Current Positions – November 12, 2009

My fortunes have changed greatly since the new month started and the markets have rallied back to where I thought they should been.  Less than a couple of weeks ago all, but one, of my options were sitting in the money (aka, below the strike price).  Today only one is in the money.  That sole position is my NDAQ play and the only one I double up on when it sank.  I’ve been expecting it to turn up again for a while and finally it seems to be moving in the right direction.

On November 2nd, NDAQ hit a near term low and for the next few days toyed with going back to retest it.  Finally on the 9th it moved above its 10 day moving average, tested that line for the following two days and then this morning NDAQ gapped up above its 50 day moving average.  I won’t be shocked to see it test the 50 day moving average for a day or two, but think the move higher for it is finally coming, at least that’s my plan for it.  NDAQ is up more than $1.50 from its low which is worth more than $900 to me. 

With six and a half days to go before my six November options expire a lot can change.  I’m not starting to count my chickens before they hatch.  I charted DIA this morning and see the Dow Jones ETF is hitting resistance.  As is often the case, when the Dow falls so does much of the rest of the market.  I don’t think we’ll get more than a 5% correction if it does dip.  It could be that would be a great time to have my options expire.  Either they’ll end just in or just out of the money.  That will set me up to rewrite the options on the same underlying stocks at better premiums or lower strikes or I’ll take the option assignments and ride the bounce back up.  It’s a little early to plan too much for it, but I like to have some type of game plan in advance so I don’t just have to react emotionally.

Below you’ll see my full list of options I’m short right now.  I have no long option or stock positions.