on the table already and was expecting more bad news like we got today before I jump in deeper. Also, I”m trying to focus on my job more since I need commissions more than I need a few hundred dollars in premiums.
On another note, I find it amusing the way I compartmentalize how I deal with money. This investing account goes up or down $1-2k if not more most days recently and I’ve gotten used to it so much that it doesn’t bother me most of the time. On the other hand I was ordering a $17 Real Estate book from Amazon last night and debated it for 15+ minutes while I read reviews and checked competing books. Finally I realized what I time waster this was becoming and placed the order. It was as if this was the only book I’d be able to buy, ever. I put less time into some stock trades that are worth more than $5,000+ sometimes. I’m trying to break those old habits of wasting time on the little things and thus allowing me to focus more on money making activities.